PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Wild

The Oilers begin back-to-back games at Rogers Place on Friday night against the Minnesota Wild. 

You can watch the game on Sportsnet at 7:00 p.m. MT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED.

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.

EDMONTON, AB – We have a wild weekend ahead down in ICE District.

After their comeback came up short in overtime against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday, the Edmonton Oilers are set to begin back-to-back home games at Rogers Place on Friday night when they wrap up the season series against the Minnesota Wild.

Edmonton will then conclude its weekend slate on Saturday night when they host the Calgary Flames in the Battle of Alberta on home ice.

Starting on Friday, the Oilers will undergo a busy stretch of 29 games in 55 days – including seven back-to-backs – to close out the regular season, so it’ll be all hands on deck for the Blue & Orange to secure their playoff spot and prepare themselves to play post-season hockey at the business end of the campaign in April, May and June.

The Wild are 8-3-1 over their last 12 games after winning only two of their previous 11 contests (2-8-1), with Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson-Ek each recording a point in six straight games.

Overall, the Wild have endured a streaky season by going 26-24-6 this year to sit sixth place in the Central Division and two points back of the St. Louis Blues for the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.

The Oilers 2-9-0 record (.175) versus the Wild since the 2019-20 season is their worst return against any opponent over that span.

On Wednesday, the Oilers trailed 4-1 to the Bruins with six minutes left in the second period before Warren Foegele got his team back in it before the break by scoring his second of two goals in the contest while playing as a fill-in for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the top line with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman.

Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry scored 1:10 apart in the third period to make it 4-4 until David Pastrnak restored Boston's advantage with 7:19 left in regulation. Hyman notched his team-leading 34th goal of the year just 44 seconds later, sending the game to overtime where defenceman Charlie McAvoy picked up the winner on a nice dangle to claim the 6-5 victory and the extra point for Boston.

While the Oilers were able to show resiliency to come back against one of the League’s top-scoring teams, the players and coaches know that the rate at which they’ve been shipping goals in recent games is unsustainable for their long-term success.

“We're a resilient group and we can do that against one of the best teams in the league, but I think any game that we go into, we have the belief that we can win,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. “So coming up with just one point doesn't satisfy us. I think we're kind of over the moral victories at this point. We want to accumulate as many points as possible and play for a full 60 when we can.”

The Oilers are averaging 4.00 goals against per game since the All-Star Break – more than 2.5 goals higher than during their 16-game win streak – which has been brought up in part by their struggling penalty kill that’s 12-for-23 (52.2 percent) since Feb. 9 and has allowed goals in seven straight games.

Minnesota has scored with on the power play in six straight games, going 10-for-28 (35.7 percent) over that span.

Edmonton’s formidable team defending over their historic win streak made things easier in the crease for their netminders Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard, with the latter going 12 straight games allowing two goals or fewer before letting in three-plus goals in each of his last five starts (4.20 goals-against average, .863 save percentage).

At Thursday’s practice at Rogers Place, Pickard was in the starter’s net and looks set to get the nod during the first leg of Edmonton’s back-to-back against Minnesota. Pickard is 6-0-0 with a 2.16 GAA and .921 SV% during a six-game win streak, with his last victory coming after he made 24 stops on Feb. 17 in Dallas.

If the Oilers want to begin stringing more victories together, the Oilers skaters know they have to do a lot better in front of their own netminders by keeping shots against to the perimeter and staying out of the penalty box. Edmonton has allowed three or more goals against in seven of their eight games since the All-Star Break, with their 4-0 shutout of the Los Angeles Kings being the only outlier.

"I think of those eight games, five-on-five play with the chances we've given up has been adequate; not high, but probably two of them definitely could better," Knoblauch said.

"The game against Boston definitely needed to better. You have to respect the opposition, what they provide and how they get their offence, but good teams are always able to keep the puck out of the net and we've just got to get a little bit better at that – whether that's getting an extra save, staying on the box, getting an extra kill, and then just clamping down five-on-five."

Stuart Skinner acknowledged the work being done by his teammates to help contribute to lowering their collective goals against, but the Edmonton product is keeping his focus on maintaining an even-keeled approach for the entire 60 minutes when he's between the pipes.

"I kind of just focus on myself," he said. "I know the team's working hard to play well every single night. So from my own assessment, I just need to be little bit more focused through the whole 60 minutes. I think that's pretty well it to be honest. I think there's just been a couple of moments where we let off the gas pedal, and in the NHL if you do that, mistakes happen."

"I feel like I've gotten a pretty good amount of experience. I know last year I did it pretty well all season. So I think for me, I think I do have the experience to do it. I know what I need to do. Sometimes things don't go your way, and just being able to stay focused and keep going even when things don't go your way is the biggest thing for me."