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Oilers coach Eakins juggles lines: Hall set to play with Draisaitl Friday

The Edmonton Oilers will debut some new-look lines Friday night when they host the New Jersey Devils.

The biggest change, by far, is that coach Dallas Eakins decided to put superstar winger Taylor Hall on the second-line, where he'll play with teenage center Leon Draisaitl and right-handed shooter Teddy Purcell. Meanwhile Benoit Pouliot will bump up to Edmonton's top-line and skate with Hall's usual running mates Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

"A different mix, a little different mix," Oilers coach Dallas Eakins explained of the motivation behind his rejigged forward lines.

"We think that Nuge has hit a spot where he can carry a line and we know that Taylor can carry a line too. Will there be times where we throw that line back together? Absolutely, but we feel that Taylor can certainly make the players around him better and Nuge and Ebs do that as well. We’ll see how the new mix goes and we’re really encouraged with how Teddy has responded, the last game. We’ll see if he can continue that as well."

Pouliot spent some time on the Oilers top-line earlier this season when Hall was out with injury, and has flashed some decent chemistry with Nugent-Hopkins. With Nugent-Hopkins and Pouliot on the ice at five-on-five the Oilers have been outscored - that's sort of par for the course for the Oilers though - but they've also controlled better than 57 percent of shot attempts. Those results are promising enough to warrant a longer look.

Mark Arcobello will center David Perron and Nail Yakupov on Edmonton's third forward line, while Steve Pinizzotto, Boyd Gordon and Matt Hendricks soak up defensive zone starts on a specialized fourth forward group.

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