PREVIEW: Oilers at Golden Knights

For the Oilers, it was a welcome sight to see forward Zach Hyman skating with the full team on the ice Monday at T-Mobile Arena, where the winger rotated in the blue bottom-six jersey and tried to get back into the lineup before the end of their current road trip.

Hyman has missed the last four games for the Oilers due to injury and will be evaluated Tuesday morning before making a decision on whether he will play against the Golden Knights.

“We’ll decide that tomorrow. “It’s very close, but we’ll see,” Knoblauch said.

“He’s a guy who does everything well. It’s all about passing the forecheck and winning those little battles. And then of course the scoring. It’s about preventing goals and scoring them, and he’s pretty good at both. He’s a guy that’s good on the ball, good in the offensive zone, good at holding the puck and getting other teams to defend. But ultimately it’s just important to be able to score goals.”

Forward Kasperi Kapanen has done an excellent job filling in for Hyman, recording a goal and an assist in his four games with the Oilers since being released on waivers by the St. Louis Blues on November 19th. The Finnish forward matches McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins up front with his speed and tenacity, as well as being part of Edmonton’s improved penalty kill in recent games.

“He’s part of our six-man rotation (PK) for the forwards, and we have Nugent-Hopkins and Rico as our first pair, then Brownie and Janny, and then Pods and Kappy,” Knoblauch said. “We feel good about him because he’s done that kill before, plus he runs well. He can attack, pressure and skate, and we rely on that pretty heavily as forwards.”

Kapanen’s penalty kill partner Vasily Podkolzin scored in the third straight game against the Avalanche on Saturday and currently has the longest goal streak in the NHL.

Defenseman Troy Stecher also had an assist for the third straight game Saturday night and is proving to be a valuable member of the Oilers’ blue line alongside Darnell Nurse after becoming Edmonton’s seventh defenseman at the trade deadline last year.

“I think he delivers as promised,” said head coach Knoblauch. “A smaller guy, hardworking and sees the game very well. Last year he never got many opportunities just because he came here as our seventh defender and then had injury problems and didn’t play regularly. But we have seen it in practice. His level of competition and attention to detail is really good and now that he has the opportunity this year, he has earned this spot and he has played really well with Darnell.”