Oilers at Avalanche preview

OILERS (34-36-9) at AVALANCHE (36-29-14)
9 p.m. ET; ALT, SNW, NHL.TV

The Avalanche, 6-0-2 in their past eight games, are two points ahead of the Arizona Coyotes for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West and three points behind the Dallas Stars, who hold the first wild card. Arizona hosts the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday and Dallas hosts the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Oilers were eliminated from playoff contention when Colorado earned a point in a 3-2 shootout loss at the St. Louis Blues on Monday. Edmonton has lost three straight (0-2-1) and is 2-4-2 in its past eight.

Players to watch

Oilers center Connor McDavid is one goal shy of an NHL season high and his 115 points (41 goals, 74 assists) are the most by an Edmonton player since Mark Messier had 129 (45 goals, 84 assists) in 1989-90.
Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer is 7-1-2 with a 1.48 goals-against average, .955 save percentage and two shutouts in his past 10 starts.

They said it

"We still have a lot to play for, a lot of pride. It's what we're going to keep doing until the end this year." -- Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson
"I hope we're ready to go right from the drop of the puck. We've been really good at home, playing our game right from the drop of the puck and trying to build a lead early. That's the mentality, we've got to be aggressors." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Oilers projected lineup

Leon Draisaitl -- Connor McDavid -- Zack Kassian
Joseph Gambardella -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Sam Gagner
Milan Lucic -- Colby Cave - Alex Chiasson
Ty Rattie - Brad Malone -- Josh Currie
Oscar Klefbom -- Adam Larsson
Darnell Nurse -- Kris Russell
Andrej Sekera -- Matt Benning
Mikko Koskinen
Anthony Stolarz
Scratched: Kevin Gravel, Jujhar Khaira, Alexander Petrovic, Tobias Rieder
Injured: Kyle Brodziak (undisclosed), Jesse Puljujarvi (lower body)

Avalanche projected lineup

Alex Kerfoot -- Nathan MacKinnon -- J.T. Compher
Gabriel Landeskog -- Carl Soderberg - Colin Wilson
Matt Nieto -- Tyson Jost -- Matt Calvert
Sven Andrighetto - Derick Brassard -- Gabriel Bourque
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Patrik Nemeth
Philipp Grubauer
Semyon Varlamov
Scratched: Andrew Agozzino, Mark Barberio, Ryan Graves
Injured: Vladislav Kamenev (shoulder), Mikko Rantanen (upper body)

Status report

Neither team held a morning skate.

Stat pack

Draisaitl has 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists) in his past 24 games and his 47 goals are the most by an Oilers player since Jimmy Carson had 49 in 1988-89. … MacKinnon has five points (two goals, three assists) in a four-game point streak and needs one point for 400 in the NHL. … Barrie has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past nine games.