PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Kraken

The Edmonton Oilers head to Climate Pledge Arena to face the Seattle Kraken on Saturday afternoon.

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PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Kraken

SEATTLE, WA – No time to wait on the West Coast.

While the rest of the NHL competes across 15 different matchups on Black Friday, the Edmonton Oilers will head to the West Coast as one of only two inactive teams on the docket ahead of their meeting with the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday afternoon.

"Obviously, we're not happy with the way we started," forward Andrew Mangiapane said. "But it's November. There's a lot of time for us to grow and claw back in the standings and everything like that, so it starts tomorrow. We gotta get started early and have a good first period and go from there."

The Oilers will have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Curtis Lazar back on Saturday to face the Kraken, but they'll be without Jack Roslovic and Kasperi Kapanen for extended periods of time after Head Coach Kris Knoblauch updated their statuses following Friday's practice at the Downtown Community Arena.

Roslovic will be out “a couple of weeks” with an undisclosed injury after scoring his 10^th goal of the season on Tuesday in an 8-3 loss to the Dallas Stars, having been on a tear offensively for the Oilers with seven goals and three assists in his previous nine games.

The 28-year-old didn’t practice this week despite scoring during the third period and finishing with 11:09 of ice time in the loss to Dallas after temporarily leaving the game during the middle frame from blocking a shot. The Columbus, OH native had posted 10 goals and eight assists in 23 games this season while averaging 17:20 of ice time, so his absence will be a significant loss in Edmonton’s top six that needs to be filled by the rest of the forward group.

Kapanen was nearing a comeback before he appeared to reaggravate a knee injury late during Thursday’s practice at Rogers Place and “will be at least a week, maybe several weeks,” according to Knoblauch. The bench boss also added that defenceman Jake Walman is making progress, but won’t be ready to face the Kraken on Saturday in hopes that he can be ready sometime next week during Edmonton’s upcoming five-game homestand.

Despite the ever-changing lineup, there’s no time to wait for the Oilers as they try to work their way out of a funk with the players they have available.

“It's unfortunate losing those guys,” Knoblauch said. “We were very optimistic getting guys back – Lazar, Nugent-Hopkins and Kapanen, those three coming back was great news – and we knew Walman was getting close. But of those guys, Lazar and Nugent-Hopkins are the only two, and then you lose a couple more, but it is what it is. Every team goes through injuries.

"We’re not playing very well, and adding some new life in those players gives you a little bit of a different dynamic, but we're going to have to find a way with what we have.”

Nugent-Hopkins' return on Saturday will be a significant boost for an Oilers team that's losing one of its top scorers in Roslovic, with No. 93 set to come back into the lineup for the first time since playing on Nov. 8 during a 9-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

During Friday's practice, Nugent-Hopkins was centring the third line between Mattias Janmark and Adam Henrique, but he offers Coach Knoblauch a lot of flexibility position-wise and with the different roles he plays for the Oilers.

"He does a lot of things," Knoblauch said. "He's a tremendous teammate. We've had players joke that he's my favourite player, but Ryan's a very smart, complementary player who you can rely on in the last minute of a game. He can provide some offence. He is an important part of the power play. He makes it run just by getting the puck in the right spots. He reads off what Connor and Leon are going to do, and he adjusts what position he needs to be in and what play is going to be made.

"I can go on about Ryan and how valuable he is, and we have missed him through this stretch of not having him, so it'll be nice having him back because he can play in the top six on the wing, or he can be our third line center. He can be our second-line center if we want to play Connor and Leon together, so I can utilize him in many ways and he's very valuable."

For the Blue & Orange, there’s extra urgency in all their actions right now to improve their 10-10-5 overall record this season, taking advantage of some extra practice time this week due to their light schedule with only two games to work on some of the defensive details of their game that’ve been lacking so far in the first 25 games of the campaign.

"We haven't really practiced much all year, so it's good just to kind of go out there, feel the puck, have a good couple practice days, learn a couple of new things, and go from there and hopefully take that into the game," Mangiapane said. "We're a good team. We know it. I think it's good to get a little practice and just kind of regroup and mentally kind of reset for us."

Those deficiencies came to the forefront again on Tuesday in an 8-3 defeat to Dallas, conceding seven goals or more in a game for the third time this season. The Oilers have allowed 47 goals over their last 10 games, feeling they need to help their netminders more in front of their own net, while expecting goalies Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard to make a few more saves and improve on their respective .878 and .847 save percentages.

"All of it," said Knoblauch about what needs to improve defensively. "There are some saves that we want from our goalies, but I don't think we've done a good enough job protecting them. When your team is really dialled in and playing well defensively, they're really tight. It makes the goalie's job so easy. But we haven't played nearly that level enough this year, whether it's been for periods of games or little stretches, but overall, we haven't defended well enough.

"That's being stronger and making sure there are no rebounds. We're tying up sticks, making it harder for their defence or forwards to get to the net, while our defencemen box them out. Have our forwards blocked enough shots? No. Are we turning over pucks? Yes. There are a lot of things that we can do to help our goaltenders. With that being said, we do need them to make some saves, but I think the biggest picture is what's going on in front of him."