Saturday night hockey is right around the corner in Edmonton on Hockey Night in Canada, as the Jets battle the Oilers. The Jets got back in the win column last night, delivering an all-around good team effort in a 4-1 victory against the Sabres in Winnipeg. The Oilers have been in some crazy high scoring (and low scoring) games in their last five games, going 3-2-0 in that stretch. The 14-12-1 Winnipeg Jets and the 12-11-5 Oilers will battle it out in an all-Canadian matchup at Rogers Place.

The Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers have not yet played each other this regular season yet, as tonight’s game will be the first of their three matchups this season, all of which will happen over the next month or so.

The injury report for the Winnipeg Jets is now back down to just two names. Hellebuyck is reportedly recovering well, but he’s still excepted to be 3-4 weeks from returning. Haydn Fleury is now back from concussion protocol, and he’s cleared for contact in practice.

The Oilers currently have three players listed on their injury report, all of which were added within the last week. Jack Roslovic is out for a few weeks with an undisclosed injury, and Kasperi Kapanen has a lower body injury that could keep him out for several weeks. Jake Walman was out of the Oilers lineup on Thursday night, and he remains listed as day-to-day.

Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi

Namestnikov – Toews – Perfetti

Niederreiter – Lowry – Iafallo

Koepke – Barron – Pearson

Morrissey – DeMelo

Samberg – Pionk

Stanley – Salomonsson

Milic

Comrie

The unconfirmed starting goalie is Thomas Milic, who has played fairly well in his 1st career start and 1st career relief appearance. With Comrie playing last night (a busy night for him), Milic will likely get the challenge of facing Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. After Milic’s most recent appearance, he now holds a 0-1-0 record with a 3.64 GAA and a .882 SV%. The rest of the Jets lineup remains unchanged (from last night’s game) as of this morning. Stay tuned to the Jets official X/Twitter account for any late lineup additions or changes prior to puck drop.

Nugent-Hopkins – McDavid – Hyman

Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Savoie

Janmark – Henrique – Mangiapane

Clattenburg – Lazar – Frederic

Ekholm – Bouchard

Nurse – Regula

Kulak – Emberson

Skinner

Pickard

The Oilers lineup features several new faces since the Jets last saw them in the regular season, especially at the forward position. What hasn’t changed is that the Oilers continue to be led by the duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Looking at the Oilers’ player stats through 28 games, Captain Connor McDavid leads the way with 40 points. Nine other Oilers skaters have 10+ points, one of which is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who recently returned from injury and is now up to 21 points in just 19 games. Stuart Skinner is the unconfirmed starting goalie. Skinner has been a bit below average overall this season, as the Oilers continue to explore the goalie market. Skinner has a 9-8-3 record with a 2.90 GAA and a .887 SV%. With rumours swirling about the Oilers trying to acquire a new starting goalie, every start is extra important for Skinner as he tries to hold down the Oilers starting goalie position.

Last night’s game finally had some depth scoring for the Jets. Tonight, the attention turns to the Jets 2nd line, in particular Cole Perfetti. Since returning from injury, Cole Perfetti only has 2 goals and 2 assists in 13 games. Perfetti hasn’t exactly had the “breakout” season people were hoping for up to this point, but there’s still time for him to change that. The chances will be there for Perfetti, and it’s just a matter of time before we see a return of “Goal Perfetti”. The Jets need consistent depth scoring if they want to string together some wins, so you shouldn’t count out Cole Perfetti from getting on the scoresheet tonight in this prime time matchup.

On a team with McDavid and Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins often gets overlooked, but make no mistake about it, he’s still a great player. After returning from injury recently, the Oilers veteran has scored 6 goals and added 15 assists for 21 points in 19 games. Nugent-Hopkins is averaging just over 18 minutes of ice time, so you will likely see him used in a few different situations. With a few young prospects in this Oilers forward group, Nugent-Hopkins continues to be a leader on and off the ice, and is currently excelling as one of McDavid’s linemates on the top line.

Puck drop in Edmonton is set for just after 9:00 pm CT. Jets fans will hopefully be able to celebrate another win tonight, as the team looks to start a stretch of wins after a tough road trip. Tonight’s game should be a high flying fast pace from puck drop, as these two Canadian teams battle for an important two points. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for a recap of the action, as the Jets look to fly out of Edmonton with the victory.