Viktor Arvidsson back in the lineup for Edmonton Oilers with Brown out

Yahoo

27-05-2025

Poor play in the playoffs can be a professional death sentence when you're on about as deep a roster as the Edmonton Oilers have seen in decades.
Play bad, and there is someone in a suit watching from up in the press box who is only too happy to take your spot in the lineup. When a team is on a roll during the most important part of the calendar, every moving part has to be contributing efficiently.
The thing is, even playing well doesn't automatically lead to inclusion.
Just ask Viktor Arvidsson.
An injury to Connor Brown in Game 3 of the Western Conference final on Sunday, compliments of a high body check from Dallas Stars defenceman Alex Petrovic, paved the way for Arvidsson to return to the lineup for the first time since Game 3 of the second-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Up to that point, the Swedish product had four points (one goal, three assists) in nine playoff games. Not exactly invisible.
Nevertheless, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch decided to make a change to his lineup, and Arvidsson found himself the odd man out.
Hard to argue, since Kasperi Kapanen came up with the series-clinching goal in overtime to cash out Vegas two games later.
But that still didn't mean it was an easy decision.
'I don't want to take anybody out, it's a tough situation,' Knoblauch said. 'We mixed up our forwards and took out Arvidsson, and Arvidsson had been playing pretty well.
'We felt that our team needed something at that moment, and unfortunately he had to be the guy. Not that there had been anything against his game, it was just a change.'
Prior to the change, Arvidsson was part of an energetic line alongside centre Mattias Janmark and Vasily Podkolzin.
'I expect him to pick up where he left off,' Knoblauch said. 'The lines won't be exactly the same, but when he left, Podkolzin, himself and Janmark played really well and I think they scored four really important goals in a six-game span.
'I think in his game, he adds speed. I think this time of the year, physicality, he's not afraid of getting involved in the play. He's smaller, but he definitely is feisty.'
Arvidsson was in the lineup for the entire opening-round series against the Los Angeles Kings, a team he spent three seasons with prior to joining Edmonton as a free agent and earning 27 points (15 goals, 12 assists) in 67 regular-season games this year.
While he missed a stretch of 15 games due to injury in the first half, he had been a staple in the lineup, a trend that had continued into the playoffs.
'They wanted to make a change and that's what they did,' Arvidsson said. 'Coming back, I just have to play the same style of play as I did and I've always done and bring energy and get pucks to the net and bodies to the net, and forecheck and play good defensively.'
But when a team is deep and firing on all cylinders, there is a good chance it is going to test that depth at points throughout a long playoff run.
'We have a lot of guys that can just play in any situation, and I think that gives them a lot of options,' Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. '(Arvidsson) is coming in and you can play him on the third line, you can play him on the first line, it doesn't matter.
'He knows how to play in every situation and I think we have a lot of guys that are just capable of playing anywhere up and down the lineup.'
And now, with Brown out, Arvidsson gives the Oilers another weapon in their arsenal in the ongoing battle to return to the Stanley Cup Final for the second consecutive season.
'I think with his attributes he's obviously a smart hockey player, got good puck skills, but something that really adds to our team is speed,' Knoblauch said. 'I think the last game we really could have used a little more of that and getting in on the forecheck a little bit faster, maybe a little bit more off the rush, pushing their defencemen back, he'll help us with that.'
And Arvidsson, for one, is only too glad to be pitching in again.
'It's exciting,' Arvidsson said prior to puck drop Tuesday. 'It's been tough. Myself, I think I should be out there and I'm happy to be back.
'I think I played well when I was playing, for the time I was on the ice.'
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On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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