PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Sabres

The Edmonton Oilers continue their five-game homestand at Rogers Place with a visit from the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.

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PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Sabres

EDMONTON, AB – Back to work against Buffalo.

The Edmonton Oilers will continue their five-game homestand at Rogers Place on Tuesday night against the Buffalo Sabres, looking to replicate their offensive explosion from having scored a combined 15 goals over back-to-back home victories over Seattle and Winnipeg this past week.

Since losing 1-0 to the Minnesota Wild on Dec. 2 to begin their homestand, the Oilers have rediscovered their scoring touch with 9-4 and 6-2 wins over the Kraken and Jets, respectively, while playing with the energy and enthusiasm they expect from themselves after a slow start to the 2025-26 campaign.

The Oilers played 16 of their first 24 games on the road this season and are currently benefiting from a healthy amount of practice time and rest in Edmonton this week to reset their confidence and help combat some of the fatigue left over from their road-heavy schedule over the first two months.

“Just getting a little bit of juice back,” Connor McDavid said. “The schedule's been crazy for everyone, but our schedule was a little bit wild, and I think guys were feeling it. But it’s nice to be home for a little bit. It’s nice to get a couple of rest days in and some practice time.”

“It was a tough schedule. Every team's gonna go through it. We had however many games in however many different cities. Eventually, the body gets tired, but I liked how we went through it, and now we've kind of come out the other side.”

Not only are the goals going in for the Oilers, but they’re scoring them the right way by their standards, with more than Edmonton’s top players being the ones doing the damage.

“Definitely a lot more confidence,” Head Coach Kris Knoblach said. “Anytime you score goals, that's confidence throughout the group. But more importantly, just as individuals, once they get a goal or get on the scoresheet, it goes a tremendous way in just feeling good about your game and the feeling that you're contributing."

“It starts with us moving the puck a lot better, just transitioning up the ice and just executing our passes. I think that has a lot to do with it… I like that we're playing with that attack mentality and not being on the outside as much as we were earlier in the year.”

Amongst their recent goal-scoring streak, they've received contributions throughout their lineup – starting at the top by receiving a combined total of 23 points (8G, 15A) from Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard.

McDavid has recorded multi-point games in back-to-back wins to move into third in the NHL’s scoring race behind Nathan MacKinnon (49) and Macklin Celebrini (32) with 42 points (14G, 28A). Leon Draisaitl has 19 points (7 G, 12 A) in his last 11 games, including points in nine of his last 10 appearances.

“The goals are nice,” McDavid added. “Obviously, they’re going in, but we're generating more. We’re generating a couple more chances, getting inside, getting into the net, attacking more, and I’ve definitely liked the offensive side better the last little bit.”

Matt Savoie is surging in a top-six role, providing depth scoring with three goals in two games, and is taking advantage of the Oilers’ locker-room presence that’s been led by their leaders, who didn’t let the morale of the group get too low through their tough start.

“I think the confidence didn't really waver in this room, so it's not that much of a different feeling,” he said. “I think it's a little bit more loose. Guys are more confident, more comfortable in the way that they're playing, and I think that just gels into everyone else feeling good about themselves right out of the gate.”

The Oilers' next three opponents will come into Rogers Place to play the second of a back-to-back, with Buffalo playing in Calgary on Monday night, so there's a belief in the locker room that they can keep this streak going against some tired opponents if they can continue to feel good about themselves.

Edmonton jumped all over a fatigued Winnipeg side on Saturday in a 6-2 win, who'd played the previous night on home ice after having just returned home from a five-game Eastern road swing, and took advantage of a Seattle side on Thursday that hadn't played in five days in a 9-4 thrashing.

"With Winnipeg, a tough trip where they were home for one, and then on a back-to-back here," McDavid added. "They didn't seem like they had a ton of juice, so it's a tough stretch and a tough couple of weeks for different teams. We also saw Seattle, which hadn't played for a week, so it was a unique schedule for a lot of different reasons. Everyone's kind of going through their own thing, and our team obviously is feeling pretty good."

The Oilers are wrapping up their season series with the Sabres following their 5-1 defeat in Buffalo back on Nov. 17.

INJURY NOTES

Noah Philp was on the ice Monday for his first full-contact practice since sustaining an injury in Edmonton's last meeting with Buffalo, with the possibility of the Canmore, AB product being available this coming weekend when the Oilers start a five-game road trip with a back-to-back against Toronto and Montreal.

Hopefully, he can continue to trend up," Knoblauch said.

Jake Walman's status is a bit more up in the air, with Knoblauch saying the defenceman won't be ready this week and probably not next week after blocking a shot in the side of his leg during a 2-1 overtime defeat to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 20 that's led to his six-game absence.

Jack Roslovic and Kasperi Kapanen are both expected to be ready around Christmas time, with Knoblauch saying it'd be a bonus to get them into the lineup before Dec. 25, while Connor Clattenburg will still be "another week or maybe a little more" after getting stitches around his right eye against the Kraken.