VIDEO

This is from Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer, the lines and pairings for the Edmonton Oilers for morning practice in Dallas, with Connor Ingram on the ice for tonight’s game, but Tristan Jarry evidently in the starter’s net.

“(Connor) Ingram he is good. He is healthy. He can play but won’t be starting tonight,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch, reported Gene Principe of Sportsnet, adding that Ty Emberson and Colton Dach have gone home for further evaluation.

D-man Spencer Stastney was on the ice today. Emberson was injured after several hard collisions in the Avs game.

Adam Henrique is also back from injury, replacing injured rookie winger Dach.

The Edmonton Oilers morning skate in Dallas:

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Roslovic
Savoie-Dickenson-Kapanen
Henrique-Samanski-Frederic

Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Murphy
Walman-Stastney

Jarry
Ingram

My take

1. As bad as that Nate MacKinnon clobbering of Ingram looked, it appears that the Oilers goalie is not injured. Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch reported after the Avs game that Ingram had said he was OK, but concussion protocols kept him out of the game and the team needed more time to be sure. Ingram bled from his forehead after MacKinnon crashed into him.

If he’s good to go, that’s excellent, because Edmonton is going to need two solid goalies down the stretch, and Ingram has been by far the most solid of the current tandem with Jarry.

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1. I think come playoff time that the Oilers will be glad to have Adam Henrique in the line-up. Henrique struggles to create much on the attack, so he’s been miscast this year as a third line centre. If he’s playing on the 3C in the playoffs, you know the Oilers are going to struggle.

But Henrique is still a good-to-great penalty killer due to his superior reading of the game. He knows where to be, he knows when to attack the puck carrier and when to back off, a read that other Edmonton PKers struggle to make correctly. Often the Oilers PK forwards get too high towards the d-men at the point, opening up the slot to attack.

Henrique also greatly ups his physical game in the playoffs. He can provide his sound PK work, solid defensive play and aggressive physical play in a fourth line role.

1. Both Spencer Statsney and Jake Walman have struggled to limit Grade A shots against making mistakes at a high rate, leaking dangerous shots. For this reason I had hoped that Edmonton might well pick up another depth d-man at the trade deadline, but not to be.

At the same time, these players are capable enough and if they can lock in their defensive play against Dallas, Edmonton has a good chance to win tonight’s game.

1. I worry about Darnell Nurse paired with an average puck mover and slower skater like Connor Murphy. Edmonton’s going to miss Emberson, who has been playing the best hockey of his pro career in the past two months.

Murphy is a smart, physical player who clears out the front of the net effectively, unlike most Oilers d-men. Of course, Nurse played OK-to-good regular season hockey with slower Cody Ceci for a few years, so maybe this will work out.

Nurse has played solid hockey most games this year, sprinkling in poor performances about one-in-four games, hence the uproar about his play. But, again, Nurse is capable of playing sound two-way hockey if he sticks to his position on defence, doesn’t over-commit on defence or on the attack, and throws a few nasty hits.

If Nurse adopts a defence first, stick-to-my-position attitude he can help the Oilers win a Stanley Cup. He’s yet to do that in the playoffs, but the heat is now on him like it’s rarely been before in this stretch run. Good luck to him.

1. The injuries have meant that Josh Samanski continues to get games with the Oilers, which is a good thing, because Samanski is a sound defence-first forward, the kind of forward the Oilers lack. He’s also big and can make plays on the forecheck. What’s not to like?

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