PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Kraken

The Edmonton Oilers will finish back-to-back games on Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena when they begin a four-game road trip against the Seattle Kraken.

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PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Kraken

SEATTLE, WA – Whether they’re up by five, down by five, or tied at two heading into the final minutes of regulation, the Oilers know there are little moments in every game that teach you how to stay focused on the task at hand.

After things started to get tough late in the second period on Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks – a rebuilding team that pushed Edmonton’s veteran roster for the second time in a week – those lessons learned over some tough seasons in Oil Country for this Oilers leadership group ended up pushing them over the finish line on a night where everything wasn’t going perfect.

You don’t have to be flawless every night; you just have to get it done, and that’s exactly what the Oilers were able to do to exact revenge on the Ducks for their 5-3 defeat in Anaheim last weekend after picking up their first win of 2025 with a late game-winning goal delivered off the stick of the League's leading scorer.

“Every game's different. Every game teaches you different lessons," defenceman Darnell Nurse said post-game. "Sometimes in those five-nothing games, you're finding a lesson on how to stay with it and put a team to sleep. And in this one, it was about, 'How do we stay resilient?'"

"Even when things weren't going our way, we found that last goal, so that's the lesson that we take from this one and we'll move on to another big one tomorrow in Seattle."

The Oilers will be looking to carry forward the momentum from their late winner from Leon Draisaitl in a 3-2 victory over the Ducks last night at Rogers Place when they begin a four-game road trip on Saturday with the second of back-to-back games at Climate Pledge Arena against the Seattle Kraken.

“Good teams find ways to win, and sometimes, you go through stretches where you're not finding those wins,” Nurse added. “But we're finding ways to make big plays at big moments, and for us, we have to continue to do that because not every game's going to be perfect.”

Nurse gave the Oilers a 2-0 lead in the second period before Brett Leason and Jackson LaCombe scored for the Ducks to set up a dramatic finish that was headlined by Draisaitl’s league-leading 28th goal of the season and ninth of the game-winning variety with 1:35 left in regulation.

The Hamilton, Ont. produce sent a cross-ice pass to Zach Hyman that was redirected into the path of Draisaitl, whose perfect shot from the slot went off the right post and rounded the inside of Anaheim’s net to give the Oilers a late lead they’d see through to the final buzzer to secure their second straight victory.

Nurse notched a helper on the deciding goal to finish with a multi-point night, giving him a goal and seven assists in 13 games since returning from injury on Dec. 5 against Columbus. The defenceman has carried over his excellent form during December into the new year as he battles night in and night out on the Oilers blue line to play to the potential he knows he’s capable of.

"Anytime you set a new standard for yourself, you want to build off it, and I know for me, I just want to play to the way I'm capable of playing," Nurse said. "And not just once in a while. It's got to be every night for our team, so I'm just trying to contribute and play with the confidence and the capabilities I have."

Nurse’s teammates and coaches have seen firsthand the ability of the 6-foot-4, 215-pound at both ends of the ice, and Friday night was another one of those surgical showings from the man known as ‘Doc’ inside the Oilers locker room.

"He's been consistent and really, really good at times during big moments. Probably our best defenceman," Draisaitl said. "So nothing surprises me and nothing should surprise you guys [the media]. I've seen it lots of times, and it's fun to see a big year from him just playing to his ability."

For Head Coach Kris Knoblauch, Nurse’s performance on Friday was the perfect summation of what he can do when he’s playing near his best, but both the bench boss and the blueliner know he’s not finished improving this season.

“Just being able to skate. You can see him being able to move his feet and just playing on his instincts, not just standing and watching,” Knoblauch said. “He's initiating the play. He's making some great passes up the ice and joining it when it's available while not forcing it. Maybe there will be some mistakes, but very, very few. No one's going to play a perfect game, but I don't recall many mistakes or anything from him and that’s really positive. It's nice to see.”

Even for Leon Draisaitl, who notched the winner with 1:35 remaining to pass Glenn Anderson for the fifth-most points in franchise history and increase his lead in the NHL’s goalscoring race to five, there are areas of his game on Friday night that he admits could’ve been better.

The German took responsibility for some of the turnovers and giveaways he and his linemates Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson committed that helped leave an opening for Anaheim to get themselves back in the game, beginning with forward Brett Leason’s goal late in the second period that happened with them on the ice.

"I think we had a lot of good shifts. We had a lot of good looks," Draisaitl said. "Their goalie made some big stops, but I think all in all, especially on my behalf and our line, just too many turnovers.

“We would have it, and then a turnover would happen, and it'd just be kind of back and forth. But that's mainly our line tonight, so mainly me. But it happens. Those games come along every once in a while, and you just learn from it."

Draisaitl said that Saturday’s trip to Seattle to begin a long four-game, coast-to-coast road trip is a great chance to keep making up ground in the Pacific Division standings, sitting six points back of the Golden Knights for first place while being tied with the Los Angeles Kings for second with 49 points and a 23-12-3 record.

“Of course, we're going to keep pushing,” he said. “Obviously, it's no secret we want to win the division, but we’ve got some catching up to do on Vegas, so keep continuing to get better and playing our game, and hopefully, we can catch them.”

After the Oilers had their seven-game winning streak against the Ducks snapped last weekend, the Blue & Orange can become the first team in NHL history on Saturday to defeat the Kraken seven times in a row, with their run against Seattle being their second-longest active winning streak over a single opponent (Pittsburgh - seven games)

Draisaitl will carry a 13-game point streak of 11 goals and 14 assists into his team's matchup with the Kraken, who he's dominated over the last 10 meetings with 23 points (5G, 18A).

The Kraken battled back to earn a point in their last meeting on Thursday against the Canucks, scoring the tying goal from defenceman Vince Dunn with 53 seconds left in the third period before falling in the shootout to drop to 17-19-3 this season.

Both Leon Draisaitl (56) and Connor McDavid (54) have as many points individually as the combined total of the Kraken’s top-scoring pair of Jared McCann and Oliver Bjorkstrand (54), with only the Ducks' duo of Ryan Strome and Troy Terry (52) having fewer than Seattle's leading point-getters.

The Kraken are 0-4-0 this season against teams playing the second of back-to-back games.