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PRESEASON GAME PREVIEW: Edmonton Oilers vs. Arizona Coyotes

Connor McDavid is back in the lineup for Edmonton’s final home preseason tilt

By Jeff Chapman
Edmonton Oilers 2019-2020 Headshots
Back. Tonight.
Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images

Edmonton Oilers

Arizona Coyotes

7:00 PM MST

Rogers Place

TV: Streaming Only

Radio: 630 CHED

SB Nation Opponent: Five for Howling

TAKING SHAPE?

Just eight preseason days remain until the October 2nd opener in Vancouver. That’s not a whole lot of time, but they’ll need to trim up the roster by quite a bit between now and then. The Oilers play three more preseason games between now and then. Tonight is their last contest at home before the regular season begins, as they take on the Arizona Coyotes. Can anyone on the bubble take a step towards surviving the next wave of roster cuts?

Let’s go to the tape.,

The Oilers are saying

It’s really cool to see that. Someone to come up that young, be that mature and lead a team like this.

Source

That’s Oilers forward Josh Archibald on team captain Connor McDavid. Archibald and the rest of the Oilers headed out to Kelowna this past weekend for some team bonding. The 22-year old team captain will be entering his fifth season with the Oilers.

The Coyotes are saying

Going on the road is a lot of fun...You get to do a lot of team dinners, it’s a good bonding experience. When we’re home, guys hang out, but guys have families, they have kids, they have girlfriends or wives. When you go on the road you’re just with your team, it’s a lot of fun.

Source

That’s Coyotes forward Lawson Crowse on heading out on the road. Not sure of Crowse’s situation back home, but he probably didn’t do himself any favours with that soundbyte.

HAVE SOME OF THIS

  • Yesterday’s forward lines paint a picture of what I believe will very close to what we’re going to see in Vancouver next Wednesday. The Oilers still have a handful of cuts to go through between now and then, but I think a few of them can be found on that fifth line. Still believe Tomas Jurco is the frontrunner in all of those names.
  • CONNOR MCDAVID: The man is back in town. So don’t you mess around. This will be McDavid’s first game action this preseason, so this makes it must-see-TV. Tonight, it’s more like must-stream-TV.
  • SMITH?: Mike Smith has a brand new mask, and we’ll all get to see it tonight. He’d missed a significant portion of training camp with the flu, but will go tonight versus Arizona.
  • Joel Persson is going to make this club out of camp. You can take that to the bank.