The Oilers morning skate lines are an absolute mess, with tons of absences as the injury bug seems to have finally caught up with the Oilers. The Oilers have to get back into their form against the Stars and these lines are what Knoblauch believes will have the best shot at beating Dallas.
With Henrique, Kane, Draisaitl and Nurse all out at practice, it's a worry that some or all of these players might be dealing with injuries. The top 6 lines seem like they'll stay the same from game 3, which is fine. With Henrique out for the practice and not being on the list, hopefully he will replace the struggling Foegele on the third line.
The defense are seemingly back to their old lines, which is fine enough. The defense lines could be moved around with the Oilers' scratched defense in Stetcher or Broberg, but news came out today that Stetcher is battling an injury of his own.
These lines are probably the best that they're going to get for the Oilers, and the only question Knoblauch should have left is whether he wants to scratch Ceci or Nurse for game 4. Both have been absolutely terrible for the Oilers and deserve to sit a game, and Broberg could come in for either of them to play on the last line.
Knoblauch can only do so much for the team in terms of line construction and then the rest falls into the players' hands. Bottom line is that there are players on the team that have to play better and the Oilers won't win until some players step up their game and carry their own weight.
POLL | ||
Do you think any of the players in game 3 will be scratched for lineup changes? | ||
Yes, someone will be benched | 108 | 74.5 % |
No, they'll run it back with the same group | 37 | 25.5 % |
List of polls |