With star forward Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid still due to injuries, Edmonton Oilers continues his quest for a top-two finish in Pacific Division as they travel to Seattle to play the Kraken on Thursday.
It will be the second game in a back-to-back set for Oilers (41-25-5, 87 points), which tracks the second place Los Angeles Kings with two points in the home-ice cream race in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Edmonton had a five-game point streak (4-0-1) ending with a 4-3 home loss to Dallas Stars on Wednesday. Oilers hit 4-0 halfway through the third period but fought back with three goals in span 9:05 to make it a goal in a goal along the route.
“I thought we were showing a lot of resilience,” Edmonton said forward Connor Brown. “We were not emptied between periods. We came out, sanded and sanded and almost split us back.”
Oiler’s coach Kris Knoblauch added, “I love the character of this team. The fact that we could come back to a really good team without our two top players, very happy with it.”
Draisaitl, who leads the NHL with 49 goals and is bound for second place in points with 101 points, has not played since March 18 due to an unclear injury. He participated in some exercises but no line rushes in the morning skating before Wednesday’s loss.
McDavid, tied for fourth in the NHL with 90 points, missed its second straight game with a lower bodily injury.
“Leon comes back until Connor,” Knoblauch said. “We are looking at a week, maybe shorter, for Leon, and Connor will be longer than that.”
Starting goalkeeper Stuart Skinner will probably not travel to Seattle after leaving Wednesday’s loss by 13:26 to go after cutting in the head of the knee to Mikko Rantanen. Calvin Pickard quit and saved all three shots he met.
Seattle (30-36-6, 66 points), 17 points behind St. Louis Blues for the last Wild-Card place with just 10 games to go, has lost nine straight matches to Oilers, which goes back to January 2023, including a 5-4 loss on Saturday in Edmonton.
The Kraken followed it with a 4-3 overtime defeat in Calgary on Tuesday, Seattle’s third straight setback (0-2-1).
With his squad anything but eliminated from the playoffs, the Seattle coach Dan Bylsma said that the team is focused on trying to build a strong finish to transfer to next season.
“I like what I saw from this group,” Bylsma said after the loss to the flames. “The guys clearly want to make a statement here with the last ten matches of the season. It was a 20-man effort, and it comes from everyone. Guys hanging their sweaters together. Guys playing for each other. And that’s how you play the game.”
Kraken Forward Tye Kartye added, “We just try to introduce a culture to fight and never give up and play for the guy next to you. So for the last ten games we just try to introduce it in our game.”
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