Golden Knights at Oilers preview

GOLDEN KNIGHTS (51-22-7) AT OILERS (34-40-6)
9 p.m. ET; SN1, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV

The Golden Knights are four points behind the Nashville Predators, and one behind the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning and Winnipeg Jets, for most in the NHL. The Predators, Bruins and Jets all play Thursday.
The Oilers will try to avoid a sixth straight loss. They're 0-4-1 after going 7-2-1 in their previous 10 games.

Players to watch

Golden Knights center William Karlsson has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in a five-game point streak. He has 27 points (13 goals, 14 assists) in his past 21 games.
Oilers center Connor McDavid leads the NHL with 103 points (41 goals, 62 assists), five ahead of Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (38 goals, 60 assists).

They said it

"There are little things you can gain from the last few games and sharpen up for the playoffs." -- Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland
"It's just a little bit different, you see the game a little bit different, but I'm starting to get used to it. Connor obviously makes it a little easier to make that transition." -- Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on playing left wing on a line with Connor McDavid

Golden Knights projected lineup

Tomas Tatar -- William Karlsson -- Alex Tuch
Brandon Pirri -- Cody Eakin -- James Neal
William Carrier -- Oscar Lindberg -- Ryan Reaves
Ryan Carpenter -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Tomas Nosek
Brayden McNabb -- Zack Whitecloud
Deryk Engelland -- Shea Theodore
Colin Miller -- Brad Hunt
Marc-Andre Fleury
Malcolm Subban
Scratched:Jon Merrill, Nate Schmidt
Injured:Luca Sbisa (undisclosed), David Perron (undisclosed), Reilly Smith (upper body), Erik Haula (undisclosed), Jonathan Marchessault (undisclosed)

Oilers projected lineup

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Connor McDavid -- Ty Rattie
Jujhar Khaira -- Leon Draisaitl -- Jesse Puljujarvi
Milan Lucic -- Ryan Strome -- Drake Caggiula
Anton Slepyshev -- Michael Cammalleri -- Zack Kassian
Darnell Nurse -- Adam Larsson
Kris Russell -- Ethan Bear
Keegan Lowe -- Matt Benning
Cam Talbot
Al Montoya
Scratched:Pontus Aberg, Yohann Auvitu, Iiro Pakarinen
Injured: Oscar Klefbom (shoulder), Andrej Sekera (leg)

Status report

Whitecloud will make his NHL debut. He signed as a free agent out of Bemidji State University on March 8. … Perron and Marchessault are not on the three-game Western Canada road trip to end the regular season … Lowe will debut for Edmonton. He is the son of former Oilers defenseman Kevin Lowe … Nugent-Hopkins returns after missing two games with a lower-body injury.

Stat pack

Tuch has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past five games. … Fleury is 8-4-1 with a 1.87 goals-against average and .940 save percentage and two shutouts in his past 13 starts. He needs three wins to tie Glenn Hall (407) for 10th place on the NHL all-time list.