PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Maple Leafs

The Edmonton Oilers host the Toronto Maple Leafs at Rogers Place on Tuesday in their final home game before the Olympic break.

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PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Maple Leafs

EDMONTON, AB – A special matchup fit for the Olympic occasion.

In their final home game and penultimate contest before the NHL breaks for the Olympic Winter Games, the Edmonton Oilers will host the Toronto Maple Leafs at Rogers Place to close out their season-longest eight-game homestand on Tuesday night with the first of back-to-back games.

During Monday’s practice, both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl used the skate as a chance to break in some of their new national-team equipment before their respective Olympic campaigns with Canada and Germany begin with their first preliminary tournament matches on Feb. 12.

The two superstars were both wearing black helmets and pants during the skate while the rest of their teammates wore the traditional practice colours, but they’ll find themselves on opposite sides later this week in Italy after the Oilers wrap up business before the break.

Despite the potential of being named captain for Germany, Leon Draisaitl knows there’s still plenty of work to do before the NHL pushes pause for close to three weeks with a quick but challenging home-and-away set against Toronto and Calgary on tap for the Oilers.

“It's a good time to get used to it a little bit before you wear it in a couple of days,” said Leon Draisaitl, who’ll represent Team Germany alongside Josh Samanski at Milan Cortina 2026. “It certainly feels like it's getting closer. Very excited and I’m looking forward to it, but we have two more games here that we want to finish well and figure our game out heading into the break.”

The Oilers can’t afford to be without their best effort in these final two games before the break as they find themselves in a tie for first place in the Pacific Division with the Vegas Golden Knights, who have a game in hand but have lost seven of their last eight games to open the door for the Blue & Orange.

The Maple Leafs dug themselves a hole of their own after losing six straight games before stopping the bleeding on Saturday with a 3-2 shootout victory over the Vancouver Canucks that saw William Nylander score the winning tally in his return to the lineup from injury.

Last night, the Buds doused the Flames 4-2 in Calgary in the first of their back-to-back that continues in Edmonton on Tuesday.

Toronto sits six points behind the Buffalo Sabres for the final Wild Card position and and tied for second last in the Atlantic with a 26-21-9 record.

Tuesday’s visit from Toronto at Rogers Place marks a chance for Edmonton to gather valuable points while making sure their game is in the right place in their second-to-last contest before waiting nearly three weeks for their next taste of NHL action.

“I think that the big picture is that we're in a good spot in our division, and we have a chance at winning the division coming back after the break, so that's a great spot to be in,” Draisaitl said. "But I think more importantly, it's about the way the game feels within your group, the way you play games and the momentum you build. I think that's the part where we need to be better, and that's the part where we got to find our groove a little bit and consistently play the way that we need to show up.”

The Oilers will want to tighten up their defensive game after allowing seven goals to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday in a 7-3 defeat that ended their first three-game win streak of the season, which came despite allowing 12 goals over their previous three victories and 25 goals over their last five contests.

"We've got to try to limit the odd-man rushes, the breakaways, and give our goalies a chance to see every puck," Mattias Ekholm said. "Some of the games, you come off and you're feeling pretty good about it. But some nights, you're out there and you're just getting hemmed in, and you don't even know how to get out of the D zone. So I don't think that's been the case a lot. I think it's more been the quality of looks that we've given up, and we can't have that."

Having scored 22 goals in those previous five games, the players and coaches know they're not a team that struggles to score, but they know they're at their best when they play solid defence first and let their game build from that.

Ekholm said it's all in the Oilers' heads when it comes to defending, and the process of rounding out their game before the playoffs continues with these final two games before the Olympic break with the chance to set the standard moving forward for the remainder of the regular season.

"We know it's not been good enough defensively," he said. "Obviously, we've been rolling pretty good offensively, and I've been on teams where you are pretty good defensively, but you can't seem to find goals. In my opinion, a lot harder than finding your defence. I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm saying is it's a lot between the ears. I think it's a lot about just putting an emphasis on it, respecting it and knowing that it's hard, it's easy.

"I think it's a mental thing for us. To a man, we gotta emphasize and understand how important it is. Especially come playoff time. We've shown it, but you can't just push a button when that time comes around. We have two more games here. It's a great opportunity to start it and then get some rest and come back and hopefully figure out how we want to play. It's a matter of execution."