OILERS (32-19-8) at LIGHTNING (26-24-8)
7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, SNW, NHL.TV
Oilers team scope
Edmonton Oilers defenseman Kris Russell will play after missing five games with an undisclosed injury. "You want to help your teammates out and sitting in the stands you can't do too much," Russell said. "I was working hard to get back in the lineup and I'm happy to be back." Coach Todd McLellan said Russell will give the Oilers a boost in several areas. "He's been a big part of our long-term success," McLellan said. "He's a puck-mover, shot-blocker, penalty-killer, veteran stability back there. That's what he brings." With Edmonton on the first leg of a back-to-back, goalie Laurent Brossoit will start in his fourth appearance of the season. He is 1-0-0 with a 2.80 goals-against-average and .919 save percentage. "We've got to get [Brossoit] in some games," McLellan said. "We play back-to-back, we're on a long road trip." Cam Talbot will start against the Florida Panthers on Wednesday. The Oilers are 4-1-0 in their past five games.
Lightning team scope
Goalie Ben Bishop will start for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bishop has won his past four starts (1.22 GAA, .953 save percentage) and coach Jon Cooper said the Lightning's efforts on defense have improved to complement his play. "As a team we're defending better," Cooper said. "We're not giving up the odd-man rushes and limiting the scoring chances and right there that's helping the goaltending out. And Bishop is in command of his game. He's looks intimidating in there, he's making the big saves and not giving up rebounds." Despite Bishop's strong play, Cooper said he still plans on playing backup Andrei Vasilevskiy in a rotation. Bishop hasn't started three consecutive games since Dec. 3-8. "We've pointed in six straight games and both guys have played," Cooper said. "We have two guys that can play so it makes no sense to ride out on them. Is starting a guy 2-3 games in a row riding him? I would think starting a guy 10 games in a row is riding him." The Lightning are 4-0-2 in their past six games and six points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
Oilers projected lineup
Patrick Maroon -- Connor McDavid -- Jordan Eberle
Milan Lucic -- Leon Draisaitl -- Anton Slepyshev
Drake Caggiula -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Zack Kassian
Matt Hendricks -- Mark Letestu -- Iiro Pakarinen
Kris Russell -- Brandon Davidson
Laurent Brossoit
Cam Talbot
Scratched: Eric Gryba, Jujhar Khaira
Injured: Benoit Pouliot (undisclosed), Darnell Nurse (lower body), Tyler Pitlick (torn ACL)
Lightning projected lineup
Ondrej Palat -- Tyler Johnson -- Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn -- Brayden Point -- Jonathan Drouin
Brian Boyle -- Valtteri Filppula -- Vladislav Namestnikov
Gabriel Dumont -- Cedric Paquette -- J.T. Brown
Jason Garrison -- Anton Stralman
Braydon Coburn -- Andrej Sustr
Ben Bishop
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Scratched: Luke Witkowski
Injured: Ryan Callahan (hip), Steven Stamkos (knee)
Status report
Russell will replace Gryba. ... Stamkos skated and did shooting drills for the first time since injuring his right knee on Nov. 15. ... The Lightning are expected to go with the same lineup from their previous two games.
Who's hot
Hedman has three goals and three assists in his past three games. ... McDavid has six goals and 11 assists in his past 14 games. ... Point has three goals and two assists in his past four games. ... Draisaitl has six goals and eight assists in his past 14 games.
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