PREVIEW: Oilers at Jets

The Edmonton Oilers visit Canada Life Centre on Thursday night for a one-off road matchup against the Winnipeg Jets.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet West at 6:00 PM MT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630CHED.

Subscribe to Oilers+ to unlock the Pre-Game Show that will begin 30 minutes before puck drop, along with more exclusive live and behind-the-scenes content.

PREVIEW: Oilers at Jets

WINNIPEG, MB – ‘Next Man Up’ is a mentality in the locker room that played a big part in the Edmonton Oilers claiming a 4-3 overtime victory over the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday at Rogers Place.

“We absolutely needed guys stepping up,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said post-game. “When somebody's not able to play, whether it's an injury or just not finding this game, we need other guys stepping into those situations.”

With the late scratch of Zach Hyman from the Oilers lineup due to illness, it would take multiple players to help fill the void left by the absence of their leading goalscorer – beginning with the insertion of Sam Gagner in a fourth-line role that immediately paid dividends for the Blue & Orange.

“I was told in the morning after my bag skate [smiles] that Hyms was feeling a little under the weather, so I'd have to be ready to take warm-up,” Gagner said after Wednesday’s pre-flight skate. “And then Hyms was nice enough to text me at like four o’clock that he was kind of starting to feel a little worse and for me to be ready. But I didn't find out I was playing for sure until probably half an hour before warm-up.

“It wasn't a regular kind of game day routine, but that's why you stay prepared and you stay ready and I felt pretty good for the most part.”

The forward with 1,024 games of NHL experience – 551 of those with the Oilers over three separate stints –  owns a veteran savviness that helped produce their opening goal on Tuesday when he quickly put a shot on goal right off a face-off win by rookie James Hamblin that snuck under the arm of netminder Logan Thompson for a 1-0 lead.

"It's nice to see Sam, who hadn't played in a couple of games," Knoblauch said. "He was the guy that came in the lineup and we were just talking about it in practice. He scores a lot in practice because he's always shooting to score, and immediately he shoots that and it's a bad angle, but he knew what he was doing. It was a good play."

On the top line alongside Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in Hyman’s place, Mattias Janmark got the call and was rewarded in the second period when he set a screen and had Mattias Ekholm’s shot go in off his back after first striking the chest protector of Thompson.

“Janny I thought played a really good game, especially on the penalty kill,” Knoblauch said. “Made a lot of big plays, but you need guys going to the net and he absolutely benefited by going to the net.”

The Swedish forward has indeed been a critical contributor to Edmonton’s penalty kill that’s now killed off 18 straight infractions over the past four games after going 5-for-5 against the Golden Knights.

“You want to play freely and not always worry about taking a penalty, and I just find the best teams typically have good penalty kills," Knoblauch added. "They can kill and they defend really well five-on-five, and right now over the last three games, I thought we've done a pretty good job of that and we have to continue doing that."

The Oilers man advantage went 1-for-3 versus Vegas and the first unit power play scored its lone marker in the middle frame through Evander Kane, who filled the net-front role that’s usually occupied by Hyman to great success to make it 4-2 in the second period.

“I thought everybody did a good job. It was kind of a team effort to fill in for Hyms,” Connor McDavid, who recorded a goal and two assists, said. “He obviously touches a lot of aspects of our game, so definitely missed him here tonight, but I thought Gags did a great job stepping in. Kaner net-front on the power play scores a big goal, so a lot of guys stepped up.”

The Oilers captain recorded three points to extend his five-game point streak totals to three goals and 11 assists, along with scoring the winning goal in the shootout after the Golden Knights forged their way back over the final 6:30 of regulation to tie the game at 4-4 and force extra time.

Despite a late lapse that was caused by a couple of small breakout mistakes and unlucky bouncdes off the sticks of Vincent Desharnais and Adam Erne that resulted in goals, players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins thought the previous 54 minutes were some of Edmonton’s best hockey this season by sticking to their formula of locking down the neutral zone, moving pucks up quickly to the forwards and working back to their own zone as a unit.

“I think it was definitely one of our, if not our best, full games,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Obviously they get the two late, but I thought we did a great job all game. Stu made the saves when we needed him to and I thought just the way that we worked back, the forwards worked back, D were standing up, we were putting pucks behind their D and making it tough on them, we just built a game out of that. 

“I thought that's the recipe that we're going to need to continue to do to have success.”

“That's how we want to play,” Knoblauch added. “We made two mistakes on the breakouts – one was a positional thing and one's more of a skill thing – and both of them led to goals against. But up until then, it was perfect. That's how we want to play. 

“Sometimes it happens, and we're obviously we’re going to address how those mistakes did occur and how we can try and eliminate those, but overall that last 20 minutes, it was great until those five seconds before they scored.”

The Oilers now look ahead to Thursday where they’ll try to continue their three-game win streak at Canada Life Centre against the Winnipeg Jets, who’ve lost two straight after being shut out on home ice by the Dallas Stars 2-0 on Tuesday.

Despite a two-game skid, the Jets own a 12-7-2 record and have had one of the NHL’s hardest strength of schedules, while allowing three or less goals in 11 straight games.

Winnipeg has at least a point in five of their last seven against the Oilers, amassing a 4-2-1 record over their previous seven meetings.

Coach Knoblauch confirmed that Zach Hyman will travel with the team to Winnipeg in hopes that the winger will be able to play despite his illness that kept him out of Tuesday’s victory over Vegas.

Gagner is expected to be the fill-in once again if Hyman’s unable to go and face his former team of 48 games in 2022-23. The 34-year-old spoke about his time in Winnipeg after Thursday’s pre-flight practice where he celebrated his 1,000^th NHL game back on Dec. 29, 2022 against the Vancouver Canucks, becoming the 375^th player to reach the milestone.

“I really enjoyed my time there. It's a great group of guys,” he said. “The organization treated me really well. I think everything around my 1000th game, the way they handled all of that made me feel pretty special. So yeah, definitely some great memories there. My family really enjoyed it, so it's always nice to go back to places that you have kind of fond memories of.”