It’s lonely at the top.
And that’s a good thing for the Edmonton Oilers, who have been in a dog fight with a fierce rival over the last couple of weeks for first place in their division.
The Oilers (33-16-4) sit atop the Pacific Division thanks to Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues, two points ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights (31-17-6), who lost 2-1 to the host New York Islanders the same night.
A 10-3 run between New Year’s Eve and Jan. 25 helped the Oilers, who sat six points behind the Golden Knights on Jan. 12, pull past them two weeks later into the Pacific’s top seed for the first time this season. The Golden Knights had a 5-7-1 record in the same time frame.
Edmonton, who faces the Chicago Blackhawks (16-31-5, 8th in Central) Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. MT, has a game in hand over Vegas. The Golden Knights play in New Jersey against the Devils on Thursday.
Wednesday’s game will be the Oilers' 10th second game of back-to-back contests this season. They’ve gone 5-4 in them so far.
While they’re 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, Tuesday’s win in St. Louis was the Oilers' third come-from-behind win in their last five games over a sub-.500 team. The victory over the Blues came in dramatic fashion, with Leon Draisaitl tying the game with 2:15 left in the third period before Connor Brown scored the winner in OT.
It was good that we stuck with it. We’ve seen that a lot this year.
— Kris Knoblauch
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said team stars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were the difference on “some huge plays,” with McDavid (one goal, two assists) contributing to all three Oilers goals.
“It was good that we stuck with it,” Knoblauch told media after the game. “We’ve seen that a lot this year.”
Draisaitl with a league-leading 37 and McDavid with 22 account for 33.9 per cent of the 174 goals the Oilers have scored this season.
Last season, the duo accounted for 24.8 per cent of team goal-scoring, although Zach Hyman led the team with lamp-lighters in 2023 with 54.
This season, Hyman has scored 18 goals (and 31 points) so far after starting the current campaign with just three goals in his first 20 games.
“We dipped a little bit there for a little while,” Draisaitl said of the Oilers' play against the Blues, which saw Edmonton outshoot St. Louis 13-3 in the first period before St. Louis responded in the second and scored twice early in the third to take a lead.
“It wasn’t our best, but good teams find ways to win hockey games at all times. To come back from that shows a lot of character.”
Drill bits
• Wednesday’s game is the third and final regular-season meeting between the Blackhawks, 10-14-2 at home in 2024-25, and the Oilers, who are 15-7-2 on the road. The Oilers won their previous meeting 4-3 Jan. 11 at Chicago’s United Center while the Blackhawks handed them a 5-2 loss on Oct. 12 at Rogers Place;
• The Blackhawks are coming off a 5-1 loss Saturday in Florida to the Panthers. It capped a three-game swing through the southeastern U.S. in which Chicago also beat the Tampa Bay Lightning and lost to the Carolina Hurricanes;
• Second-year star centre Connor Bedard, who has six points (two goals, four assists) in his last five games, leads the Blackhawks in scoring with 15 goals and 30 assists for 45 points in 52 games;
• Calvin Pickard is expected to start in goal for the Oilers after Stuart Skinner made 20 saves in net for the win in St. Louis. Pickard has won nine of his last 10 starts;
• The Oilers scratched Adam Henrique Tuesday in St. Louis due to illness, with Noah Philp taking his place at centre on the third line with Jeff Skinner and Kasperi Kapanen.
