PREVIEW: Oilers at Red Wings

The Edmonton Oilers will try to match a franchise record with their ninth straight victory on Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena against the Detroit Red Wings.

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

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PREVIEW: Oilers at Red Wings

DETROIT, MI – "It wasn't a Picasso by any means, but sometimes you have to gut those out,” said Head Coach Kris Knoblauch.

They didn’t necessarily have their best stuff in the Windy City on Tuesday night, but the Edmonton Oilers were able to gut out a 2-1 victory over an injury-riddled Chicago Blackhawks side at United Center to secure their eighth win in a row and continue surging up the Pacific Division standings.

The Oilers were 10 points out of the Western Conference's final Wild Card spot on Nov. 24, but have gone 16-3-0 in their last 19 games to take over the position and pull to within four points of the Los Angeles Kings for third in the Pacific Division.

Edmonton was outshot 26-15 by Chicago on Tuesday, but was able to lock down their second eight-game winning streak of the season with some strong team defending that was led by netminder Stuart Skinner, who stopped 25 shots from the crease to improve to 13-2-0 in his last 15 games with a 1.93 goals-against average and .929 save percentage.

The Blackhawks were without star forward Connor Bedard and names like Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno and Seth Jones, but battled hard all night and took the lead 5:52 in when Jason Dickinson turned an Oilers turnover into an early 1-0 Chicago lead.

"Obviously not our best, but give them credit," McDavid said of Tuesday's win over Chicago. "They worked, they clogged things up, they played a solid game. Stu held us in and I thought we did just enough to get a win.

"They're obviously a banged-up, young lineup, excited lineup. Those are sometimes the toughest games to play. A little bit scrambly, a little bit all over the place."

Draisaitl delivered his 19^th goal of the season to tie the game later in the first period before Connor McDavid made it 2-1 on a breakaway in the middle frame that came off Mattias Ekholm’s 82-foot stretch pass from Edmonton’s zone.

McDavid extended his point streak to eight games, while Ekholm pulled to within two points of 300 with the primary helper. The Swede is +10 during the Edmonton’s current eight-game winning streak, while his blueline partner Evan Bouchard (9G, 30A) is one point shy of joining Oilers assistant coach Paul Coffey as the second defenceman in franchise history to record 40 points in a season prior to their 40th game.

Zach Hyman couldn’t extend his goal streak to three games despite having one overturned in the third period after a lengthy review, but Skinner and the Edmonton defence preserved the one-goal win over the final frame despite a 21-7 shot advantage for Chicago.

Hyman is tied for fifth overall in the NHL with a team-leading 25 goals – including 21 in his last 24 games.

"They're all good wins any time you get two points, especially this time of year," Knoblauch said. "It's an 82-game schedule. It's hard to get up and play beautifully every game. I'd be a little concerned if we hadn't been playing very well in the previous three or four games. I don't think that's the case tonight. I don't think we played very well, but a lot of credit should be given to the Blackhawks.

"I thought they played really well. Didn't give us much room, didn't make any mistakes. Made sure to get pucks in. They forechecked us hard. They made it really difficult for us, and there are some things we could have done better to alleviate that. But it's not always just about us. I think Chicago played a really good game."

The Oilers improved to 16-3-0 in their last 19 games – a productive stretch where they’re tied for first with Winnipeg in wins (16), rank first in goals for per game (4.11), first in point percentage (84.2), fourth in goals for (78), third on the power play (30.4) and fourth on the penalty kill (88.1).

After an off day on Wednesday, Edmonton will face Detroit at Little Caesars Arena with the chance to tie their franchise record of nine straight victories in a single campaign – accomplished twice in 2001 (Feb. 20 - Mar. 13) and most recently in 2023 (Mar. 27 - Apr. 13) as part of a 14-0-1 run to end the 2022-23 regular season.