For the third straight series the Edmonton Oilers will start on the road. Edmonton went 0-2 on the road against the Kings before winning 4 straight and then won both games in Vegas and finished the series in Game 5 in Vegas. Since the ugly start of the playoffs Edmonton has rebounded and been very strong on the road and will need to continue that against a very good Stars team.
Here are the projected Stars lineup:
Granlund-Hintz-Rantanen
Robertson-Duchene-Johnston
Marchment-Steel-Seguin
Benn-Back-Dadonov
Harley-Heiskanen
Lindell-Ceci
Bichsel-Petrovic
Oettinger
and for the Oilers
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Kapanen
Kane-Henrique-Arvidsson
Frederic-Janmark-Perry
Kulak-Bouchard
Walman-Klingberg
Nurse-Stecher
Skinner
Brown is apparently a game time decision and has not practiced over the past couple days so it is looking like Arvidsson might be slotting back into the lineup.
My best guess is the Oilers will try and get the Draisaitl line out against the Rantanen line as much as possible. Draisaitl was highly effective at shutting down Eichel throughout the last series; it will be a tall order to do the same against Rantanen.
The big story in this series will be whether or not the Oilers depth, which has been a huge factor in both series thus far can continue to find ways at producing. On paper the Stars are a very deep team but that has not been the case through their first two rounds as I iterated in my last blog. Edmonton will be looking to survive against the Stars top forward line and top defensive pairing and then try and inflict as much damage as possible against the rest of the Dallas lineup.
Ekholm is now a regular skater in practice for the Oilers but still is not expected to play for at least the first couple games of the series. My best guess is depending on how these first two games go, the player and coaching staff will make a call whether he should be prepped for Game 3 or if they can hold off for a bit longer.
Lastly on goaltending. It's not reasonable to expect Stuart Skinner to continue posting shutouts game in and game out but if the Oilers can play like they have in the past couple games in front of him, it will make the job far easier for the Oilers starter and allow him to get into a rhythm which will allow for the Oilers to stay in the game.
Thanks for reading.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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