Oilers aim to solve Coyotes curse

Oilers head coach Todd McLellan was asked on Tuesday after practice about Arizona's 25-game point streak against the Oilers (21-0-4).
"For me, it's about this year's team," McLellan said. "There's streaks all over the place in the League but it's about this year's team. What happened last year or the year before doesn't matter anymore. Those points are gone, the years are gone. Every game we play, the point distribution's real important. We need to find ways to make deposits in our bank account and tomorrow's just another opportunity, regardless of who our opponent is. We have to approach each game like that."
In the two previous meetings this season between the clubs, Arizona prevailed. Here in Glendale, the Coyotes won 3-2 in a shootout and at Rogers Place, Arizona won in regulation 2-1.
"They seem to like to play against us and have success against us in the past. We've got to break out of that. We've played some really good teams in the past little while and played really well against them so we've just got to take that same mentality into tomorrow and play well," said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who has been on the Oilers for the entire stretch. It's not just about beating Arizona. We want to get points in every game we can. We have a chance against these guys and were right in the game last time but we've got to find a way to get the two (points).
"They don't really give up too much. They play a pretty stingy game and wait for us to make mistakes. We've just got to make sure we're patient, not give up too much and not turn the puck over."
One of the reasons the Oilers haven't had a lot of success against the Coyotes is goaltender Mike Smith, who is 15-1-1 with a .928 save percentage and 2.24 goals-against average in 19 career games against the Oilers.
"I think like the rest of the team, he has success against us. For whatever reason, he seems to play really well against us. We've got to break through that and can't let that sink into our minds. We've got to put that out of our heads and treat it like any other goalie," Nugent-Hopkins added.
Coach McLellan echoed the thoughts of the centre.
"He gets into a roll and when he does, and he feels really good, the further he gets into a game and more confident he is, the better he plays. We're going to have to start well and like any other team against a real good goaltender, find ways to beat him with the old cliches of traffic, volume shooting and deflections. It's nothing that this group hasn't talked about the 20 other times we've played him. He just finds a way to step up against us and eventually we have to find a way to overcome that and get the better of him."