The Edmonton Oilers will need to play their best hockey if they plan to extend their winning streak against the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning. That’s the task tonight at Rogers Place, as these two clubs will square off for the first of two meetings of the season.

1. The Edmonton Oilers are kicking off what I can only describe as a murderers’ row portion of their schedule, kicking things off with the Tampa Bay Lightning at Rogers Place. After tonight’s game, the Oilers will fly to Minnesota for a rematch against the Wild (Thursday) before coming back to Edmonton for games against the Golden Knights (Saturday), Panthers (Monday), and Bruins (Thursday). How’s that run of four games for a measuring stick?

2. The Tampa Bay Lightning kicked off their Western Canadian road trip with a 4-2 win on Sunday in Vancouver before hitting the ice for practice on Monday here in Edmonton. A big part of that win was the three-point night by Nikita Kucherov, who returned from a tw0-game absence after an undisclosed injury kept him out of the lineup.

3. The former Hart Trophy winner is always a key piece in Tampa Bay’s attack, but they’re also getting a lot of production from throughout the lineup. The Bolts currently have five players who have scored 10 or more goals: Brayden Point (18), Nikita Kucherov (13), Jake Guentzel (12), Brandon Hagel (12), and Anthony Cirelli (11). All five of those guys also have 24 points or more on the season. By comparison, the Oilers have only two players — wanna guess who? — with more than 24 points. In case you’re wondering, the Oilers also only have two players with more than 10 goals. The Lightning are getting a ton of offence from their best players, and our boys need to find a way to deal with that.

4. Brayden Point just had a monster week for Tampa, registering four points in back-to-back games (2-6—8) and helping his team secure two big wins over the Sharks and Canucks. As a result, Point became just the third player in Lightning history to record four or more points in consecutive games, joining Nikita Kucherov (five times, most recently in March 2024) and Steven Stamkos (April 2022). He also became the third player in franchise history to factor on at least eight consecutive team goals, a feat previously accomplished by only Kucherov and Stamkos. Since the start of the 2022-23 season, Point ranks third in the NHL with 115 goals and 45 power play goals.

5. Despite sitting in fourth place in the Atlantic Division, the Tampa Bay Lightning boast the best goal differential (+22) by a wide margin. Through 25 games played, Tampa has scored 98 goals — the Oilers have 82 — and given up only 76 compared to Edmonton’s 79. Long story short, the Bolts score more goals and give up less than the Oilers do, and that’s a significant hurdle to clear if we’re going to be celebrating two points.

6. Since October 15th, the Oilers have quietly gone from being in the mediocre middle to being the best teams in the league, posting a 15-7-2 record that ranks fourth overall in the NHL and second in the Western Conference behind only the Minnesota Wild. Despite the impressive stretch, Edmonton still sits seven points back of the Vegas Golden Knights for first place with a game in hand. If they want to make ground the teams in front of them, they’ll need to lock in some points, which could prove to be difficult against the teams they’re playing this week.

7. In Connor McDavid’s last 13 games, the captain has amassed an incredible 10 goals and 17 assists for 25 points, and he’s starting to embarrass some very good players on the regular. The dude has gone supernova over the last few weeks and has made everyone completely forget that he had only 10 points (3G, 7A) through his first 11 contests. Who knows why it’s taken him a few weeks to get started over the last couple of seasons, but there’s no stopping him once that switch gets flipped.

8. How great has it been for the Oilers to have Zach Hyman back in the lineup over these last two games? In his first game back, Hyman scored twice in a 6-3 win over the Blue Jackets and followed it up with another goal Saturday night against the St. Louis Blues. Across both games, Hyman fired five shots on goal and looked to be A-okay in his return, showing no signs of rust as he slotted back into his usual spot on the top line alongside Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

9. Digging into the special teams, the Oilers’ power play has started to heat up over the last week or so, and now sits in 17th place with a 20.6% success rate. Meanwhile, the Lightning’s power play started the yer hot and has stayed hot this entire time, converting at 26.0% and good for eighth overall. When down a man, however, the Lightning aren’t quite as strong as they land 17th overall with their 79.7% PK. That’s still better than the Oilers’ 29th ranked group that kills penalties at a 72.3% success rate. Though, to be fair, Edmonton has handled their shorthanded situations significantly better over the last month or so, including a 24/26 run over the last 11 games.

10. The Edmonton Oilers have an all-time record of 23-33-3-2 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the splits don’t exactly favour our boys. At home, the Oilers hold a 12-16-0-1 record, while the road hasn’t been much kinder with an 11-17-3-1 mark in Tampa. If the Oilers are going to keep their winning streak alive, they’ll need to buck the trend at home. The good news, though, is that none of those numbers matter outside of the 60 minutes they’ll play tonight.

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