Blackhawks at Oilers preview

BLACKHAWKS (6-4-3) at OILERS (6-4-1)
9 p.m. ET; SNW, NBCSCH, NHL.TV

The forward, who leads the League with 18 points (11 goals, seven assists) in 12 games this season, sat out a 4-2 loss at the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday because of an illness.
Chicago, 0-2-1 in its past three games, did not conduct a morning skate Thursday.
Edmonton had a three-game winning streak end in a 4-3 loss against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.
Goalie Mikko Koskinen will make his second start of the season for Edmonton. He made 24 saves in a 5-3 win at the Nashville Predators on Oct. 27.

Players to watch

Forward Alex DeBrincat is the Blackhawks second-leading scorer with 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in 13 games, but does not have a point in his past three games.
Oilers center Connor McDavid has scored a goal in five straight games, has 18 points (nine goals, nine assists) in 11 games this season and has at least one point of 10 of those 11.

They said it

"I didn't get the final report, but we're hopeful he'll be fine. But I can't give you a good answer, I don't know yet." -- Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville on Wednesday, on forward Patrick Kane
"He's doing great. He's obviously someone that I know well, I got to see him in his first year of junior, so it's good see that he's doing so well. He works so hard, battles so hard, and he has a great shot." -- Oilers center Connor McDavid on Chicago Blackhawks forward Alex DeBrincat, a former junior teammate

Blackhawks projected lineup

Alex DeBrincat -- Jonathan Toews -- Dominik Kahun
Brandon Saad -- Artem Anisimov -- Chris Kunitz
Alexandre Fortin -- Luke Johnson -- Nick Schmaltz
David Kampf -- Marcus Kruger -- John Hayden
Duncan Keith -- Henri Jokiharju
Erik Gustafsson -- Brent Seabrook
Brandon Manning -- Brandon Davidson
Cam Ward
Corey Crawford
Scratched: Jan Rutta, Andreas Martinsen , Patrick Kane (illness)
Injured: Connor Murphy (back)

Oilers projected lineup

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Connor McDavid -- Drake Caggiula
Tobias Rieder -- Leon Draisaitl -- Alex Chiasson
Milan Lucic -- Ryan Strome -- Jesse Puljujarvi
Jujhar Khaira -- Kyle Brodziak -- Zack Kassian
Oscar Klefbom -- Adam Larsson
Darnell Nurse -- Kris Russell
Jason Garrison -- Matt Benning
Mikko Koskinen
Cam Talbot
Scratched: Evan Bouchard, Cooper Marody, Kailer Yamamoto
Injured: Ty Rattie (upper body)

Status report

Kunitz took Kane's place in the lineup at Vancouver. … Ward is expected to start for the Blackhawks in the second game of a back-to-back … Puljujarvi will return after being a healthy scratch the past four games.

Stat pack

Toews has two goals in his past seven games after having 10 points (five goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak to start the season. … Draisaitl has five points (three goals, two assists) in a three-game point streak. ... Nugent-Hopkins has six points (one goal, five assists) in his past five games.