Oilers appear to shake up their defense ahead of Game 3.

It seems the Edmonton Oilers may have spotted something they were not happy about in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final with the team making significant adjustments on the back end ahead of Game 3 despite no significant injuries on the blue line.

On Sunday, the Oilers hit the ice for a morning skate and, aside from the absence of forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the most notable difference with the team was a significantly shuffled up defensive core that featured 3 new pairings. Oilers veteran defenseman Darnell Nurse was moved up to the top defensive pairing alongside Evan Bouchard, while Mattias Ekholm, who had previously featured on the top pairing alongside Bouchard, was paired up with John Klingberg instead. That left Brett Kulak and Jake Walman as a tandem on the blue line, although it remains to be seen if things will stay that way.

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch was asked about the changes he's made to his lineup during his media availability on Sunday and he just described it as the usual kind of tinkering that goes on during the course of a playoff series as intense as this year's Stanley Cup Final. 

"We're always making adjustments," admitted Knoblauch when asked about the changes. "To counter what other team's are doing, and who is playing well. There's some conversations on what is working well with our lines and d-pairs."

While Knoblauch refrained from pointing to any specific reason for the changes, I do wonder if Game 2's double overtime winner from Brad Marchand may have played a factor. It was a shot from Mattias Ekholm that went wide of the net that created the breakout for the Panthers and that was then followed up by a rather lackluster looking effort from Bouchard on the backcheck, with Bouchard even appearing to give up on the play.

Here's a look at the replay:

Perhaps Knoblauch, who no doubt saw the same thing that we did but from multiple different angles, felt it was best to split up that pair after the debacle at the end of Game 2.