Edmonton Oilers make major ice time changes during game vs Rangers

Through the first two games of the season, there had already been some rising concerns about potentially playing McDavid and Draisaitl too much.

Early into last night's game, Oilers coach Knoblauch began mixing up line combinations frequently.

Notably, with the Oilers in the lead, Coach Knoblauch split up McDavid and Draisaitl and began playing them more with rotating linemates.

As a result, McDavid and Draisaitl played a bit less minutes and more depth players got involved.

After playing close to 25 minutes in the first 2 games, McDavid and Draisaitl both only got 20 minutes in last night's game.

Andrew Mangiapane got the biggest promotion to the first line, and he saw his minutes increase 6 minutes since last game to 17 minutes against the Rangers. Kapanen also saw some increased ice time, and most other forwards saw slightly reduced minutes.

The Oilers didn't get a powerplay in last night's game which certainly affected some minutes of the top players - but they still did make changes on special teams. McDavid and Draisaitl played a small bit of penalty kill, but not as much as earlier this year. McDavid played just over 1 minute shorthanded.

One forward saw the bench a bit more than normal: Isaac Howard. That's not surprising for a rookie forward in a close game on the road, but Howard played very little in the final frame - showing what the coach thinks of his play right now.
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Other forwards like Trent Frederic, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Matt Savoie, and Trent Frederic saw less ice time from the game before, but still found ways to make an impact.

Coach Knoblauch has shown his propensity for frequently switching up the lines to roll out the best combinations possible for the moment, while also collecting data on lines to make decisions later in the season. It's interesting to see how it's starting to take shape in the early days of the season.