PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Blues

The Edmonton Oilers welcome Dylan Holloway & Philip Broberg back to Oil Country for the first time as Blues on Saturday night when they host St. Louis at Rogers Place.

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PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Blues

EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers will continue their three-game homestand at Rogers Place on Saturday night with a visit from the St. Louis Blues, with both teams looking to improve on their recent success over the last handful of games.

The Blues & Oilers have both won four of their last five contests, with St. Louis picking up a 4-3 win in overtime on Thursday in Calgary after St. Albert product Colton Parayko scored the sudden-death winner. Head Coach Jim Montgomery has been behind the Blues' bench for less than two weeks, but since taking over St. Louis on Nov. 25, their four wins and nine points are both tied for the most in the NHL over that span.

Jordan Binnington made 36 saves for the victory in his 300th game and will represent Canada alongside Parayko and Oilers captain Connor McDavid during February's 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal and Boston.

Edmonton defeated Columbus 6-3 on Thursday behind the strength of a four-assist performance from McDavid and two goals apiece from Zach Hyman and Leon Draisaitl. Hyman marked his return from a five-game injury absence by scoring twice, while Draisaitl's two goals lifted him back into a tie with Florida's Sam Reinhart for the League lead with 19 goals.

The Oilers are starting to look like they’ve turned a corner from their slow start to the season, especially on special teams where their power play’s gone 4-for-10 in the last four games while the penalty kill has been lights out, killing off 23 of their last 24 penalties over their last 11 games.

“A lot of things that we talked about early on, we've put those into our game on a game-to-game basis,” said Adam Henrique. “So for us, a lot of detail in our game and having that bottom line of just working and allowing us to go out and just play free and fast with the puck and always looking to attack. Just having the details on the other side of the puck too, defensively, where I think everybody's really buying into that aspect of it and things are clicking."

Henrique contributed two assists in Thursday's win over the Blue Jackets, setting up goals for Mattias Ekholm and linemate Jeff Skinner, whom he's found some chemistry with alongside Mattias Janmark on Edmonton's third line.

"I think once we air out what we feel or see or want to do, it just helps the line as a whole," Henrique said. "So you can see [Skinner] making more plays with the puck, hanging on to it, skating well, moving well with the puck and those sorts of things. So I think when Janny and I try to keep things simple – just getting to the net and allowing him to play with the puck and all those sorts of little things – that's been working for us lately."

The 34-year-old Henrique has seven points (1G, 6A) in his last nine games – all at even strength – as he plays a key role for the Oilers as an important penalty-killer on the team who can centre the third line.

"Adam does a little bit of everything," Knoblauch said. "He's typically scored more than he has this year. Just with the role that he's playing, there is less opportunity on the power of play and he's not playing with high-profile players, more minutes, and is playing a bit of a checking role. But playing with Skinner in Janmark, we've put together a nice little line there that we feel has been progressing and playing really well for us."

Saturday’s meeting with the Blue brings the return of Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to Oil Country, who both signed offer sheets with St. Louis in the offseason after being drafted by the club and playing a part in last year’s run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Both Broberg and Holloway have reached new career highs in goals, assists and points with their opportunity in St. Louis.

Broberg has 12 points (2G, 10A) in 15 games, including two assists on Thursday in Calgary, while Holloway has 16 points (8G, 8A). The Calgary product produced an assist versus his hometown team last time out and is currently on a five-game point streak (4G, 4A).

“I'm not really too sure about the fan response, but I got nothing but love for the fans of Edmonton and the people of Edmonton,” Holloway said. “They're such a passionate, knowledgeable fan base and that was why it was so fun to play here. I'm just excited for whatever response they have and I'm excited for the game tomorrow.”

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch acknowledged their strong seasons so far in St. Louis, but mentioned he’s “extremely happy” with the contributions this season from Vasily Podkolzin and Ty Emberson – two players brought in by the club to fill the vacancies left by their departures via the offer sheet in mid-August.

“With the offseason, you never want to lose players, especially young players that are NHL players that can help you not only short term, but long term,” Knoblauch said. “But on the flip side of it, you look at what that forced us to do, and we had a couple of replacements – specifically Emberson and Podkolzin – and we're extremely happy with them and love what they're doing for our team.

“It definitely forced us to do something, and we got two excellent hockey players that are helping our team tremendously. So yeah, it's tough. We love the players that we got. We had two players leave, but we're very fortunate that we got the two that we did.”