PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Avalanche

The Edmonton Oilers will wrap up their season series with the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night at Rogers Place before the NHL pauses its schedule for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

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PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Avalanche

EDMONTON, AB – One last battle before the break, and it's a big one.

Before the NHL pauses its season for the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Edmonton Oilers will host the Colorado Avalanche at Rogers Place on Friday night aiming to make it three straight victories heading into the two-week break.

Having won both previous meetings in Denver this campaign – 4-1 on Nov. 30 and 4-3 on Jan. 16 – the Oilers can sweep the season series with the Avalanche for the first time since 2016-17 with a victory on home ice, where they’re 14-3-1 over their last 18 matches.

The Oilers have won four of their last six regular-season games against Colorado and have earned at least a point in seven of their last eight meetings, going 4-1-3 in that span.

Friday’s heavy-weight clash will feature three of the League’s top-four scorers in Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, and two of the top-six scoring defencemen in Cale Makar and Evan Bouchard.

With another multi-point performance from Draisaitl on Wednesday in a 4-3 overtime win over Chicago, the German temporarily took over the lead in the NHL’s points race before MacKinnon registered three assists in Thursday's 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames.

The Avalanche come into Oil Country on Friday to play the second of back-to-back games and own the second-best record in the NHL in those scenarios with a 4-2-0 record.

Draisaitl has 81 points in 54 games this season, which includes 38 goals that have him five ahead of Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele for the League lead in that department. It's the most tallies he’s recorded through 54 games in his career, and the 2020 Hart Memorial, Art Ross and Ted Lindsay Award-winner needs four more to become the fourth active player in the League to have at least six seasons with 40 goals.

Against the Blackhawks, Draisaitl set up Jeff Skinner early in the third period for the winger's 10th goal of the season before he returned the favour almost seven minutes later, capitalizing on a turnover and sliding it to Draisaitl to deliver a quick shot that lifted the Oilers into a 3-1 lead in the second of back-to-back games after their 3-2 triumph over the St. Louis Blues in overtime on Tuesday.

Skinner has found instant returns alongside Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin following a lineup shuffle by Head Coach Kris Knoblauch on Wednesday in Chicago that moved him up to the second line, where he's expected to remain on Friday against the Avalanche.

"It's pretty good. I think he's an easy guy to play with," Skinner said of playing alongside Draisaitl. "He wins a lot of battles and makes a lot of great plays. I missed one there in the first. I think he kind of set me up on the wide-open net there, but I thought Podzy played great, too. He's really disruptive on the forecheck. He makes a lot of plays that go unnoticed, but I felt pretty good with those guys."

"Jeff's been playing really well. His details have been good," Knoblauch added. "He's been checking hard, he's been getting in the forecheck and he's been in the right positions defensively. The third goal was absolutely a result of those. He gets the assist on it, but just being in the right place to break up that play to get the puck down, and if he's not in the right plate defensively, they're probably on a rush against and we have to defend. But he was able to break that play up and give us a scoring chance."

In a similar fashion to Tuesday in St. Louis, the Blue & Orange had to hold off a late surge from their opponents before claiming the extra point in overtime after Chicago used their fresh legs from three days rest to put the Oilers on the back foot by scoring twice in the final eight minutes of regulation.

Captain Connor McDavid recorded the primary assist on both overtime goals, giving the Oilers sudden-death victories in back-to-back road games that kept them ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division with a 34-16-4 record.

Netminder Calvin Pickard stopped 29 shots and is 10-1-0 over his last 11 starts for Edmonton, proving a capable option every time he steps between the pipes. The 32-year-old is 14-3-1 this season and just one win away from matching his career-best 15 wins from 2016-17 while he was a member of the Avalanche and started 48 games.

The Golden Knights beat the New Jersey Devils 3-1 on Thursday night to end a four-game losing streak and reduce the gap between them and the Oilers back down to two points, with both Edmonton and Vegas having one game left before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.

Colorado is 4-3-0 since dealing superstar winger Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in a blockbuster deal on Jan. 25 that saw them acquire Martin Necas, who had two goals and an assist in Thursday's 4-2 win over the Flames to give himself eight points (3G, 5A) in seven contests since joining the Avalanche.

Defenceman Cale Makar had a goal and an assist and needs four points to reach the 400-point milestone.

Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood is 13-6-2 with a 2.03 GAA and .923 SV% in the 21 appearances (20 starts) as a member of the Avalanche, having given up four goals on 28 shots in his previous meeting with the Oilers back on Jan. 16. He already has twice as many Wins with the Avalanche (13) than he did as a member of the Sharks (6).

After Pickard's start on Wednesday, Stuart Skinner is expected to be in the blue paint against the Avalanche after backstopping the Oilers to both of their victories over the Central Division club this campaign.

On Thursday afternoon, the Oilers reassigned centre Noah Philp back to the AHL's Bakersfield Condors with the potential for the 26-year-old to play as many as six games over the 4 Nations Face-Off break. He recorded an assist over a nine-game stretch that represented the second NHL stint of his career.