EDMONTON, AB – It’s a ‘Mammoth’ task, but one the Oilers are ready for.
The Edmonton Oilers will open up a three-game homestand at Rogers Place on Tuesday evening against the red-hot Utah Mammoth, who’ve won seven straight games and sit atop the Western Conference standings with an 8-2-0 record at this early point of the 2025-26 NHL campaign.
“A lot of skill on a team that’s feeling it right now, but this isn’t the time where it matters to feel it,” Leon Draisaitl said. “You’ve got to show it down the stretch. So obviously, they’ve got off to a good start, which helps, so it’s going to be a great test for us.”
As per the morning skate, Noah Philp is expected to draw back in for Curtis Lazar on the fourth line with Isaac Howard and David Tomasek, while Edmonton’s top-six forwards remain the same from Sunday night’s 4-3 overtime defeat to the Vancouver Canucks.
On the blueline, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch will maintain his defence deployment from Vancouver on Sunday of Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard on the top pairing, while Mattias Ekholm and Jake Walman will make up the second pairing ahead of Brett Kulak and Ty Emberson as their final twosome.
The bench boss liked what he saw from the top pairing of Nurse and Bouchard on Sunday and hopes to see chemistry continue to develop in this current defence combination, which’ll be used for the second straight game on Tuesday against the high-flying Mammoth, who’ve been on a tear as of late.
“I think it’s important that we switch up our D pairs and have guys playing just with different partners,” Knoblauch said. “I just think with the way everyone’s game is at right now, we felt that some switch had to be made. Whether this is a long-term or short-term thing, we’ll find out.
“There was a good step with that top pair the other night with Darnell and Bouch, and if they can continue to play like that and get better and become a dominant pair, then maybe we keep them together. But it isn’t something that we are saying this is the way it’s going to be.”
