PREVIEW: Oilers at Devils

The Edmonton Oilers look to break out of their three-game losing skid with a victory over the New Jersey Devils in the first of back-to-back games on Thursday night at Prudential Center.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet West at 5:30 PM MT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630CHED.

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PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Devils

NEWARK, NJ – Whether they’re seeing results or not, it’s important for the players and coaches inside the Oilers locker room to stick to their process.

“You play long enough that you know it evens out,” winger Zach Hyman said. “So just sticking with it, making sure that you continue to do the same things, you don't get discouraged, and the results will come.”

Despite finding themselves on a three-game losing streak as they continue to navigate their way through New York City on a three-game road trip, the Oilers are remaining process-driven entering the start of their first back-to-back of the season on Thursday against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center.

The three-game slide comes after the Oilers assembled a league-high eight-game winning streak, where they outscored their opponents 39-14 and dominated on special teams with a 44.0 percent power play (11-for-25) and 96.2 percent penalty kill (25-for-26) – ranked second and first in the NHL over that span.

"I believe we've got a group of players that want to play the right way and want to be successful; not only individually successful, but more importantly, they want the team to be successful and we're striving for that," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch added.

On Tuesday, Leon Draisaitl beat New York Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin on the first shot of inside the opening two minutes, but the Russian netminder settled in and sealed the door shut the rest of the way by stopping all of the remaining 30 shots he faced in the 3-1 victory at UBS Arena.

Over three straight losses, the Oilers have been victimized by some stellar Russian goaltending from Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy (54 saves), Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky (38 saves) and now Sorokin (30 saves), totalling 122 saves on 127 shots for a .961 save percentage and 1.67 goals against average.

Hyman mentioned after Wednesday’s practice in New Jersey that it’s still positive for the group to record those types of shots in three consecutive games – regardless of whether or not the results have followed suit.

“That's process-based, right?” Hyman said. “You keep doing it and eventually, it's going to go in and that shooting percentage will even out. We’ve just got to keep getting our looks and they'll go in.”

What remains important, adds Hyman, is that the Blue & Orange remain steadfast in their fast and offensive-minded approach while continuing to work on the defensive details that can allow them the insurance of going forward in search of more goals.

"Playing fast," Hyman said of Edmonton's approach. "I think the foundation of our game is speed and playing quickly, and then, obviously limiting turnovers, playing smart, holding onto pucks and making plays. I think we're a pretty skilled team, so we can use that to our advantage. But we can't let it hurt us."

Strong goaltending wasn’t the only contributing factor to Edmonton's defeat on Long Island, with the Oilers losing the special teams battle by giving up two power-play goals and a shorthanded marker in a three-goal second period for the Islanders that ultimately led to their third straight defeat on Tuesday.

“I thought we played pretty well even strength. I think we limited chances,” Hyman said. “We got some looks and then obviously, our special teams needed to be better in that game.”

“We only gave up six scoring chances even strength, which I thought was good on our part,”  Knoblauch added. “We lost a special teams battle, which isn't always the case. Usually, we're winning those games and certainly previously, we won a lot of games because we did that.

“There are areas that we can get better and we're going to have to do that because it's not going to get any easier this trip.”

On a different night, the Oilers believe their performances in two of their three consecutive defeats could’ve produced a different result had they managed not to run into a hot goaltender, with the only outlier being their 5-1 defeat this past Saturday to the Panthers.

Without sweating the final result, the players and coaches are sticking to their approach of keeping one another accountable when it comes to the small details that can have the biggest impact on their team's long-term success.

"If you do the little things, the wins and losses will take care of themselves," Knoblauch said. "You can play a really good game and sometimes, you look back at the Tampa Bay game where most of the game we played really well and we probably deserved a different fate. We had enough scoring chances, limited them, and we lost it. But if you play like that more often than not, you'll win the game."

"You start taking shortcuts just looking to score that goal. You're often making mistakes and you're probably pulling the puck out of your net more often than not, so we just want to make sure that we're doing little things right – things that ultimately require no talent that anybody can do.

"If you're doing those well, you're going to be successful most times, so that's what we're pushing our guys to do."

LINEUP NOTES

When you have one of the deadliest lines in the League, it's hard to break away from that.

The trio of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman was reunited during the second half of Tuesday's defeat to the Islanders and made up the top line at Wednesday's practice in New Jersey, signalling that the trio will be back together for Edmonton's date with the Devils on Thursday night.

The trio has been one of the NHL's hottest lines with a 72.2 percent goal share in 112:53 of ice time together this season, as per Natural Stat Trick.

Coach Knoblauch originally broke up the line to try and bring some balance to the lineup with no last change on this road trip, but mentioned how his lines seemed to "fall into place" after the top line was reunited, helping lead to a 15-3 shot share in favour of the Oilers in the final frame.

"It wasn't just because we reunited those guys, but everybody just kind of fell into place I think," he said. "That's what we're going to start with and we'll see how long that'll last."

Connor Brown appeared as the 13th forward in favour of Adam Erne during Wednesday's practice at Prudential Center and could be the odd man out for Thursday's start to back-to-back games. The winger has an assist and a -10 plus/minus in 23 games this season for the Oilers after undergoing off-season surgery to repair a torn ACL.

Knoblauch confirmed that Edmonton's netminders will split the back-to-back, with Calvin Pickard confirmed to get the start in Newark after making 29 shots in a 4-1 victory over the Devils at Rogers Place on Dec. 10. Stuart Skinner will get the nod in his first career start at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.