Evander Kane is set to miss at least 3-4 months. Losing a top six forward who provides the elements that Kane does would be a massive blow to any team. Luckily the Oilers have depth up front now that at least gives them a reasonable chance at replacing the winger.

Tonight it looks like Dylan Holloway will get a look alongside Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman. Holloway was given this chance in the first game of the season after a highly impressive pre-season where he scored a hat-trick playing in that same position. In game 1 of the regular season, Holloway had a blatant giveaway at his own blueline which resulted in a goal against. Holloway quickly found himself outside of the top six with reduced ice-time.

Holloway took his bumps and bruises along the way but has steadily looked more and more confident in the bottom six, made some good plays and laid out some heavy hits. Holloway isn't an exact match of Kane but he does have a similar skillset. Hopefully the 20 year old can make more of his second opportunity in the top six than he did in his first.

Aside from Holloway, other players will be counted on to step up. Mattias Janmark will likely get into his first NHL game of the season tonight. Janmark was sent down more as a victim of the cap than his actual play and will do everything in his power to stay in the NHL. Janmark was brought in because he is a skilled winger who has shown on his previous teams that he can produce in a bottom six role.

Having cap space not only gives a roster flexibility, but also promotes confidence. Particularly in the bottom six it is good for players to feel uncomfortable and worry about their job security if they are not producing. They isn't the case when the team is essentially locked due to cap space. With a bit more cap-space and a 23 man roster, some of these players will not get into the lineup every night. That isn't a bad thing.

Jack Campbell will once again get the nod in goal for the Oilers. There were a few moments of uncertainty but overall the Oilers starter had his best game of the season and something he can hopefully build off of.

On the opposite side it is likey Pyotr Kochetkov (waits for everyone to Google him) in net for the Hurricanes. Fredrik Andersen remains injured and Antti Raanta just played last night. Kochetkov has not played in an NHL game this year and has played a total of 3 NHL games which all happened last season. He posted a 0.902SV%. These are the games where the Oilers should be firing from all directions to overrun an AHL goalie and pray this isn't one of those cases where an AHL goalie looks like an NHL starter.

Kailer Yamamoto did not skate at the morning skate and it appears that he will not be in the game tonight. This means likely that Klim Kostin will get a look on the fourth line or that the team will once again go 11/7.

I liked the move by Woodcroft to break up the Nurse and Ceci pairing to try and spread out the defense on the blueline. Kulak and Ceci did a solid job of limiting the Lightning's top line but Nurse and Barrie as usual did not look good together and were regularly out chanced and actually outscored at 5 on 5 to the tune of 0-2. Ceci and Kulak should keep getting reps together but Bouchard should be getting the nod next to Darnell Nurse over Tyson Barrie.

RNH-McDavid-Puljujarvi
Holloway-Draisaitl-Hyman
Foegele-McLeod-Ryan
Janmark-Shore-Kostin

Nurse-Barrie
Kulak-Ceci
Niemelainen/Murray-Bouchard

Campbell

---

Terevainen-Aho-Jarvis
Svechnikov-Kotkaniemi-Necas
Martinook-Staal-Fast
Noesen-Drury-Stepan

Slavin-Burns
Skjei-Pesce
Coghlan-Chatfield

Kochetkov

Enjoy the game!

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