The Oilers face the Vancouver Canucks tonight at Rogers Arena.
You can watch the game on Sportsnet West and listen on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED.

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS
GAME DAY VIDEO
OILERS TODAY | Tony Brar reports on the key storylines prior to tonight's game
PRE-GAME RAW | McDavid
PRE-GAME RAW | Gravel
PRE-GAME RAW | Lucic
PRE-GAME RAW | Oilers Head Coach Ken Hitchcock
BY THE NUMBERS
Stats Comparison: Oilers vs. Canucks
Media Game Notes: Oilers vs. Canucks
2018-19 Oilers Player Statistics
2018-19 Canucks Player Statistics
Head-to-Head: Oilers vs. Canucks
2018-19 NHL Standings
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HOCKEY HELPS KIDS | School Visits
RECENT BLOGS & ARTICLES
BLOG: Klefbom has successful surgery
GENE'S BLOG: Mikko The Most Of It
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Injury Report
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Inside The Oilers Blog

INSIDE THE OILERS

News and notes from recent Oilers practice plus news on Oscar Klefbom's injury.
>> READ MORE IN THE INSIDE THE OILERS BLOG

PRE-GAME REPORT

VANCOUVER, BC - After extending their home winning streak to six on Friday with a 4-1 victory over Philadelphia, the Oilers hopped on a flight west to Vancouver for a Sunday night divisional meeting against the Canucks. The all-Canadian matchup will cap the first half of a hectic December schedule, seeing the Oilers complete a stretch of 9 games in 16 days, in which they've been able to compile a 6-1-1 record heading into Sunday's meeting in Vancouver.
Head Coach Ken Hitchcock admitted after Friday's victory that he thought the team might start to show the effects of such a heavy schedule, but was pleased to see the group responding in the face of some expected fatigue.
"That's a lot of hockey. That's almost unheard of," said Hitchcock following Friday's win over the Flyers. "The worry for me, was 'when are we going to hit the wall?' And we didn't, we didn't hit the wall. So that's a good sign. We've still got three more games under difficult situations before we get a break. So we're just going to have to manufacture and manage things and see if we can keep getting points."
Following an off-day on Saturday which included the short flight to Vancouver, the Oilers took to the ice for morning skate on Sunday and Hitchcock liked what he saw from a group in the midst of a busy month.
"We looked like we had good energy this morning... Hopefully we can bring it out (tonight)," said the Oilers coach.
KEEP ROLLING
Given their successful recent stretch, Coach Hitchcock is sticking with what's working as he plans to roll out the same forward group that scratched out a single point in OT during a hard-fought battle in Winnipeg on Thursday and followed it up with the victory over the Flyers the next night.
As for defence, the Oilers back-end lineup will also remain the same as Friday's, with Caleb Jones slotting in alongside Kevin Gravel once again as the 21-year-old will suit up for his second NHL game after logging 11:59 in his debut against Philadelphia on Friday.
SHOES TO FILL
On the topic of defence, It was announced Saturday that Oilers defenceman Oscar Klefbom underwent successful surgery to repair a broken pinky finger he sustained in last week's game in Colorado and is expected to miss over a month. In the face of he and Kris Russell's absence the last two games, after both sustained injuries in Colorado, the Oilers have leaned heavily on other pieces on the blueline to bridge the gap. Both Darnell Nurse and Adam Larsson, who have been the team's top pairing in the last two games, have been chewing up serious ice time with the pair logging south of 25 minutes in both appearances.
Newcomer Kevin Gravel has also seen an uptick in minutes as the Oilers blueline tries to stem the tide via committee. The d-man feels the entire team has stepped up of late to give the Oilers eight wins in their last ten.
"Everyone through the lineup, from goaltending, to defence and on to the forwards is buying into what we're trying to do here," said Gravel. "It's not always going to be easy and it's not always going to be perfect but we stick together and battle back whenever we need to."
That same sentiment of buying in was also reiterated by forward Milan Lucic, who feels the Oilers have shown steady signs of improvement since the coaching change in November, compiling an impressive 9-2-2 record under Hitchcock.
"I think we're playing with a lot more confidence… We've done a really good job of buying into the way Hitch has wanted us to play, especially on the defensive side of the puck. We've got to keep that going because obviously it's given us some success here," said Lucic.
KOSKI-WIN
After improving his record at home to 7-0-0 and 11-3-1 overall on Friday, Oilers netminder Mikko Koskinen will get the nod against the Canucks on Sunday. The 6-foot-7 Finn currently boasts a .930 save percentage and a 2.12 goals-against average on the year, putting him amongst the top five in the league in both categories.
-- Cait MacPhail, EdmontonOilers.com

PREVIEW

OILERS (18-12-3) at CANUCKS (15-16-4)
TV: 8:00 p.m. MST; Televised on Sportsnet West
Head-to-Head:
Tonight's game is the first of four meetings between the two teams this season. They will meet again in Edmonton on December 27.
The Oilers and Canucks each won their two home games in 2017-18, with the Oilers prevailing at home 5-2 on Jan. 20 and 3-2 (SO) on Apr. 7, while the Canucks captured victories of 3-2 on Oct. 7 and 2-1 on Mar. 29 in Vancouver.

Leon Draisaitl (2G, 2A) and Connor McDavid (1G, 3A) co-led the Oilers in scoring against Vancouver in 2017-18, with four points.
Oilers team scope:
The Oilers are 9-2-2 since new head coach Ken Hitchcock took over. The stretch of 20 points in 13 games has vaulted the club into a tie for third place in the Pacific Division, two points back of second-place Anaheim with a game in hand. The Oilers are also in a tie for 10th spot in the entire NHL.
McDavid has 19 goals and 48 points this season which ties him for second in the NHL with Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon. McDavid's 19 goals ties him for 10th. ... McDavid has only been held off the scoresheet four times this season (when he was in the lineup): on Oct. 20 vs. NSH, on Nov. 6 at TBL, on Nov. 11 vs. COL and on Nov. 27 vs. DAL.
With 42 points, Draisaitl is tied for eighth in the NHL in scoring and only one point out of fifth. ... McDavid has five goals and 13 points in his last six games while Draisaitl has three goals and 12 points in his last five.
Mikko Koskinen now ranks 14th in the NHL with 11 wins, has the second best goals against average (2.12) and save percentage (.930) among goaltenders with at least 10 games. His three shutouts ranked second in the NHL, behind only Marc-Andre Fleury (VGK), who has five.
Canucks team scope:
After a tough stretch where the Canucks won only one out of 13 games (1-10-2), they haven't lost in regulation in their last five (4-0-1). The club defeated the Philadephia Flyers last night by a score of 5-1 for their fourth win in five games.
Vancouver is four points behind Vegas for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference though Vegas holds a game in hand.
Rookie Elias Pettersson leads the Canucks in scoring with 34 points in 29 games. He's also tops on the club with 16 goals. With 34 points, he has 12 more than the rookie with the second highest total (Ottawa's Colin White).
Bo Horvat is second on the Canucks with 30 points in 34 games played.
Anders Nilsson is likely to get the start in goal tonight for Vancouver. In 10 starts, the former Oiler has a 3-6-1 record with a 2.91 goals-against average and .901 save percentage.
By the Numbers:
Through 33 games, the Oilers are nine points ahead of where they were last season, a year in which they finished with 78 points. In fact, if the Oilers only won 6 of their next 25 games they would still be ahead of their pace from 2017-18. ... The Oilers are also two points ahead of where they were after 33 games in 2018-19, a season in which they finished with 103 points and finished second in the Pacific Division.
The Oilers are 11-1-3 in one-goal games in 2018-19, including posting their first 1-0 regulation win (vs. DAL on Nov. 27) during the regular season since Ryan Potulny scored at 19:43 of the game to beat Philadelphia on Feb. 3, 2010.
Since returning to play on Feb. 2, 2016 after an injury cut short his rookie season, McDavid leads the NHL in scoring by 35 points, with 292 points (101G, 191A), ahead of Nikita Kucherov (257 pts) and Sidney Crosby (256 pts).
Injury Report:
OILERS - Andrej Sekera (achilles) is out; Oscar Klefbom (finger) is out; Kris Russell (undisclosed) is out.
CANUCKS - Sven Baertschi (upper body) is on IR; Brandon Sutter (upper body) is on IR; Erik Gudbranson (back spasms) is day-to-day.
-- Marc Ciampa, EdmontonOilers.com