Winger Trent Frederic will be a game-time decision tonight while defenceman Jake Walman will return to the Oilers lineup for Game 1 of their first-round series against the Kings
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LOS ANGELES, CA – Winger Trent Frederic will be a game-time decision for the Edmonton Oilers tonight as they get set to face the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of their first-round series at Crypto.com Arena.
Frederic has benefitted from having a few extra days of recovery and practice to build himself up to potentially make his return to the Oilers lineup to begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs tonight after he was limited in the regular season to only one appearance with Edmonton.
“I’m feeling good. I think everything’s been going well,” Frederic said pre-game on Monday. “I’ve gotten a good amount of skates under me and I’m fortunate enough that we have a Monday game to start the series, so that’s been great. It’s been good to skate with the guys.”
The 27-year-old would likely slot in on the third line next to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jeff Skinner and would give the Oilers an extra dimension when it comes to speed, size and skill if he’s given the green light to face the Kings tonight.
“I’m not trying to think about challenges – just go out and get my feet moving, play physical to start, and get into the game right away,” he said. “I know playoff hockey from my past experience. I feel like the first 10 or 20 minutes, it’s very fast and different than regular season, so I think everyone’s gonna be playing at a high pace. It’s gonna be physical. It’ll be pretty fun.”
Trent speaks ahead of Monday’s Game 1 at Crypto.com Arena
Defenceman Brett Kulak is on his way back to Los Angeles this afternoon after flying back home to Canmore yesterday to be there for the birth of his family’s second daughter, Scotlynn Brooke Kulak, and Head Coach Kris Knoblauch confirmed everyone’s doing well.
Kulak will be one of the Oilers blueliners tasked with making up for the absence of Mattias Ekholm, who’ll be out for at least the first round due to injury.
Coach Knoblauch is confident in all of his team’s defenders when it comes to being tasked with taking on bigger roles after seeing how they performed short-staffed late in the regular season.
Edmonton will be receiving Jake Walman back into their top-four defence after he missed the last five regular-season games with an injury, and Knoblauch added that John Klingberg will be out in addition to Evander Kane and Troy Stecher, who they hope will be available later in the series.
Either one of Josh Brown or Cam Dineen will fill the team’s sixth defence spot next to Ty Emberson on the third pairing.
“I think everyone can handle more minutes and play [bigger roles],” Knoblauch said of the blueline. “Certainly, you saw during the last couple of weeks where we were down to five defencemen where we had Bouchard, Kulak and Nurse regularly playing 30 minutes. Walman can play high minutes as well, but it will be very similar to this series that we’re going to rely on those guys to play a lot of big minutes.
“We’ll need contributions from all six of our guys, but we’re comfortable with having those guys step up and play a significant role.”
Goaltender Stuart Skinner will start in goal for the Oilers.
Kris provides lineup notes ahead of Monday’s Game 1 vs. the Kings
View the Oilers Projected Lineup vs. Los Angeles below:
Hyman – McDavid – Brown
Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Arvidsson
Skinner – Nugent-Hopkins – Frederic
Janmark – Henrique – Perry
Nurse – Bouchard
Kulak – Walman
Emberson – Brown
Skinner
Pickard
