PREVIEW: Oilers at Capitals

The Edmonton Oilers look to rebound on Wednesday night against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena in the first of a back-to-back set.

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PREVIEW: Oilers at Capitals

WASHINGTON, DC - Another opportunity to rebound.

After dropping a 5-1 contest to the Sabres on Monday night in Buffalo, the Edmonton Oilers will have the opportunity to showcase a response on Wednesday evening when they face Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena.

The Oilers found themselves unable to keep up with a Sabres squad led by a pair of rookies, forward Noah Ostlund and goaltender Colten Ellis, as Buffalo captured its second straight win. Ostlund scored twice, including a power-play goal, and Colten Ellis owned his crease by making 32 saves in the victory to improve to 3-1-0 in his young NHL career.

"It's tough to say right now," forward Vasily Podkolzin said post-game about the result. "But it's just another game, so we've got to be ready to play against Washington. Not much to say, but we'd better figure it out as soon as possible."

So far on this long seven-game road trip, the Oilers have split their record with two overtime wins and two losses. One of their overtime victories came Saturday over the Hurricanes, when Leon Draisaitl scored 19 seconds into the extra frame, but the Oilers couldn't carry that momentum into their game at KeyBank Center on Monday.

"I thought we actually came out with a pretty good start the first few shifts and built a little bit of momentum, but then I think it was just a case of not executing," Brett Kulak said. "We ran into a pretty good goalie over there. He's playing well and we're just not really playing to the level we want to get to."

The Oilers have showcased the level of play they want to reach at various points this season, but they've struggled to maintain it consistently after their winning streaks have lasted only two games (including some heroic third-period comebacks) before being followed by a similar stretch of losses.

"Yeah, we're all feeling that. It's just been spurts of where we're playing what we want to play like, and it's just not enough," Kulak added. "We've got to put in full 60-minute efforts, and I think just going to keep working away at it right now. Everyone's got to find some chemistry with their linemates and just up it a little bit."

One of the consistent bright spots in Edmonton's game lately has been Jack Roslovic. The right winger wound up as the Oilers' lone goal scorer on Monday in Buffalo when he tied the game at 1-1 in the second period, scoring his seventh goal of the season, before the Sabres came back with four straight tallies to cement their victory.

The Columbus, OH native has 14 points in his last 12 games, including seven goals and seven assists, with back-to-back overtime winners last week.

"We've been very fortunate to have Jack on our team," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said post-game on Monday. "He's been providing a lot and pushing the pace of the game, just being able to carry the puck into the zone. Obviously, the goals, he's had many of those. He's been a nice addition. We'd like to get some more contributions throughout our lineup, but Jack has been a good player for us."

As the Oilers' bench boss alluded, they'll need more contributions from everyone starting on Wednesday when they step into Capital One Arena to face Washington for the first time this season.

The Capitals managed to fend off the League's apparent road warriors, the Los Angeles Kings, with a 2-1 victory on Monday after Ovechkin scored the game-winning goal and Lindgren made 30 saves to improve their record to 9-8-2 this season. The Kings entered the matchup with an 8-0-2 record in their last 10 road games.

"It's huge, especially against a defensive team like that, to just hold them to one goal and to get on the board. It's been really big for us," defenceman Matt Roy said after scoring his first goal of the season against his former team with a pristine tip-in off a shot from Aliaksei Protas. "Hopefully, we can carry that."

"That was the goal," Capitals forward Nic Dowd said. "I think we have a tough schedule ahead, and quite honestly, we've played good enough hockey to win some games, but not consistently enough to tie things together, so we're kind of peaks and valleys. But I think that was a really good stepping stone versus a really good hockey team."

The Oilers and Capitals will both chase down their 10th win of the season when they face off on Wednesday night.