Oilers at Canucks preview

OILERS (22-21-3) at CANUCKS (21-21-5)
10 p.m. ET; SNP, SNW, NHL.TV

Edmonton, which last won two in a row Dec. 9-11, is coming off a 7-2 home win against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday. The Oilers have alternated wins and losses for their past seven games after losing the previous six.
Rookie forward Kailer Yamamoto will return and play right wing on the second line after missing eight games with an upper-body injury.
Vancouver will be without its top scorer, rookie forward Elias Pettersson (knee), for a fourth straight game. The Canucks are 1-2-1 in their past four games after going 9-3-1 in the previous 13.

Players to watch

Oilers center Connor McDavid has five goals and three assists during a five-game point streak.
Canucks center Bo Horvat has three assists in his past nine games and is two points from 200 in the NHL.

They said it

"I'm just super excited to be here, be around the guys and I am so grateful for the opportunity Edmonton has given me." -- Edmonton center Colby Cave, who makes his Oilers debut after being claimed off waivers from the Boston Bruins on Tuesday
"Just trying to, how you say, get the condition back after I missed some games. It felt like I made progress every day." -- Canucks center Elias Pettersson, who will miss his fourth game since spraining his right knee on Jan. 3

Oilers projected lineup

Leon Draisaitl -- Connor McDavid -- Alex Chiasson
Milan Lucic -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Kailer Yamamoto
Tobias Rieder -- Colby Cave -- Zack Kassian
Jujhar Khaira -- Kyle Brodziak -- Jesse Puljujarvi
Caleb Jones -- Adam Larsson
Darnell Nurse -- Kris Russell
Brandon Manning -- Matt Benning
Mikko Koskinen
Cam Talbot
Scratched:Kevin Gravel, Ryan Spooner, Ty Rattie
Injured:Andrej Sekera (Achilles), Oscar Klefbom (hand), Alexander Petrovic (concussion)

Canucks projected lineup

Sven Baertschi -- Bo Horvat -- Brock Boeser
Antoine Roussel -- Brandon Sutter -- Jake Virtanen
Tim Schaller -- Markus Granlund -- Josh Leivo
Loui Eriksson -- Jay Beagle -- Tyler Motte
Alexander Edler -- Chris Tanev
Ben Hutton -- Troy Stecher
Derrick Pouliot -- Erik Gudbranson
Jacob Markstrom
Thatcher Demko
Scratched: Alex Biega, Michael Del Zotto, Nikolay Goldobin
Injured:Elias Pettersson (knee)

Status report

Rattie and Spooner, who is pointless in 10 games, will be scratched to make room for Cave and Yamamoto. … Pettersson took part in the optional morning skate and could return Friday against the Sabres. Goldobin, who has no points in his past five games but is fourth on the Canucks in scoring with 23 points (five goals, 18 assists) in 44 games, will be scratched for the third time in six games.

Stat pack

Draisaitl has 13 points (eight goals, five assists) in his past 11 games, and is one goal shy of 100 in the NHL. Nurse has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past five games. … Boeser has one goal in his past four games after getting five points (two goals, three assists) in his previous four.