The Edmonton Oilers will have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins back in the lineup on Friday night when they face off against the Minnesota Wild in the first of back-to-back games at Rogers Place this weekend.
“We expect him to be playing,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said of Nugent-Hopkins. “A little under the weather, but he’ll probably go through it.”
The longest-tenured Oiler of 853 games missed Edmonton’s 6-5 overtime defeat to the Bruins on Wednesday due to an illness, but Nugent-Hopkins was on the ice for Friday morning’s pre-game skate and appears healthy enough to rejoin his teammates for tonight’s tough clash versus Minnesota, who’s won eight of their last 11 meetings against Edmonton (8-2-1).
“Much better,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “I just got a little skate out there so I got the legs going a little bit, but definitely feeling better than the last couple of days.”
Despite getting back the services of No. 93, Coach Knoblauch believes that Warren Foegele’s play on the top line with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman in Wednesday’s defeat to the Bruins should award him another look in the spot after he filled in for Nugent-Hopkins at left wing and produced two goals.
“There’s no reason to change that top line. Warren played an outstanding game,” Knoblauch added. “We’ll keep it as is and Ryan will play with Leon.”
As per Knoblauch’s comments, Nugent-Hopkins is expected to start on the second line with Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane, pushing Ryan McLeod to the third line to centre a strong bottom-six trio between Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry, who both found the back of the net in the third period of Wednesday’s loss.
That leaves Dylan Holloway, Derek Ryan, Connor Brown and Sam Gagner to fill out the fourth line, with the decision on who comes out of the lineup as the 13th forward tonight still being mulled by the coaching staff. Friday’s skate was optional, so line combinations will be confirmed during warm-ups.
Calvin Pickard is Edmonton’s confirmed starter after appearing in the home goal at Thursday’s full practice and Friday’s optional skate. Pickard gets the first leg of the back-to-back riding a six-game win streak, going 6-0-0 with a 2.16 goals-against average and .921 save percentage over that span.
“He’s been great,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Every time he steps in, we have so much confidence in him. He’s really held us in some games and given us the opportunity to win when he’s had to step in there. We have a lot of confidence in him back there, so I’m excited for him tonight and we obviously want to have a good start for him and make things a lot easier.”
