BLOG: Friday practice updates 01.29.21

EDMONTON, AB - The Oilers practiced at Rogers Place Friday after falling 4-3 to the Toronto Maple leafs the night before.
Goaltender Troy Grosenick participated in his first full session with the squad. Mikko Koskinen was not on the ice.
The club donned their new Retro Reverse uniform pants and gloves.
Stay tuned for updates, commentary and content following practice.

Head Coach Dave Tippett on Tyler Ennis possibly re-joining the lineup Saturday:

"It's a possibility. We got a couple of injury things we're monitoring. We'll make that decision in the morning."

Coach Tippett on the upcoming plan in net for the team's weekend back-to-back:

"How do we get the best goaltending we can? That's what we're factoring in. We're going to meet about it with (Goaltending Coach Dustin Schwartz) Schwartzy. We left Koskinen off today to get him some rest. Schwartzy worked with the other two guys (Troy Grosenick and Stuart Skinner) today. Grosenick is just getting up and going here. We'll take it one game at a time. That's what the feeling is right now."

Coach Tippett on the Oilers penalty kill:

"We've been talking about more pressure and getting quicker on it. There are just some things that have to get done. Penalty killing is about having a will to get the job done. There are some factors in it: One, when you get a chance to clear it, you got to clear it. On the winning goal, (Kailer) Yamamoto has a chance to clear, an easy clear and we don't get it down. Those usually come back to bite you.
"The second one is you have it set up where you make sure you have people in lanes so if they're going to the net, it's not from a great angle. And you got people in the shooting lane, trying to make sure if the shot is coming through it's coming from a certain place. We're not as tight on that as we were last year. Not near as good at being in lanes. The winning goal last night, Caleb Jones thinks he's in a lane but he's not in a lane. When you get into a lane, there's a good possibility you get hit with a puck and that hurts. But it hurts to win.
"The third part about it is don't take dumb penalties and then two, you need some saves. That's just the reality of it. Your goaltender has to come up with some saves. That's how you have a good penalty kill: You don't use it as much, you pressure, you're in lanes when you have to be and you get saves. We're not getting enough of all of that."

Coach Tippett on not reuniting the RNH-Draisaitl-Yamamoto line:

"We need balance in our lineup. You can't just be a one-line team. That line played together a lot when Connor (McDavid) was not there. They got some points when they were the only line going. We're trying to get three lines going, not just one line going. You got three lines you think you can get some kind of scoring balance from and then one line that can give you some energy and some penalty killing. That's the goal but we haven't found it yet."

Zack Kassian on the Oilers recent shortcomings:

"We haven't put together a full 60 minutes. Whether it's been 5-on-5, penalty kill or power play, we're finding ways to lose. We're good enough in some of these games where we feel like we should have gotten points but for some reason, we're shooting ourselves in the foot. That has to stop. We have to somehow come out with two points. Especially tomorrow. We've put ourselves in a little bit of a hole here with the condensed schedule. We got to be better and we got to be better quick."