PREVIEW: Oilers at Maple Leafs

The Edmonton Oilers will face off with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada when they begin a three-game road trip on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena.

You can watch the game on HNIC & Sportsnet at 5:00 p.m. MT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED.

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PREVIEW: Oilers at Maple Leafs

TORONTO, ON – "There's never going to be 60 minutes of perfect, mistake-free hockey," Connor McDavid said post-game on Thursday.

"But with that being said, we expect the best of ourselves. We expect that at this time of year, we're ramping up and getting ourselves ready to go."

A sizeable 8-3 win over the Sabres on Thursday night was a lesson in self-correction for the Oilers, who'll look to replicate their performance from the final two periods of the victory over a full 60 minutes tonight when they begin a three-game road trip at Scotiabank Arena against the Maple Leafs.

“It’s nice to learn lessons in wins,” added McDavid, who had four assists in the win over Buffalo. “With that being said, they were two wins that could’ve gone the other way, quite frankly, and we could've been having a different conversation here today. So lots of lessons from those two, and we need to bring it on the road against a real good Toronto team that's playing well and for the rest of the road trip.”

The Oilers are winners of two straight games over the Canadiens and Sabres and can ill afford to have a similar start to their win over Buffalo against a team as unforgiving as Toronto, who despite losing 4-2 in their last meeting with the Oilers back on Jan. 16 are 11-4-2 in their last 17 meetings with Edmonton.

On Thursday, Edmonton trailed Buffalo 2-1 through 20 minutes until a players-only intermission talk centred around raising their effort levels led to a major turnaround for the group, with the Oilers scoring six unanswered goals in the final 20:48 of the contest to improve their record to 9-1-2 in their last 12 games.

“After the first period, I know the players discussed among themselves about it not being good enough,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Not moving our feet fast enough, not finishing enough checks, not making the simple play, so just little things.”

“Everyone elevated their game, and when everybody's doing that, it just makes the game so much easier. It was nice to see. We haven't seen that urgency and that commitment for a while.”

• BLOG: Hyman heads to Toronto in search of 50 goals

Zach Hyman scored twice in the victory to reach 48 goals on the season and will now have the opportunity to reach 50 for the first time in his career on Saturday against his hometown team with plenty of family and friends in attendance at Scotiabank Arena.

If he's able to reach the mark, the winger would become the eighth player in franchise history to score 50 goals in a single season and the only player other than McDavid and Draisaitl to achieve the feat since Wayne Gretzky & Jari Kurri did it together during the 1986-87 campaign more than 36 years ago.

Hyman has 204 points in 221 games with the Oilers since signing as a free agent with Edmonton in 2021, subsequently raising his career highs in goals with every passing season.

“It's great to see him score. I love that for him,” Mattias Ekholm said. “I think he's an unbelievable guy and he's been doing so well all year. Whether he gets 50 on Saturday or whenever, I don't really care. I just hope that he gets there because he's deserved it all year.”

Hyman is tied for second overall in the NHL for goals alongside Florida's Sam Reinhart behind Auston Matthews, who has 57 on the year after picking up two goals and three assists in a five-point performance in a 7-3 victory for the Maple Leafs over the Capitals on Wednesday.

Matthews’ two goals against Washington marked his 16th multi-goal game of the season, setting a franchise record, while becoming the first Maple Leafs player with multiple five-point games in a season since Rick Vaive did it twice in 1981-82.

Mitch Marner has been ruled out of Saturday's contest with an apparent high-ankle sprain, and winger Tyler Bertuzzi will be a game-time decision due to illness after he was absent from practice on Friday for the Maple Leafs.

Ekholm has looked renewed on the Oilers blueline since returning on Tuesday from a brief one-game absence due to illness, recording two goals and three assists in back-to-back wins as he's looked more like a forward with the rate to which he was jumping up into plays to generate offence.

"Last week, I was sick that one game and it made me actually get five days off, which with the schedule we've had is kind of unheard of," Ekholm said. "So my legs feel really good and I feel like I'm reading the plays well right now. Hopefully, it won't be at the cost of defence or goals against, but as long as we keep playing a sound game and keeping it forward, there's no reason why it will."