PREVIEW: Oilers at Hurricanes

RALEIGH, NC – Though it’s been a tough stretch of recent games, the Oilers are looking forward to the challenge of coming into Carolina and earning a win to put an end to their five-game losing streak before they return to Oil Country.

"It's nice now we're heading into Carolina. They're a top team and they certainly know how to win, especially at home," defenceman Brett Kulak said. "So the challenges are big and that's perfect for us right now."

Having lost five straight games including four in a row on this five-game road trip, the Edmonton Oilers will be looking to break their slump at Lenovo Center against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday before heading home for three games at Rogers Place next week.

The Oilers were beaten 4-3 by the Florida Panthers on Thursday in a rematch of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final where they conceded two goals in a 2:43 stretch of the third period that ended up proving to be the difference in their fifth straight loss.

Stuart Skinner made 32 saves for his team, but two unlucky bounces in the first two periods and both a mistimed change and a hard-working solo effort from Carter Verhaeghe in the final frame had them reeling to their longest losing streak since the 2021-22 season when they dropped seven in a row.

"Every year kind of brings up different battles and different adversities for every team to go through. This is another one where we get to kind of figure it out as a team," goaltender Stuart Skinner said. "So it's gonna obviously take all of us chipping in together, talking to each other about what we can do better, and sometimes you got to go through it."

Defenceman John Klingberg, who had two assists against Florida, says these are moments are part of becoming a good team and that it comes down to execution of the little things – including playing together as a five-man unit.

“Yes, absolutely. And honestly, if you look at a game too, you can't play a perfect game. There's going to be mistakes out there and there's going to be turnover. You just have to limit them,” he said.

“But if mistakes happen, the other four guys and eventually the goalie as well needs to obviously help out. I think now we're just breaking down too many times during a shift, so I think we just gotta get back to the team game knowing what we're gonna do, and then the skill and the offence will take over after that.

Leon Draisaitl continues to dominate after scoring his 44^th goal of the season in the defeat to match his career-longest goal streak of seven games. Draisaitl is also on a 10-game point streak (9G, 5A) and leads the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy by 10 goals, while needing only one goal to tie Mark Messier (392) for the fourth-most in Oilers franchise history.

Brett Kulak set a new career-high with his seventh goal in the first period and matched his best season for points in 2022-23 with his 20^th point to become the 12^th different Oilers player to reach the mark this season, which is tied for second in the NHL with three other teams behind the Hurricanes with 14.

Since arriving via trade on Mar. 21, 2022 from Montreal, Kulak has played all 241 regular-season games (294 including playoffs) for Edmonton.

Connor McDavid is sitting on 699 career assists in 698 NHL games after recording an assist on Zach Hyman's 20th goal of the campaign that arrived with 3:35 left in regulation with the Oilers at six-on-five. McDavid can become the third player in NHL history to record 700 assists in fewer than 700 games, but the captain is still looking to find his game with a League-worst -12 rating since Jan. 30 and no five-on-five points over a career-longest run of nine games.

Wearing their throwback Whalers jerseys on Thursday, the Hurricanes won their third straight game at Lenovo Center in a 3-1 victory over the Sabres. Newcomers Taylor Hall and Mikko Rantanen each scored for the Canes, and goalie Pyotr Kochetkov only needed to make 13 saves for the win.

During the last meeting between the Oilers and Hurricanes back on Oct. 22 at Rogers Place, Carolina came back from 2-0 down in the third period and secured a 3-2 win in overtime behind Sebastian Aho's winner.

The Oilers will be looking for their first win in Raleigh in six seasons (Feb. 16, 2020).