After a thrilling win over the @New York Rangers on New Year’s Eve, the Oilers will look to win back-to-back games for the first time since November 23/24 as they begin a five-game road trip tonight with a matchup against the @Buffalo Sabres. It’s been a rough stretch for the Oilers but luckily for them, they get a matchup tonight against a Sabres team that also really struggled in the month of December. Buffalo has dropped four in a row and have just three wins in their last ten games.

The Sabres have played the Oilers well recently and with a win tonight, they would sweep the season series for the third time in four seasons. For the Oilers, they’ll need to have a really strong second half of the season if they want to grab a playoff spot. Right now, they’re on pace for roughly 90 points, which probably won’t be enough to get them in. In the first half of the season, they lost some games to bad teams and teams that were on losing streaks. They cannot continue to do that in the second half. Simply put: they need to win this game tonight.