The Ducks (30-23-3) return from the Winter Olympic break to take on the Oilers (28-22-8) back home at Honda Center.
Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. PT and will air exclusively on Victory+.
It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for Winter Olympics-bound Ducks players as Mikael Granlund (bronze, Finland) and Jackson LaCombe (gold, USA) both earned medals with their respective country’s clubs.
“Winning it was so special, but just being able to represent our country was amazing and to do it with those guys was so special, so I had a blast,” LaCombe said.
Heading into tonight’s game, Anaheim is on a two-game winning streak and remains in playoff contention; fourth in the Pacific Division good for the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
With 26 games remaining in the season, head coach Joel Quenneville knows how important it is for his group to come out firing on all cylinders for this stretch and said he and his team are approaching these final months of regular season hockey with a playoff mentality.
“Going into the break and coming out of the break, we have big games and everybody’s in the same territory in terms of fighting for playoff position and the two points are huge,” Quenneville said. “Every game is going to be like a playoff game, so I think we want to approach it that getting something out of the games is critical. We had some momentum going into it, so let’s try to establish that coming out of it.”
Quenneville heads into this matchup on the precipice of 1,000 regular season wins as an NHL head coach making him one win shy of becoming only the second coach in NHL history to notch 1,000 victories.
One huge reinforcement for Anaheim tonight is the return of Leo Carlsson back in the lineup. Carlsson hasn’t played since mid-January after undergoing a procedure on his thigh.
“He’s looked good in practice and every day he’s gotten better and better,” Quenneville said of No. 91.
Tonight, Edmonton begins a three-game road trip in the Golden State. While the team remains in second place in the division, they lost their final three games before the Winter Olympics and are eager to turn things around – especially with how much parity there is in the Pacific.
“We've only got 24 games left, and we are right on the line of making or not making playoffs,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Especially this road trip, there's not a stretch of games that are probably more important than they are right now playing the California teams.”
Connor McDavid leads the Oilers in goals (34), assists (62), and points (96). This is the second of three regular season meetings between the Oilers and Ducks as Edmonton beat Anaheim 7-4 in January.
