PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Lightning

The Edmonton Oilers look to continue their hot streak on home ice Tuesday night when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Rogers Place.

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PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Lightning

EDMONTON, AB – There are some big games on the horizon for the Blue & Orange, but all they're focused on are the storm clouds they see in front of them.

The Edmonton Oilers will look to stay hot in the first of four games over the next week against some high-powered opposition, starting with a highly-charged contest vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday at Rogers Place that concludes a three-game homestand.

“It's a good challenge for us,” Connor McDavid said on Monday. “We're not looking too far ahead. Tampa is a great team. They're going to take all of our attention, and we’ve got to be ready for that first and foremost.

“But it’s a nice stretch of games here before Christmas to see where we're at.”

The Oilers have won five of their last six games – both overall and on home ice – after staving off the St. Louis Blues in a 4-2 victory on Saturday night that improved their record to 15-10-2 with their second straight win.

Goals from Corey Perry, Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman created a 3-0 lead for the Oilers by the end of the third period before their former teammate Dylan Holloway sparked a late rally from St. Louis.

After former Edmonton Oil King Jake Neighbours made it a one-goal game, defenceman Troy Stecher’s first goal in Blue & Orange with 5:42 left in regulation sealed the two points for the Oilers on home ice as they try to return Rogers Place to the 'fortress' status it held last season after having the second-most home wins (28) in the NHL.

The Oilers have won all of their previous three home games in regulation over St. Louis, the Columbus Blue Jackets and the New York Rangers after having one regulation win over their previous 11 home games (4-6-1).

"I think in the last five or six games, we've started to find the way we want to play," Mattias Ekholm said. "Maybe the first five minutes and sort of the third period we didn't like last game, but other than that, I thought it was a pretty decent hockey game for us, so we're trying to build off of that. We don't look too far ahead of what's coming other than Tampa tomorrow, and we'll worry about the rest when it comes. But for now, we feel pretty good in here as a team. "

Three of Edmonton’s next four matches will be against the leaders of the Atlantic, Central and Pacific Divisions, and Tuesday’s test versus Tampa Bay is certainly no less of a challenge – especially considering their recent form and the return of Nikita Kucherov.

“We want to make a statement every once in a while throughout the season and beat a really good team,” Ekholm added. “We know we have a bunch of them coming in our barn here in the next two weeks, so that can give you a little extra confidence. But at the end of the day, two points are two points against St. Louis and Columbus, and there’ll be two points up for grabs again tomorrow. So you can't really look at it too much either.

"It's that time of year when you just have to collect points when you can, especially on home ice. So we know the importance of each game."

Nikita Kucherov came back from a two-game injury absence on Saturday night and had a goal and two assists in a 4-2 win for the Lightning over the Canucks, giving Tampa Bay wins in back-to-back games. The Lightning have gone 7-3-1 since Nov. 9 and are averaging an NHL-high 4.45 goals per game over that span, including power-play goals in each of their last six games.

Brayden Point leads the NHL in power-play goals with ten this season after Kucherov set him up for Tampa’s first of two man-advantage markers in their win over Vancouver, which was their sixth time scoring multiple PPGs. Since the start of the 2022-23 season, the Oilers (43) and Lightning (40) stand first and second for the most games with more than one PPG.

Their penalty kill hasn’t given up a goal in four games, either, but the Oilers feel their recent gains in all areas of their game can match the Lightning's output.

Edmonton's penalty kill since Nov. 12 is the best in the NHL at 92.3 percent, while their power play has heated up in December (3-for-6) after warming from a cool start to the season by going 7-for-32 (21.3 percent) with the man advantage during the month of November.

Stuart Skinner has an above .930 save percentage over his last four games, with four of those being victories. The Edmonton-born netminder's only defeat came in a 1-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on the road, where he made 16 saves for the Oilers in the low-scoring affair against their division rivals.

Connor McDavid leads all NHL players since Nov. 6 with 27 points (10G, 17A) in 14 games and has recorded back-to-back multi-point games (1G, 5A) after picking up a goal and an assist vs. St. Louis. Zach Hyman has three goals in his last two games, while Leon Draisaitl's 19 goals this season are tied for the NHL lead with Florida's Sam Reinhart.

With their top players performing in every position and special teams converting, the Oilers like where their game is heading into this challenging stretch.

"We're going to take it one at a time here. Tampa's a great team. They got unbelievable players all over and they're going to take everything we got," McDavid said. "It’s a good stretch of games here against good teams heading into Christmas, and we're excited about it."