The Edmonton Oilers are looking to keep the good times rolling. So are the Vegas Golden Knights.
1. Both teams enter Saturday’s matinee in Edmonton riding four-game winning streaks. The home team is coming off an impressive 7-1 win over the Minnesota Wild and the visitors just edged out the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 in overtime.
This is the longest winning streak of the season so far for the Oilers while the Golden Knights had a four-game heater back in October as part of their 7-2-1 start the year.
Edmonton and Vegas also both had extended winning streaks in 2023-24. The Oilers won eight games in a row this time last year and then challenged the NHL record by reaching 16 consecutive wins immediately after. The Golden Knights started their season with a seven-game winning streak after winning the Stanley Cup in the spring.
“We like playing them and all the good teams,” defenceman Brett Kulak said on Friday. “You can kind of measure yourself to know where your game’s at. They’ve given us two good games and they’re a hard team to beat, but we’re excited for tomorrow.”
2. This will be the third of four meetings between the Oilers and Golden Knights and Vegas has an opportunity to clinch the regular-season series with a win.
The Oilers carried a 2-1 lead into the third period in the first meeting between the two teams in Edmonton back in early November. Noah Hanifin tied the score with a power-play goal in the middle of the third and then scored again with under one minute left in regulation time to lead Vegas to victory.
The second meeting between the Oilers and Golden Knights was a couple of weeks ago in Vegas and it had a playoff atmosphere. Ivan Barbashev scored in the first period and Adin Hill made 28 saves to help the Golden Knights escape with a 1-0 win.
3. There isn’t really such thing as a must-win game in the first half of the season but this is a very important one in Edmonton’s pursuit of winning the Pacific Division and guaranteeing home-ice advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The Golden Knights lead the Pacific Division with a 19-7-3 record, good for 41 points in 29 games. The Los Angeles Kings are in second place with 37 points in 29 games and the Oilers are right behind them with 36 points in 29 games. The Vancouver Canucks are in fourth with 35 points in 28 games and the Calgary Flames are sticking around with 33 points in 30 games.
A win in regulation time would bring the Oilers only three points behind the Golden Knights with the same amount of games played. If Vegas wins in regulation, their lead on Edmonton is stretched to seven points. With only one meeting left on the schedule between the two teams, making up that gap would be a challenge.
4. The Golden Knights going on a four-game winning streak has been aided by the return of captain Mark Stone from a lower-body injury. Stone picked up assists in both games since coming off of the Long-Term Injured Reserve and now has 23 points through 15 games played this season, good for fourth on Vegas in scoring despite having played in half of the team’s games.
5. During this four-game streak, the Golden Knights have only allowed five goals against. Their last loss was an embarrassing 6-0 defeat against the Utah Hockey Club and Vegas responded the following night with a gritty 1-0 win over Edmonton. The Oilers scored seven goals on Minnesota, one of the strongest defensive teams in the league, so it’ll be interesting to see if the Golden Knights can contain their offence this time around.
6. Calvin Pickard played in Edmonton’s win over the Wild on Thursday so it’s likely that Stuart Skinner will go on Saturday when the Oilers host Vegas. Skinner has an .895 save percentage over 19 appearances this season and a .947 save percentage in his last five starts.
Adin Hill started for Vegas in their win over the Jets on Thursday but he’ll likely start against the Oilers given how well he plays against Edmonton. He has a .916 save percentage over seven regular-season games against the Oilers along with a .934 save percentage against them in the playoffs.
