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Nobody likes the pre-season. Any wins are fun but ultimately meaningless. Basically we put up with pre-season hockey because it's the only way we get to real hockey. Ideally you want to see your team play well, but more importantly you don't want to see anyone get hurt in a game that's irrelevant in every way. In their last game the Oilers failed to avoid injury and now will be without the services of Jordan Eberle until sometime in November. Let's not have a repeat of that tonight, okay?
How To Watch
Puck drop: 7:00PM MST
TV: Sportsnet 360 (seriously, this one is televised)
Radio: 630 CHED
What To Watch For
In the last pre-season game it was Anton Slepyshev on the top line tonight with Taylor Hall and Connor McDavid, tonight the role of Slepyshev will be played by Leon Draisaitl. With the injury to Eberle opening up a spot on the right side it's hard to find a way that Draisaitl doesn't make the team now (not that it was easy to find a way before either) and this could well be an line on opening night. Hands up if you saw this coming what Draisaitl was sent back to junior in January? Put your hand down, liar.
Projected Line Combinations
| Forwards | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hall | McDavid | Draisaitl | |||
| Pouliot | Nugent-Hopkins | Purcell | |||
| Slepyshev | Lander | Yakupov | |||
| Hendricks | Letestu | Klinkhammer | |||
| Defence | |||||
| Sekera | Schultz | ||||
| Reinhart | Gryba | ||||
| Ference | Nikitin | ||||
| Goalies | |||||
| Talbot | |||||
| ? | |||||