Oilers at Blackhawks preview

OILERS (5-0-0) at BLACKHAWKS (0-2-1)
8:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN1, NBCSCH, NHL.TV

A 6-0-0 start would be the second-best in Oilers history. They opened the 1983-84 season 7-0-0 en route to winning the first of five Stanley Cup championships in seven seasons. Edmonton can also become the first NHL team with a comeback victory in each of its first six games of a season.
The Blackhawks hope to avoid an 0-3-1 start, which would be their worst since going 0-7-0 to begin the 1997-98 season.

Players to watch

Oilers center Connor McDavid has at least one point in each of his first five games and leads the NHL with 12 (four goals, eight assists). He was named the League's First Star for the week ending Oct. 13.
Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane has four points (one goal, three assists) in his first three games.

They said it

"Obviously, they'll be a desperate team. I think for us, just playing as a unit of five … I thought last game we were really good at that. We were coming out of our end cleaner, we were limiting the chances. For them, they're a highly skilled team. This is a fun building to play in and a tough building to play in." -- Oilers forward James Neal
"[We're] playing a good team, they're [5-0-0], we haven't won a game yet. So we feel like we have a lot of desperation, desire to come out and get a win in front of our home fans. Obviously, we played two here at home of a seven-game homestand and it'd be nice to get a win tonight, kind of get rolling a little bit and get excited about the rest of the homestand here." -- Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane

Oilers projected lineup

Leon Draisaitl -- Connor McDavid -- Zack Kassian
Tomas Jurco -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- James Neal
Jujhar Khaira -- Riley Sheahan -- Josh Archibald
Alex Chiasson -- Gaetan Haas -- Markus Granlund
Darnell Nurse -- Ethan Bear
Oscar Klefbom -- Joel Persson
Kris Russell -- Matt Benning
Mike Smith
Mikko Koskinen
Scratched:Brandon Manning, Joakim Nygard
Injured:Adam Larsson (fractured right fibula)

Blackhawks projected lineup

Alex DeBrincat -- Jonathan Toews -- Drake Caggiula
Andrew Shaw -- Dylan Strome -- Patrick Kane
Brandon Saad -- David Kampf -- Dominik Kubalik
Zack Smith -- Ryan Carpenter -- Alex Nylander
Duncan Keith -- Connor Murphy
Olli Maatta -- Brent Seabrook
Calvin de Haan -- Erik Gustafsson
Corey Crawford
Robin Lehner
Scratched: Brendan Perlini, Slater Koekkoek
Injured: None

Status report

Nylander will play his third game this season in place of Perlini. He was a healthy scratch in Chicago's 3-2 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.

Stat pack

Draisaitl has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) and at least one point in each of his first five games. … The Blackhawks are 13-5-2 against the Oilers in their past 20 games.