Oilers switch up defense pairs at practice ahead of Game 3 of Stanley Cup Final

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Darnell Nurse shrugged off the changes the Edmonton Oilers made to their defense pairs at practice on Sunday.

“It depends sometimes on what day of the week it is, we could be playing with someone new,” the defenseman said at Amerant Bank Arena.

That may be true, but the Oilers haven’t made many defensive changes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. So, the fact that they may be changing their pairs for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers on Monday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC) is going to draw some attention.

“We’re always making adjustments to counter whatever teams are doing, who’s playing well,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Our lines and defense pairs may switch up a little bit, whether it’s after the first period or it’s later in the game, whatever it is.”

On Sunday, Nurse was on the top pair with Evan Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm and John Klingberg were together on the second pair, and Brett Kulak and Jake Walman constituted the third pair.

Ekholm had been paired with Bouchard since he returned from an undisclosed injury in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars on May 29. Nurse had been with Kulak on the second pair, and Walman (playing on the left side) was with Klingberg on the third.

“(Assistant coach Paul) Coffey has done such a good job over the course of the year of having us get familiar playing with each other. Even over the course of a game you’ll be playing with three or four different people,” Nurse said. “So, there’s a comfort level everyone has with whoever you’re out there playing with.”

This postseason, the last time the Oilers really switched things up to their defense pairs -- outside of when Ekholm returned -- was in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round after they lost the first two games of that best-of-7 series against the Los Angeles Kings. The pairs for Game 3 were Klingberg and Bouchard, Nurse and Ty Emberson, and Kulak and Walman. In Game 2 it had been Nurse and Bouchard, Walman and Klingberg, and Kulak and Emberson.

This time around, the Oilers are coming off a 5-4 double overtime loss to the Panthers, who tied the best-of-7 series 1-1.

“It’s just the way the game goes,” Ekholm said. “It seems everybody’s pretty confident in playing with everybody. We’ve got a really good 'D' core, everyone’s played with everyone else, so I don’t think it matters much. It’s more about focusing on what you do out there and your job. It doesn’t matter really who you’re playing with, but we’ll see tomorrow.”

As far as how they’re playing, the Oilers' defense has done a good job, though it knows it can be better in some areas. One of those areas is trying to get Panthers forward Sam Bennett away from Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner. Bennett, who has been hovering in and around the blue paint throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs, has scored an NHL-leading 13 goals this postseason, including three in the first two games of the Final.

“I mean, it’s expected. They’re a team that plays really hard," Nurse said. "We have a hardworking team that’s going to come into the corners, going to go in front of the net. There are examples of it all over the ice, but when goals are going in or when there’s commotion in front of the net, that’s going to stick out the most.

“We just have to try and keep the traffic away from Stu and let him see pucks, obviously knowing they’re going to do a really good job of getting there.”

The Oilers may be mixing things up, but they know what they’re getting from each defenseman, regardless of his playing partner.

“Fortunately, our players are comfortable with any changes that we do make just because of how much we’ve fluctuated our pairs and lines throughout the season,” Knoblauch said. “In Games 1 and 2 we had some changes, and in games throughout the rest of the series there’ll be some more.”