PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Sabres

The Edmonton Oilers continue their four-game road trip on Saturday with a matinee matchup in Buffalo.

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PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Sabres

BUFFALO, NY – The deadline is in the dust and the home stretch has arrived.

Friday's trade embargo is now in effect as the Oilers added forwards Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick plus defenceman Troy Stecher to the team that already had the best winning percentage in the NHL since November 24 with an outstanding .779 mark thanks to a 33-9-1 record.

A 4-2 defeat to the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Thursday ended Edmonton's five-game win streak and put a bit of a damper on the exciting additions to the roster, but the team has a chance to bounce back in a big way this weekend with back-to-back games starting Saturday in Buffalo.

"I think sometimes with the trade deadline, when you pick up some new players, you kind of take your foot off the gas a bit, thinking the new guys are going to come in and put the team over top," Ryan McLeod said. "But we've got to get back to what we did before. We're a hard-working team, so just getting back to that, doing the little basics, little details, and I think we'll be good."

"Sometimes that's just what happens," Mattias Ekholm added. "Throughout the season, you have an off game. Hopefully that's what that was. We lost it in the first period and came out way too flat and that can't happen, but we've had some really solid efforts before that, so we don't take it too hard. But at the same time, you've got to learn from it."

The Oilers were back on the ice Friday afternoon at the Harborcenter, conducting their first full practice since Henrique, Carrick and Stecher were added. Head Coach Kris Knoblauch liked what he saw from the squad as they prepped for the Sabres.

"Energy, excitement, wanting to put the game behind and moving on to the next day," he said. "If we're not striving to get better, then often you're going to duplicate what happened the night before. I liked our attitude. We can be disappointed with the game, absolutely. I think everybody is. But if we dwell on it too long, it doesn't help us. We need to move on, and I think everyone was upbeat and ready for the weekend."

Having new players on the roster presents a challenge for the bench boss as he must figure out the line combinations that will yield the best results. On Thursday, he started Henrique with Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane, reuniting Zach Hyman, Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the top line, with McLeod playing between Warren Foegele and Corey Perry.

Heading into Saturday against the Sabres, based on Friday's practice, Knoblauch looks to be deploying McLeod and Foegele on Draisaitl's wings, with Henrique in between Kane and Perry.

"I think for the long run it's best for us to do it way the lines are set up right now," the coach said of the top-nine deployment.

McLeod said he's looking forward to lining up with Draisaitl and Foegele again after the trio out-scored opponents 10-3 at even strength during nine games together earlier this season, per Natural Stat Trick.

"It's a lot of fun playing with a player like Leon," said McLeod, who has 10 goals and 12 assists this season, needing two tallies and two points to set new career highs in those categories. "We've played together earlier in the year and we had some good success, so we're looking to build on that."

Stecher did not arrive in Buffalo in time for Friday's skate, but Knoblauch said the defenceman was scheduled to land in the evening, though he didn't anticipate him making his Oilers debut this weekend.

"The plan is for him to wait right now and get acclimated with us, practice a time or two," the coach said. "Also, we've got six defencemen that we're very happy with the way they've been playing and we feel there's no reason to switch that up."

Saturday's game is the first of two meetings between the Oilers (38-21-2) and Sabres (29-30-5) this season as they will meet again in Edmonton on March 21.

The teams last met almost exactly one year ago on March 6, 2023 in Buffalo, as Edmonton edged out a 3-2 win with two goals from McDavid and 37 saves from Stuart Skinner, who is expected to start for the Oilers on Saturday.