Notebook: Oilers seek boost with lineup shuffle for Game 4 vs. Golden Knights ...Middle East

EDMONTON — The Vegas Golden Knights have been the better team over the last six periods of this series, and an Edmonton Oilers lineup that may have grown a bit stale looks like it will get freshened up tonight.

By the looks of the morning skate, it appears Troy Stecher will get into his first playoff game in place of Ty Emberson as Edmonton’s sixth defenceman. Up front, it appears as if Kasperi Kapanen will come in for Viktor Arvidsson — though you never know until official rosters are submitted after pre-game warmups.

Meanwhile, it appears Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will centre separate lines — at least to start the game.

“We’ve got guys who aren’t playing right now that have a lot to offer,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Whether we need a little more speed, physicality, defensive responsibilities, or offence … we’ve got some guys who can come in and give us a little boost.

“We’ll be making one, maybe two changes. Hopefully that’ll give our team a boost.”

Down the hallway, captain Mark Stone — who played just 5:54 in Game 3 before leaving — looks ready to go for Vegas tonight, as does defenceman Brayden McNabb, who took the morning skate off.

Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said his team is ready to face the dangerous duo of 97 and 29, whether together or apart.

“We’ve got our guys we’d like to on the ice when they’re out there, either separate or together. You know who they are,” he told the media. “We’ve seen a lot of Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman with McDavid over the years, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the way they go.

“At the end of the day, it’s a challenge either way. We’ve got to be ready, and make sure we’re on top of it.”

Mix master

Welcome to the playoffs, folks, where you’re never quite sure who stays in, who comes out, and who plays with whom.

For Edmonton, it’s been most of a season with the lines in the blender, so by now, whatever Knoblauch writes on the white board shouldn’t be a problem.

“We’ve seen so many different combinations throughout the season that now, when you throw guys together, most of the guys have played together. They’ve seen each other, and built some chemistry of some sort,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who we predict will play left wing next to Connor McDavid tonight — at least to start.

“We’ve got guys who can play up and down the lineup, pick up different roles. Twelve guys who are ready to roll and want to help out any way they can.”

Here’s our best guess on the line combos, with Knoblauch being careful at morning skate not to drop many clues. The bottom six is purely a guess on our part:

RNH-McDavid-HymanKane-Draisaitl-PerryFrederic-Henrique-BrownPodkolzin-Janmark-Kapanen

Nurse-BouchardWalman-KlingbergKulak-Stecher

Skinner

Barbashev-Eichel-StoneOlofsson-Hertl-DorofeyevHowden-Karlsson-SmithPearson-Roy-Kolesar

McNabb-TheodoreHanifin-PietrangeloHague-Whitecloud

Hill

McDavid, Draisaitl and Jack Eichel each lead this series with five points apiece. But everyone knows that the back end of this series is where it will be won.

McDavid thinks his team is ready to play its best game, which we have not seen yet in this series.

“I feel like we’re building, it’s getting there. Love to see it tonight,” said McDavid, who gets so much attention every night from every opponent.

It’s been tough sledding trying to find sustained pressure in the Vegas zone.

“I feel like their D are standing up in the neutral zone, not allowing us to gain entry. They’ve got big D-men who break the puck out well, and we’ve had a tough time sustaining some O-zone time.”

Dry Drai

Leon Draisaitl has had two sub-par games, by his standards.

He produced two assists in Game 3, but played a major part in three goals against — including deflecting the game-winner into the net with 0.4 seconds to play

So we asked Knoblauch what he does when a player of Draisaitl’s pedigree is struggling — if he does anything at all?

“Every player needs support, whether that’s giving them pointers or tidbits about his game, where he needs to be, what’s going wrong, what’s going right,” Knoblauch said. “And sometimes players just need to get over it. And by that (he means) just like let them be, and they’ll just figure it out.

“The better players usually just figure things out on their own. They have a pretty good understanding of the game and what they are, what they need to do to have success, and what didn’t go well the night before. So, every player gets handled a little bit differently.”

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