PREVIEW: Oilers at Kings

The Edmonton Oilers head to Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night in search of their fourth straight victory against the Los Angeles Kings.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet & Hockey Night in Canada at 8:00 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 Kings

LOS ANGELES, CA – Stay committed and stay the course.

The Edmonton Oilers look to extend their win streak to four games on Friday night in a challenging Pacific Division matchup at Crypto.com Arena against the Los Angeles Kings, who own a 20-8-4 record this season and have allowed a league-best 79 goals through 32 games with an average of 2.34 goals against per game.

“We’ve just got to keep building and LA is going to be a really good matchup,” defenceman Vincent Desharnais said. “We’ve got to be ready. We know from playoffs last year that they're a very good team. 

"They're well-coached, well-structured, so we got to make sure to play a full 60 minutes.”

Coming out of the holiday break on Thursday, the Oilers scored four goals in the first period against the Sharks and received 25 saves from Stuart Skinner in a 5-0 shutout victory that pushed their win streak to three games and overall record to 16-15-1.

Skinner provided steady goalkeeping to earn his fourth career shutout, and Ryan McLeod registered a goal and assist to stretch his streak of multi-point games to three (4G, 2A) for the first time in his career.

Zach Hyman contributed two points along with Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse, while the winger also reached the 20-goal mark in the victory by finishing off McDavid’s back-door feed on a two-on-two at 10:15 of Edmonton’s four-goal first period.

“It was huge. It gave me a lot of confidence," Skinner said of the fast start. "It's always nice kind of getting that early lead. I think we were rolling around for five minutes straight in their end and that's a huge credit to the guys for being ready off the bat. It can be hard, especially coming off Christmas break."

The Oilers have outscored their opponents 15-6 over their current three-game winning streak – with 12 of those goals coming in three separate four-goal periods in victories over the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers and San Jose.

The last 18 goals for the Blue & Orange dating back to a 7-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 14 have been scored at even strength, which has helped dampen the impact of a 0-for-11 cold spell for the power play over the last five matches.

“I think we're bearing down on chances a little bit more,” said defenceman Mattias Ekholm, who has five assists during a four-game point streak. “I think we're getting more looks and sustained pressure, but at the end of the day, it's about scoring goals and that's what we've been doing.

"I feel like we've had chances all year, but right now we're bearing down on them and that's been paying dividends for the last couple of games. So we're looking to continue that.”

The individual buy-in toward collective team defending in the group has been a major factor in Edmonton's 13-6-0 record under Head Coach Kris Knoblauch and is the basis of the team's foundation for building their game heading into what'll be a stiff test against the Kings on Friday night.

"I think it's just a commitment to everyone doing their job and trusting each other that everyone's going to do their job," Desharnais said. "I think we kind of got away from that where at the start of the season. We were kind of not trusting our partner, not trusting our linemate, and I think with our work ethic we were relentless trying to get to our game.

"Now that we have our game, we just got to keep doing it, keep trusting each other, and by doing that I think that our confidence is going to be really good."