PROJECTED LINEUP: Oilers vs. Kings

EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers will deploy 11 forwards and seven defencemen on Monday night when they host the Los Angeles Kings at Rogers Place in a battle between two of the NHL's best teams over the last handful of weeks.

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch confirmed during his morning media availability that the Oilers will change up their formation to deal with a formidable Kings side that's neck and neck with them in the Pacific Division standings, having already defeated the Oilers 4-3 in overtime this season back on Dec. 28.

"Being patient with our game," Knoblauch said. "They don't give up many chances, and they're one of the better teams in the League at defending. Just waiting for the opposition to make mistakes because once we force things, we'll be feeding their transition and allowing them opportunities.

"We have to know that our chances are going to be limited tonight, and we'll have to work for them."

Forwards Jeff Skinner and Derek Ryan will be out of the lineup tonight after the change to formation, while Josh Brown will serve as the seventh defenceman.

Going with one less forward will lend more chances for the Oilers to get Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the ice, but the importance of continuing to receive depth scoring as they did on Saturday night in Chicago remains against a tricky Los Angeles lineup that matches up well against them.

"Our team's driven, especially offensively, on Draisaitl and McDavid," Knoblauch said. "When they're playing well, they are leading the way almost every single night, but we do need secondary scoring. We need another guy stepping up, and the other night we saw Corey Perry scoring a key goal at the end of the second period. Podkolzin scored, and we need more of those games.

"Lately, I think we've been playing outstanding, and those two players that you mentioned, especially Podkolzin, he's been pretty much a staple playing with Leon for most of the year. In that game, we made some little line changes with Perry and Podkolzin swapping spots, and they both came up with very important goals."

Winger Warren Foegele had a goal and two assists in the Kings' last victory over the Oilers before the new year and has enjoyed a strong start to life in Los Angeles with 11 goals and 12 assists in 40 games.

"Just really good on the puck down low," Knoblauch said. "He's very fast, he's quick and he can shoot the puck. He's got one of the better wrist shots and he can get it away, but I think most of his goals are just being quick and getting around the net. Like any team or player, most of the goals are around the blue paint. He's quick, he's strong and he can get there."

The matchups on Dec. 28 went in favour of Los Angeles during their last meeting against the Oilers with the last change, allowing them to deploy the imposing line of Foegele, Quinton Byfield and Tanner Jeannot the way they wanted and resulting in the trio having a big night at Crypto.com Arena.

The Oilers know that beyond that specific Kings' trio, they're going to have to be locked in to deal with the waves that Los Angeles can throw at them with a deep top-nine forward group, knowing they have the talent necessary to outperform them.

"They had the last change and they were very persistent on the matchups that they liked," Knoblauch recalled. "We're not a team that's usually running away from lineup matches just because, with the amount of ice time that McDavid and Leon play, it just doesn't make any sense for us to worry about one vs. one or two vs. two.

"So tonight, they've got three really good lines and they've depth on their fourth line. They've got some good players there too, but they rely on those three lines pretty equally. We'll have to play well against them, but we won't have one line play against any one of theirs."

View the Oilers Projected Lineup vs. Los Angeles below:

Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Podkolzin - Draisaitl - Arvidsson
Janmark - Henrique - Brown
Perry - Kapanen

Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Stecher
Kulak - Emberson
J. Brown

S. Skinner
Pickard