OILERS (25-34-7) at BLUE JACKETS (26-30-8)
TV: 7 p.m. ET; SNW, FS-O, NHL.TV
Season series: The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-1 at Rexall Place on Feb. 2. Rookie center Connor McDavid led Edmonton with three points (one goal) in his return to the lineup after missing three months because of a fractured left clavicle. Matt Calvert scored for Columbus.
Oilers team scope: Goalie Cam Talbot made 35 saves in a 4-0 victory at the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. It was his second shutout this season and third in five career games against Philadelphia. The Oilers, who have won three straight, including the first two of a four-game road trip, blocked a season-high 28 shots. "When they're willing to put their bodies in those shooting lanes and block the shots with not much padding, it says a lot about them, a lot about their willingness to win," Talbot said. "When we're doing the right things like that, there's not too many games we're not going to come out on top." Backup Laurent Brossoit is expected to make his second start of the season. Coach Todd McLellan said the Oilers realized something after going 1-4-1 on their Feb. 11-23 homestand. "We've learned by trial and error that the cute, fancy homestand we tried to play wasn't going to do it," he said. "We're a proud group, so we took it upon ourselves to be a scrappy, relentless, tenacious-type team. We're not always that yet."
Blue Jackets team scope: Columbus, which has won two of its past three games, tweaked its lines at practice Thursday, with Nick Foligno moving up to the second line and Brandon Saad dropping down to the third. Coach John Tortorella told The Columbus Dispatch he's looking to get more offense out of his second, third and fourth lines. "We've gotten a lot of offense out of [the top line centered by Brandon Dubinsky]," he said. "They're all over the scoring-chance sheet for us. I don't think we've been consistent enough with the other lines, so we switched those guys to see if we can spark something and get [Foligno] in a situation where he's playing with [center Alexander Wennberg]. We'll see. I'm not sure where it goes, but we'll see what happens." Foligno, who had an NHL career-high 31 goals last season, has scored nine in 55 games. Rookie goalie Joonas Korpisalo is expected to start; he allowed five goals on 35 shots against the Oilers on Feb. 2. The Blue Jackets know they will have to do a better job against McDavid this time. "He never, never, ever looks at the puck," defenseman Dalton Prout told the newspaper. "You can't defend him 1-on-1. You have to do it as a team."
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