McDavid is still chasing his first point, along with Edmonton’s power play (0-for-6), and thankfully looked no worse for wear during this morning’s pre-game skate and appears fully healthy after being involved in an awkward collision with Mattias Ekholm during Game 2, which briefly took him out before eventually returning.
“He’s always flying around,” Knoblauch said of his captain. “Very often, even if he does have something, it still looks like he’s flying around. So yes, he’ll be able to play and yeah, he’s good.
Forward Curtis Lazar was once again between ‘the Bash Brothers’ of Colton Dach and Trent Frederic at the morning skate, with the status of forward Jason Dickinson uncertain after being designated a game-time decision for tonight.
“Pretty good, I guess,” Lazar said. “I’ll stay out of their way, but if I’m going there in that spot, just kind of feed their game, pucks in deep, put them in the corners, and you let them do what they do best, which is straight-line hockey, physical and hard at the net.”
The Oilers are 33-25 all-time in Game 3 of a postseason series, including a 13-12 record when those games have come on the road, and are 22-8 all-time in series that are tied 1-1 after the opening two games.
Edmonton is looking to improve upon those numbers by retaking the lead in the series with a confident performance on the road, where the team feels it can play with a more focused and simple approach.
“It takes away a lot of the thinking, and you can just play freely and a lot more flow, and you’re not worried about matchups,” Knoblauch said. “On the other hand, some teams are very strong on the matchups and want to just have their key shutdown guys against Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl, so they might feel it’s beneficial for them to have that last change.
