Following their 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday, the Edmonton Oilers will finish this quick two-game road trip with a Saturday afternoon game against the Dallas Stars.

1. This is the first meeting between the Oilers and Stars since Edmonton defeated Dallas in six games in the Western Conference Final in the spring. The Oilers opened that series with a 3-2 overtime win on the road, Dallas came back with two wins, and then Edmonton won three in a row to finish it off in six games.

Beating Dallas in the playoffs is something the Oilers have only done twice in team history. The other time came in 1996-97 when the underdog Oilers edged out the Stars in seven games thanks to overtime heroics from Curtis Joseph and Todd Marchant. After that upset, the Stars beat the Oilers in five consecutive playoff meetings between 1997-98 and 2002-03. As an aside, the Oilers faced the North Stars in the playoffs twice before the team moved to Dallas and both teams won a series.

2. The Stars had a few key departures following their loss in the playoffs. Joe Pavelski, who finished fourth on the team with 27 goals last season, announced his retirement after 18 seasons in the NHL. Trade deadline acquisition Chris Tanev left in free agency to sign a six-year, $27 million deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs while Radek Faksa and Ryan Suter were let go as salary cap casualties.

The team added Matt Dumba, Brendan Smith, and Ilya Lyubshkin to give the blueline some more veteran depth, but the Stars have filled Pavelski and Faksa’s old spots internally. Wyatt Johnston has moved up to the top forward line with Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz, while Mavrik Bourque and Logan Stankoven are playing with Jamie Benn on the third line.

3. During their playoff series against the Oilers, head coach Pete DeBoer leaned heavily on his top-four defenders. The shutdown pairing of Esa Lindell and Chris Tanev was paired up against Connor McDavid as often as possible, while Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley went up against Leon Draisaitl.

If the Oilers have McDavid and Draisaitl on the same line, they’ll see a lot of Lindell on Saturday afternoon, which will mean the team’s second forward line will play a lot of head-to-head minutes against Heiskanen. That’ll be a tough test for both of the top two lines. Lindell is a strong shutdown defender even without Tanev and Heiskanen can turn the puck up ice very quickly.

The Oilers shuffled their lines at practice on Friday, as Mattias Janmark moved up with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Viktor Arvidsson on the second line and Jeff Skinner moved to the third line with Adam Henrique and Connor Brown. The swap could be about giving that third line some more offensive punch because they’ll be the group seeing the ice during the minutes with both Heiskanen and Lindell on the bench.

4. Looking to match a season that saw them go 52-21-9 for the best record in the Western Conference, the Stars are off to another strong start this year. They started the 2024-25 season with four wins over the Nashville Predators, New York Islanders, Seattle Kraken, and San Jose Sharks, but saw their winning streak end with a 3-2 road loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday.

Dallas has scored 14 goals through their first five games and they’ve allowed only eight. It’s been a balanced attack for the Stars, as Mason Marchment, Roope Hintz, Tyler Seguin, and Jason Robertson have scored twice, and Wyatt Johnston, Matt Duchene, Sam Steel, Colin Blackwell, and Jamie Benn have scored once.

Jake Oettinger, who inked an eight-year, $66 million contract extension earlier this week, has a .948 save percentage through three games. Casey DeSmith, who was added in the off-season to be the team’s new backup, has a .941 save percentage in his first two starts with the Stars.

Dallas is on complete opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of special teams. Their power play has only scored once in 17 opportunities and their penalty kill has allowed only one goal on 19 opposing chances. This is a good matchup for Edmonton’s struggling penalty kill but a very tough one for their usually-dominant power play that still isn’t firing like normal.

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