Winger Matt Savoie will continue to play alongside Connor McDavid and Andrew Mangiapane on the top line in the building where he made his Oilers debut last season, recording an assist in 13:07 of ice time during a 6-3 defeat to the Flyers.
“It’s a good line, right?” Mangiapane said. “Obviously, for myself, I’m coming in here being a new guy and all that, so still kind of trying to read off those guys. Davo is a special player, and I think Savvy is a smart young guy, skilled and everything like that. So we have the makings to be a good line, and we gotta keep building chemistry and keep reading off each other and continue to grow.”
Philadelphia are 6-1-0 at home against the Oilers since 2016-17, but the sides have split the season series in each of the last four seasons. Philadelphia comes into this one 7-3-1 in its last 11 games under Head Coach Rick Tocchet, with Trevor Zegras leading with 16 points (4G, 12A) in 15 appearances.
“They’re a good team,” Mangiapane added. “They got a lot of skilled guys out there, and they’re playing well right now, so I think we’ve got to build off our last game and how we played in that third period and just keep rolling. It’s time we put together a little run here. It’s a long road trip and this is the first game, so we want to start on the right foot here.”
Goaltender Stuart Skinner will start tonight before Calvin Pickard presumably takes over the crease for tomorrow night’s second half of the back-to-back against the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.
The Oilers have two back-to-backs on this seven-game road trip, facing off against the Flyers and Blue Jackets before they visit the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning on successive nights a week from now after one-off matches against the Carolina Hurricanes (Saturday) and Buffalo Sabres (Monday).
Edmonton will close out their long Eastern trek On Oct. 22 with a rematch of the 2024 & 2025 Stanley Cup Finals against the Florida Panthers.
