It might be both.<\/p>\n
Jason Dickinson<\/a> did not take part in morning skate on Wednesday. The multi-goal scorer in Game 1 was questionable to play in the series opener, but prevailed for a two-goal<\/a> performance. However, in the second period, he fell awkwardly to the ice in pain. He is officially questionable for tonight\u2019s game.<\/p>\n That means Samanski is expected in tonight\u2019s lineup in the fourth line centre role. If Dickinson doesn\u2019t play, Lazar is in, likely as a third-line winger with Nugent-Hopkins as the third-line centre.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been very happy with him all year. We anticipated him being an Oiler in the future. We weren\u2019t really expecting it to be so fast,\u201d said coach Kris Knoblauch<\/a> on Samanski.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 24 games, Samanski scored two goals and four points, but proved to be a defensively responsible piece.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d be excited. Obviously, it would be special. I\u2019m not really a nervous guy. Would just be happy to get out there,\u201d said Samanski<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not easy for the coach to trust the young guy, especially since I played in the DEL last year and not sure what to expect. But our staff and my teammates did a great job helping me adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n The Oilers<\/a><\/p>\n Matthew Savoie \u2013 Connor McDavid \u2013 Zach Hyman<\/p>\n Vasily Podkolzin \u2013 Leon Draisaitl \u2013 Kasperi Kapanen<\/p>\n Ryan Nugent-Hopkins \u2013 Curtis Lazar* \u2013 Jack Roslovic<\/p>\n Colton Dach \u2013 Josh Samanski \u2013 Trent Frederic<\/p>\n Mattias Ekholm \u2013 Evan Bouchard<\/p>\n Darnell Nurse \u2013 Connor Murphy<\/p>\n Jake Walman \u2013 Ty Emberson<\/p>\n Connor Ingram<\/p>\n *Jason Dickinson questionable<\/p>\n Samanski seemed to be gelling with Colton Dach and Trent Frederic on his wings in the last two regular season games. What Henrique\u2019s absence meant was inconsistent shifts for the fourth line wingers, who tried to make the most of their minutes in Game 1. Dach levelled seven hits in 8:40, while Frederic had three in 8:33, but there wasn\u2019t much opportunity to get the pair out for time.<\/p>\n Jason Dickinson missed a couple of minutes in the second period, which compromised the centre depth even further. And with the Oilers overall play suffering in the second period, there was less time for the Bash Brothers.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was lot of mixing,\u201d said Knoblauch. \u201cIt was tough to really evaluate how every line went, because we lost Rico [Henrique] very early in the game and the lines weren\u2019t rolling together.\u201d<\/p>\n Another impact meant Matt Savoie<\/a> didn\u2019t kill either of the two penalties. Savoie is Henrique\u2019s usual PK partner, but Knoblauch prefers to keep forward pairs together. That meant Savoie sat, while Dickinson-Kapanen and McDavid-Nugent-Hopkins ate the minutes.<\/p>\n The longer Game 1 went along, the more restricted Ty Emberson\u2019s minutes became. He took just three shifts in the third period and finished with just 10:20. During the regular season, he averaged 15:31.<\/p>\n This was Emberson\u2019s 10th career playoff game, a sheltered option during the 2024-25 Stanley Cup Final run. With that in mind, this was actually Emberson\u2019s third highest TOI total.<\/p>\n The Ducks<\/a><\/p>\n Chris Kreider \u2013 Leo Carlsson \u2013 Frank Vatrano* (Troy Terry maintenance*)<\/p>\n Alex Killorn \u2013 Mikael Granlund\u2013 Beckett Sennecke<\/p>\n Mason McTavish \u2013 Ryan Poehling\u2013 Cutter Gauthier<\/p>\n Jeffrey Veil \u2013 Tim Washe \u2013 Ian Moore<\/p>\n Jackson LaCombe \u2013 Jacob Trouba<\/p>\n Pavel Mintyukov \u2013 John Carlson<\/p>\n Tyson Hinds \u2013 Drew Helleson* (Radko Gudas*)<\/p>\n Lukas Dostal<\/p>\n Troy Terry and Radko Gudas did not participate in morning skate, according to Zach Cavanagh of the\u00a0Sporting Tribune<\/a>. Terry has often be taking maintenance days and not skating on gamedays.<\/p>\n If Gudas is unable to play, Drew Helleson will draw in beside Tyson Hinds. Helleson played 60 games this season, his fifth year of pro hockey. The former second-round pick 2019 scored two goals and 15 points. That pair would be green in terms of experience. Hinds has played just seven NHL games in his career.<\/p>\n \u2018It wasn\u2019t enough\u2019The Ducks are smarting after a tough loss in Game 1<\/a> where they accomplished a lot of good things, but also made a lot of \u201cpreventable\u201d mistakes.<\/p>\n But Leo Carlsson is getting the opportunity to showcase his talent on a bigger stage in the playoffs. Forced to miss the Olympics because of a left thigh lesion, the third-year centre had a goal and an assist in his playoff debut, and looked every bit of a star in the making. His line with Troy Terry and Chris Kreider created several opportunities and factored in on both even-strength goals.<\/p>\n It\u2019s safe to say Carlsson adjusted pretty quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst five minutes felt like a playoff game,\u201d Carlsson said<\/a>. \u201cThen it was just kind of not exactly the same thing, but also didn\u2019t feel like a first playoff game either. Good second period, but it wasn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n For one shift, the start of the second period, Mason McTavish played in Kreider\u2019s spot, and they scored a goal and created numerous turnovers. Joel Quenneville only used that trio for a total of 1:40, though, as McTavish spent most of the game with Ryan Poehling and Cutter Gauthier.<\/p>\n The unsung heroes were the fourth line of Tim Washe, Jeffrey Viel, and defenceman, converted forward, Ian Moore. On multiple occasions, Quenneville put out the trio for a defensive zone faceoff knowing McDavid was likely to hop over the boards. They had a disallowed goal in the first period and combined for 10 hits.<\/p>\n Crowd jeering \u2018fun\u2019<\/p>\n A welcome to the playoffs moment came for Lukas Dostal, who heard his name being chanted by the Oilers\u2019 faithful at Rogers Place. Or did he?<\/p>\n \u201cI knew they were chanting something but I wasn\u2019t sure if it was my name or something else,\u201d he said on Tuesday<\/a>, but he\u2019s taking it as a sign of respect.\u00a0\u201cIt feels great. Obviously, they chant so I\u2019ll make some mistake. It\u2019s part of it. It\u2019s fun. These are the moments you just have to soak in and enjoy as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of PreGaming and Oilersnation After Dark. He\u2019s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.<\/p>\n PRESENTED BY LeaseBusters![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776943450_298_image.webp\"\/)
LeaseBusters is Canada\u2019s premier lease takeover marketplace, helping drivers get out of their current vehicle leases without costly penalties or negative equity. Instead of paying thousands to break a lease, sellers connect with qualified buyers ready to take it over\u2014saving money and avoiding financial stress. Buyers benefit from shorter-term commitments and often better monthly payments, while dealerships retain a replacement customer and leasing companies keep contracts active. It\u2019s a smarter, more efficient solution for everyone involved. Four parties, four wins\u2014only with LeaseBusters. For more information, check out\u00a0www.LeaseBusters.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scenes from Morning Skate: Josh Samanski expected to make Oilers\u2019 playoff debut, Dickinson questionable The Edmonton Oilers will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-623153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}