The Edmonton Oilers head to the west coast for another Pacific Division matchup with the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday night.
You can watch the game on Sportsnet West or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED.
Subscribe to Oilers+ to unlock the Pre-Game Show that will begin at 7:30pm MT, along with more exclusive live and behind-the-scenes content.

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS

GAME DAY VIDEO
OILERS TODAY | Pre-Game at SEA
PRE-GAME RAW | Coach Woodcroft
PRE-GAME RAW | Kailer Yamamoto
RECENT VIDEOS
PRACTICE RAW | Coach Woodcroft 12.29.22
PRACTICE RAW | Nugent-Hopkins 12.29.22
SKILLS COMP | Ruff-Ruff Relay
BY THE NUMBERS
Oilers Statistics
Kraken Statistics
Stats Comparison
Game Notes
RECENT BLOGS & ARTICLES
BLOG: McDavid pushing for greater heights
RECAP: Oilers 2022 Skills Competition
GAME RECAP: Oilers 2, Flames 1
VIEWING INFORMATION
You can watch Friday's game on Sportsnet West at 8:00 PM MT.

INSIDE THE OILERS

News and notes from Oilers practice at Rogers Place on on Wednesday, including Connor McDavid's drive to improve on his already-impressive numbers.
>> READ MORE IN THE INSIDE THE OILERS BLOG

PRE-GAME REPORT

SEATTLE, WA - The Oilers have reached a pivotal point in their season as they look to establish their spot in the Western Conference playoff race.
Edmonton will be suiting up for their third consecutive divisional matchup on Friday when they take on the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena - a team they are dead even in the NHL standings with 40 points each.
"Well, I just think that's where we're at in our schedule. That's where we're at with where the standings are at. We got to just make sure that we're focused and paying attention to us and our game every single day," Head coach Jay Woodcroft said prior to tonight's 8:00 p.m. MT puck drop. "I think we have 14 games left before the All-Star break. That's a segment of a season. We can't win all 14 games today; we can only take care of what's immediately in front of us and right now that's the Seattle Kraken."
The Kraken have been surging to start the season after last year's inaugural season that saw the team only win 27 games and finish 30th in the NHL standings. Seattle has seen significant offensive contributions from the likes of offseason addition Andre Burakovsky who leads the team in scoring with 28 points (10G, 18A) in 33 games, as well as rookie Matty Beniers who paces all Calder eligible skaters with 25 points (11G, 14A).
Coach Woodcroft has seen the difference a year post-expansion has made for the Washington club.
"Well, first of all, they're healthy. They have a lot of good players that made some good signings in the offseason. They can score goals, they have a D-core that's really effective and they've gotten off to a really good start," Woodcroft said. "It's a credit to the work that their coaching staff and their players have put in. They're going to be a big challenge for us tonight."

HOMECOMING

While not officially from Seattle, the Oilers have a pair of Washington locals making their pseudo homecoming tonight in Kailer Yamamoto and Derek Ryan.
Yamamoto, a Spokane native, played his Western Hockey League hockey for the Chiefs where he totalled 291 points (105G, 186A) in parts of four seasons with the team.
"I love it. I'm from Spokane, so it's near here. It's probably the closest place we play. I always get fired up when I come here," Yamamoto said about the contest.
The former first-round pick (22nd overall) in 2017 will have some friend and family in the stands at Climate Pledge Arena for tonight's game, a far cry from the 10,366 capacity Spokane Arena where they would have watched him in his junior career.
For the 24-year-old, it's cool to see how his home state has developed into a more hockey-oriented market.
"Growing up, it wasn't the craziest, but it's getting a lot bigger now that Seattle has an NHL team," Yamamoto said. "A lot of younger kids are seeing that and trying to get into hockey, so it's huge that they got a team. Super excited for them."
When Yamamoto scored against the St. Louis Blues back on Dec. 15, he became one of just four players born in the state of Washington to record over 100 NHL points. Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie leads the way with 646, followed by Tyler Johnson's 376, and his teammate Derek Ryan's 180 career points in third.
Having a fellow Washingtonian in the locker room helps make these road trips a little more special.
"He's the one person I can talk to, Yamamoto laughed. "No, I'm joking, but it's amazing. We both played here in Junior in Seattle and Everett, so we're kind of familiar with the territory. It should be a good one. They have really good fans, we're super excited for it."

POST-CHRISTMAS CRUNCH TIME

The Oilers will go up against the Kraken sporting a solid 10-6-1 road record in the first portion of the season. Edmonton's head coach has noticed a bit of a difference in how his team has been playing away from Rogers Place.
"I got asked (about the road record) after the game in Calgary as well, and to me it, comes down to a level of simplicity, a mindset of doing whatever it takes to get the job done, and not trying to complicate things but embracing a level of simplicity to our game," Woodcroft said. "We've been able to do that on the road. We're looking to build a level of consistency to our game, and I think part of doing that is making sure that we accept the challenge of being competitively great on a day-in-day-out basis and that goes back to taking care of your business."
Since the Christmas break ended, the Oilers have found themselves in a stretch of four games where they are playing teams within five-points of them in the Western Conference standings, with three of those games coming inside the Division. The players know that they need to find their consistency soon as the games continue to get even more meaningful heading into January.
"Yeah, it's huge. We had an okay December where we had our ups, had our downs, but it's always going to be good to end on a good note," Yamamoto said. "These next couple of games that we're coming up with are huge."
If the Oilers are to get on a roll, the imperative is to start tonight against a team vying for the same eight post-season spots as they are.
"I think big picture wise you want to do that for sure, but right now we're on the taking care of business on a day-to-day basis," Woodcroft said. "What's immediately in front of us is a team that's tied with us in points in the standings, a team that's had a really good first half, and we know what we're up against tonight and against a good Seattle Kraken team."
-- Michael Arcuri, EdmontonOilers.com

PREVIEW

OILERS at KRAKEN
WATCH: 8:00 p.m. MT; televised on Sportsnet West
Oilers Team Scope
The Edmonton Oilers hit the road for another one-off Pacific Division matchup on Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena against the Seattle Kraken.
Coming off a three-day break for the holidays, the Blue & Orange rode a 46-save performance from goaltender Stuart Skinner to victory on Tuesday night to claim the season series over the Calgary Flames with a 2-1 win.
Tyson Barrie potted his 100th NHL goal in the first period before Connor McDavid's power-play winner came seven-and-a-half minutes into the final frame to extend the captain's individual point streak to 16 games for a running total of 15 goals and 17 assists.
"It's a tough game after the break to travel the day of and come into a tough building and win a big game where we're both battling for points," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "Stu was obviously great tonight, but yeah, it was gritty. We found a way, and those are the ones coming down the stretch here. We're going to need to be able to play those low-scoring games and find a way to button it up."
The victory was Edmonton's 12th comeback win of season, the most in the NHL, with 63.2 percent (12-of-19) of their wins this campaign being of the comeback variety.
The Oilers are "nursing some bumps and bruises" according to Coach Woodcroft, including centre Leon Draisaitl missing Edmonton's pre-flight practice on Thursday afternooon before the team took off to Seattle. The coach will hope to have the star German available after Draisaitl recorded multi-point games in all three meetings with the Kraken last season.
"We'll see," Woodcroft said. "I think just the rigours of an NHL season lends itself to bumps and bruises."

Kraken Team Scope
Tied 2-2 with the Calgary Flames through 40 minutes of play on Wednesday night, the Seattle Kraken couldn't find the pace that Head Coach Dave Hakstol wanted to see in the final frame as the Flames poured on the pressure and claimed a 3-2 victory and two important points in the Pacific Division standings.
Calgary, playing the second of a back-to-back after dropping Tuesday's game to the Oilers at Scotiabank Saddledome, outshot Seattle 15-6 in the third period and took the lead through Jonathan Huberdeau on a second from the slot that came 14 seconds after a Carson Soucy high-sticking call expired.
Goaltender Phillip Grubauer made 41 saves on the night to tie a Kraken franchise record, but his effort wasn't enough on its own to prevent defeat.
"We didn't generate enough zone time to be able to get in the zone and then hold possession to do some work in the offensive zone, create some opportunities," Hakstol said. "We didn't get enough of that in the second half after we took the penalty. We took a bad penalty that ended up in a tie game when we had a lot of momentum rolling."
Seattle has enjoyed a strong start to their second season in the NHL with a 18-11-4 record that places the 2021 expansion side in fourth place in the Pacific Division, sitting one point behind Calgary despite having four games in hand.
Friday's game represents the middle of a three-game homestand for the Kraken coming out of the holiday break.

By The Numbers
Friday's game will mark Edmonton's first of four games against the Kraken this season and the first of two games in Seattle... The last time these teams met was on Dec. 18, 2021 in Seattle, with the Oilers winning 5-3... Draisaitl leads the Oilers with nine career points against Seattle and has a team high three goals in three games against the Kraken...
McDavid's power-play goal vs. Calgary made it six straight road games with a PPG for the Oilers, their longest streak in 15 seasons... McDavid is the first player to record point streak of 16-plus games in consecutive seasons since Dany Heatley (2005-06 and 2006-07) and will look to tie longest point streak of his career set Oct. 13 - Nov. 21, 2021 (17 games)...
Tyson Barrie is the first Oilers defenceman with 15 points (1G, 14A) in a month since Boris Mironov in Nov. 1996... Barrie's 15 points are the second most in the NHL by defencemen during the month of December (Erik Karlsson - 16)... The Kraken's improvement this season has been caused in part by their balanced attack with 16 players with 10 points or more... Despite Kraken's balanced attack, Matty Beniers has factored in on over 20 percent of their goals... Beniers has 11 goals in 33 games this season putting him on pace for 27 goals, which no rookie has surpassed in the previous two NHL seasons...

Injury Report
OILERS - Oscar Klefbom (shoulder) is on IR; Mike Smith (undisclosed) is on IR; Evander Kane (wrist) is on IR; Ryan Murray (undisclosed) is day-to-day.
KRAKEN - Joonas Donskoi (upper body) is on IR; Chris Dreidger (torn ACL) is on IR.
-- Jamie Umbach, EdmontonOilers.com