PROJECTED LINEUP: Pickard to start for the Oilers in Game 3 vs. the Kings

EDMONTON, AB – Goaltender Calvin Pickard will be between the pipes for the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night when he makes his third career start in the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Place in Game 3 of their first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings.

The Oilers will turn to Pickard down 2-0 in the series after Stuart Skinner started the first two games and allowed 11 goals on 58 shots with a 6.11 goals-against average and .810 save percentage. Pickard came in during the third period of their 6-2 defeat in Game 2 and stopped two of three shots in relief.

The 33-year-old has always proven to be reliable for the Oilers when called upon, including back-to-back starts in last year's Second Round series against the Vancouver Canucks where he steadied the crease by making 19 saves in a 3-2 win in Game 4 and 32 stops in a 3-2 defeat in Game 5.

Pickard started eight of Edmonton's final 11 games of the regular season with Skinner out with a head injury and is coming off a career-best year with a 22-10-1 record, 2.71 GAA and .900 save percentage, having the fifth-best win percentage (.682) among goaltenders who appeared in 35 NHL games.

No matter when he's called upon, Pickard said his role doesn't change beyond giving his best effort every time he's between the pipes to be the difference for his team – a task he's done many times over the course of the regular season as the No. 2 option to Stuart Skinner.

"It's the same way I've approached every game as an Oiler," Pickard said. "Go out and do my job and give our team a chance to win. Obviously, the first two games didn't go as planned basically in all facets, but we know we got a better effort in this locker room and we're definitely going to do that tonight."

The two Oilers netminders have formed a strong bond connection as a tandem this season and always put their full support behind the other when they're on the bench, and Pickard will rely on Skinner tonight to be a valuable observant who can give opinions on what's happening.

"He supports me, I support him. We've kind of gone back and forth for a lot of the year," Pickard said. "Obviously, with him getting hurt, I played a little bit more. But he's been great for me when I'm in net, especially last year as well in the playoffs. He's my second set of eyes from the bench, and I can bounce things off him and the same thing when he's the net, so it's been really good."

Pickard added that having the experience of playing last year in the playoffs was a catalyst to his career-best year in 2024-25, which gives him confidence that he can settle into the Oilers crease early for tonight's provital Game 3 in Oil Country.

"I can say it definitely helps a little bit," he said. "We're almost a year removed from that, but since since then, I've played some good hockey. I played a bit more than I probably expected to this year, which was awesome, and I'm definitely feeling confident going into it."

The Oilers players know that Pickard is going to give them a great effort everytime he's in the crease.

"He's played well all year," McDavid said. "He's been solid for us, come in at big moments and did it last year in the playoffs as well. So honestly, a guy we've got a lot of faith in and I expect him to play great tonight."

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said we shouldn't read into the defence pairings from this morning's pre-game skate, where John Klingberg was on the top pairing with Evan Bouchard after having a good performance in Wednesday's loss at Crypto.com Arena.

Final lines and defence pairings will be confirmed during warm-ups.

View the Oilers Projected Game 3 Lineup vs. Los Angeles below:

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

Nurse - Bouchard
Walman - Klingberg
Kulak - Emberson

Pickard
Skinner