PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Ducks

The Edmonton Oilers return to Rogers Place to begin a four-game homestand against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.

You can watch the game live on Sportsnet at 7:00 PM MT or listen on the Oilers Radio Network, including 880CHED. Subscribe to Oilers+ to unlock more exclusive live and behind-the-scenes content.

PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Ducks

EDMONTON, AB – Oil Country is about to enter its Midnight City era.

For the first time since their release on Monday, the Edmonton Oilers will pull on their 'Midnight Oil' Hometown Remix uniforms when they host the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place on Thursday – the first of seven occasions this season where they'll don the fresh new look on home ice.

The Oilers are coming off a 4-3 shootout defeat to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' record-setting 1,038th game for the club, taking over the franchise record for games played from Kevin Lowe while adding a goal & assist, closing out a three-game road trip through New York with five of a possible six points.

The Devils dominated the second period with three goals and a 16-3 shot advantage before the Oilers tied it on a pair of power-play goals from Nugent-Hopkins and Draisaitl on either side of the intermission, but they couldn't come up with the extra point in the shootout. 

With the loss, Edmonton's seven-game road win streak to begin the season ended, marking the conclusion of the League's fifth-longest streak all time in that regard. Tristan Jarry's shutout streak finished at 153:59, the sixth-longest such streak in franchise history.

Connor McDavid's NHL record assist streak continues on, after the captain factored in with an assist on Leon Draisaitl's 3-3 goal on the power play to begin the third period, stretching it to 16 games and giving himself 40 points through 16 contests.

Edmonton sits atop the NHL's Western Conference with a 11-2-3 record as they prepare to host the Ducks, who are 7-7-1 and winners of two straight after coming back from a three-goal deficit on Tuesday against the Canucks to win 5-4 at Rogers Arena.

Cutter Gauthier had his second straight hat trick and has eight goals in his last three games, including six on the power play for Anaheim's league-leading man advantage that's currently operating at 38.0 percent.

Anaheim's power play struck twice early against the Oilers back on Oct. 7 at the Honda Center in their first meeting of the season, but that'd be all they'd get before the Blue & Orange rattled off five straight goals to win 5-2 in their first rematch of last year's First Round matchup that the Ducks won.

WHAT THEY SAID

Kasperi Kapanen on taking five out of a six possible points on the road trip:

"Yeah, a lot of good stuff. I think we're finally finding our game a little bit, and it takes time. I think this road trip has been a success, so we're just going to continue this at home."

Kapanen on the team beginning to find consistency in their game:

"Of course. Every day, we come to work and try to get better and know the system even better. I think it's starting to show, and we're a confident group."

Head Coach Mike Babcock on the details being nailed down by his team:

"I think we've made progress for sure. I didn't think tonight necessarily, like I said to you in the second period, was progress, but we've made a lot of progress. We're finding more and more players, and Dacher's getting to be a good player for us; an important piece night after night."