<p>Welcome to the lineup, No. 36.</p>
<p></p>
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<p>John Klingberg is set to make his Edmonton Oilers debut Thursday night, a week and a half after the team signed him to a pro-rated one-year contract. The pen to paper hit on January 17th, and since, Klingberg has been skating with the team, running drills with Connor McDavid while he was serving a three-game suspension, and getting acclimated with the organization.</p>
<p>Now, he&#8217;s set to lace up the skates in an NHL game for the first time since November 2023 when he was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. His tenure there had an unceremonious end as a hip ailment that bothered him his entire career simply became untenable. Ahead of Thursday&#8217;s game, Klingberg revealed to <a href="https://x.com/SportsnetSpec/status/1885027661397057746"><em>Sportsnet&#8217;s</em> Mark Spector</a> he underwent a double hip surgery at 18 years old, and again at 21. He elected for hip resurfacing surgery after his time in Toronto and said <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/its-been-there-my-entire-career-rejuvenated-john-klingberg-is-looking-to-rebound-with-oilers">his movement is feeling the best it ever has</a>.</p>
<p>Surely that&#8217;s music to the ears of the Oilers who are hoping he can regain his form as one of the games best defencemen. Head coach Kris Knoblauch said the team would run 12 forwards and six defencemen, with Jeff Skinner replacing Kasperi Kapanen.</p>
<p>The lineup sees another change tonight, as Connor Brown and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins get elevated alongside Connor McDavid, who was named an alternate captain for Team Canada at the 4-Nations Face-Off on Thursday.</p>
<p>They&#8217;ve had a cup of coffee together at five-on-five this season, playing 45 solid minutes together, outscoring the opposition 3-2.</p>
<p>“Connor&#8217;s been playing very well,&#8221; said Knoblauch of Brown&#8217;s promotion up the lineup. &#8220;The goal scoring hasn’t been there as of late, but I think his all-around game has been good.</p>
<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s fast, he can get in on the forecheck and is always reliable defensively.”</p>
<p>Skinner is expected to skate on the Oilers&#8217; third line alongside Adam Henrique and Zach Hyman, another trio that has had a cup of coffee at five-on-five and played for 24 minutes together.</p>
<p>The Red Wings, meanwhile, have been on a run, going 11-4-1 under head coach Todd McLellan, who was hired mid-season to replace Derek Lalonde, who went 13-17-4 to start the year. Detroit has outscored their opposition 55-45 under McLellan, and their top line has been a big driver in that time.</p>
<p>Lucas Raymond has scored seven goals and a team-leading 23 points under McLellan, with Dylan Larkin leading in goal scoring, with nine markers, and the second most points, with 21. Patrick Kane, who is out tonight due to an upper-body injury, has six goals and 16 points in that time.</p>
<p>Detroit kicks off a four-game Western road trip tonight that will also include stops in Calgary, Vancouver and Seattle.</p>
<h1>LINE COMBINATIONS</h1>
<h3 class="mb-5 text-2xl font-bold"><a class="text-accent" href="https://oilersnation.com/combinations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oilers</a></h3>
<p>Nugent-Hopkins – McDavid – Brown<br />
Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Arvidsson<br />
Skinner – Henrique– Hyman<br />
Philp – Janmark – Perry</p>
<p>Ekholm – Bouchard<br />
Nurse – Klingberg<br />
Kulak – Emberson</p>
<p>Skinner</p>
<p>Troy Stecher will slide out of the lineup for Klingberg tonight. Knoblauch said ahead of the game that the defensive pairings are expected to change throughout the game, with Klingberg getting looks with a few different players.</p>
<h3>Red Wings</h3>
<p>Kasper &#8211; Larkin &#8211; Raymond<br />
DeBrincat &#8211; Copp &#8211; Tarasenko<br />
Soderblom &#8211; Rasmussen &#8211; Fischer<br />
Motte &#8211; Veleno &#8211; Berggren</p>
<p>Chiarot &#8211; Seider<br />
Edvinsson &#8211; Johansson<br />
Gustafsson &#8211; Holl</p>
<p>Talbot (unconfirmed)</p>
<p>Beyond Kane being out of the lineup, the Red Wings are also without defenceman Jeff Petry, while both Vladimir Tarasenko and J.T. Compher are working their way back from an illness and an upper-body injury, respectively. Tarasenko is expected to play, while Compher joined the team on their road trip and is expected to play at some point.</p>
<h1>TONIGHT…</h1>
<figure id="attachment_168855" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-168855" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-168855" src="http://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KYJlyuYf.jpg" alt="GDB Edmonton Oilers photoshop Leon Draisaitl Detroit Red Wings" width="2000" height="1600" srcset="https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KYJlyuYf.jpg 2000w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KYJlyuYf-300x240.jpg 300w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KYJlyuYf-1024x819.jpg 1024w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KYJlyuYf-768x614.jpg 768w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KYJlyuYf-1536x1229.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-168855" class="wp-caption-text">Photoshop by Tom Kostiuk from Handmade by Tom</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>GAME DAY PREDICTION: <span style="font-weight: 400;">John Klingberg gets a point in his Oilers debut as Edmonton wins 4-2. </span></strong></p>
<p><strong>OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: </strong>Connor McDavid had one goal in his return from suspension against Seattle, but has gone two games without a multi-point effort. What gives? He returns to form tonight with a two-point performance.</p>
<p><strong>NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: </strong>Vasily Podkolzin has been a bit snake-bitten offensively this season, generating 9.76 individual expected goals at five-on-five against just six actual goals. He finds the back of the net as those numbers start to balance out.</p>
<hr />
<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QX_QCiZyIo&amp;list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at</span></i> <em><a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing"><span style="font-weight: 400;">@zjlaing</span></a></em><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em>,</em> or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.</span></i></p>
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Welcome to the lineup, No. 36.


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John Klingberg is set to make his Edmonton Oilers debut Thursday night, a week and a half after the team signed him to a pro-rated one-year contract. The pen to paper hit on January 17th, and since, Klingberg has been skating with the team, running drills with Connor McDavid while he was serving a three-game suspension, and getting acclimated with the organization.

Now, he's set to lace up the skates in an NHL game for the first time since November 2023 when he was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. His tenure there had an unceremonious end as a hip ailment that bothered him his entire career simply became untenable. Ahead of Thursday's game, Klingberg revealed to <a href="https://x.com/SportsnetSpec/status/1885027661397057746"><em>Sportsnet's</em> Mark Spector</a> he underwent a double hip surgery at 18 years old, and again at 21. He elected for hip resurfacing surgery after his time in Toronto and said <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/its-been-there-my-entire-career-rejuvenated-john-klingberg-is-looking-to-rebound-with-oilers">his movement is feeling the best it ever has</a>.

Surely that's music to the ears of the Oilers who are hoping he can regain his form as one of the games best defencemen. Head coach Kris Knoblauch said the team would run 12 forwards and six defencemen, with Jeff Skinner replacing Kasperi Kapanen.

The lineup sees another change tonight, as Connor Brown and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins get elevated alongside Connor McDavid, who was named an alternate captain for Team Canada at the 4-Nations Face-Off on Thursday.

They've had a cup of coffee together at five-on-five this season, playing 45 solid minutes together, outscoring the opposition 3-2.

“Connor's been playing very well," said Knoblauch of Brown's promotion up the lineup. "The goal scoring hasn’t been there as of late, but I think his all-around game has been good.

"He's fast, he can get in on the forecheck and is always reliable defensively.”

Skinner is expected to skate on the Oilers' third line alongside Adam Henrique and Zach Hyman, another trio that has had a cup of coffee at five-on-five and played for 24 minutes together.

The Red Wings, meanwhile, have been on a run, going 11-4-1 under head coach Todd McLellan, who was hired mid-season to replace Derek Lalonde, who went 13-17-4 to start the year. Detroit has outscored their opposition 55-45 under McLellan, and their top line has been a big driver in that time.

Lucas Raymond has scored seven goals and a team-leading 23 points under McLellan, with Dylan Larkin leading in goal scoring, with nine markers, and the second most points, with 21. Patrick Kane, who is out tonight due to an upper-body injury, has six goals and 16 points in that time.

Detroit kicks off a four-game Western road trip tonight that will also include stops in Calgary, Vancouver and Seattle.
<h1>LINE COMBINATIONS</h1>
<h3 class="mb-5 text-2xl font-bold"><a class="text-accent" href="https://oilersnation.com/combinations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oilers</a></h3>
Nugent-Hopkins – McDavid – Brown
Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Arvidsson
Skinner – Henrique– Hyman
Philp – Janmark – Perry

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Klingberg
Kulak – Emberson

Skinner

Troy Stecher will slide out of the lineup for Klingberg tonight. Knoblauch said ahead of the game that the defensive pairings are expected to change throughout the game, with Klingberg getting looks with a few different players.
<h3>Red Wings</h3>
Kasper - Larkin - Raymond
DeBrincat - Copp - Tarasenko
Soderblom - Rasmussen - Fischer
Motte - Veleno - Berggren

Chiarot - Seider
Edvinsson - Johansson
Gustafsson - Holl

Talbot (unconfirmed)

Beyond Kane being out of the lineup, the Red Wings are also without defenceman Jeff Petry, while both Vladimir Tarasenko and J.T. Compher are working their way back from an illness and an upper-body injury, respectively. Tarasenko is expected to play, while Compher joined the team on their road trip and is expected to play at some point.
<h1>TONIGHT…</h1>
[caption id="attachment_168855" align="aligncenter" width="2000"]<img class="size-full wp-image-168855" src="http://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KYJlyuYf.jpg" alt="GDB Edmonton Oilers photoshop Leon Draisaitl Detroit Red Wings" width="2000" height="1600" /> Photoshop by Tom Kostiuk from Handmade by Tom[/caption]

<strong>GAME DAY PREDICTION: <span style="font-weight: 400;">John Klingberg gets a point in his Oilers debut as Edmonton wins 4-2. </span></strong>

<strong>OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: </strong>Connor McDavid had one goal in his return from suspension against Seattle, but has gone two games without a multi-point effort. What gives? He returns to form tonight with a two-point performance.

<strong>NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: </strong>Vasily Podkolzin has been a bit snake-bitten offensively this season, generating 9.76 individual expected goals at five-on-five against just six actual goals. He finds the back of the net as those numbers start to balance out.

<hr />

<i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QX_QCiZyIo&amp;list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at</span></i> <em><a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing"><span style="font-weight: 400;">@zjlaing</span></a></em><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em>,</em> or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.</span></i>

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