Oilers wary of skilled, skidding Sabres

The Edmonton Oilers are looking for their first three-game winning streak of the season against the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday.

The Buffalo Sabres are on a three-game losing skid coming into Edmonton on Tuesday night.

The night before, the Calgary Flames roundly beat the visitors, who continue their six-game road trip with match No. 4 at Rogers Place.

Buffalo sits last in the Eastern Conference, too, while trolling near the bottom of the National Hockey League standings with the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

Still, just a few points separate the NHL’s plums from the chaff in both conferences. Even the Oilers, Western finalists for the Stanley Cup the last two seasons, are barely in a playoff spot and are only there because of a recent, albeit small, run of success, having won three of their last four games.

Not even a month ago, the Sabres dominated the Oilers on Buffalo ice to beat them soundly during a seven-game eastern road trip by Edmonton.

So with that in mind, Oilers personnel weren’t taking Tuesday’s visitors lightly.

Head coach Kris Knoblauch said after the Oilers’ morning skate ahead of Tuesday’s 7 p.m. start time that the Sabres are good puck-movers and have “a lot of speed, whether it’s their forwards or defencemen.”

He says one of his team’s keys to solving Buffalo is to do what they’ve been doing the last handful of games that have come amid a fair bit of practice time: Defend and check well to create offensive chances.

“We want to make it easier for us ... Hopefully, we can start right from the start,” Knoblauch told reporters.

Defenceman Mattias Ekholm said the Oilers’ confidence is coming from both sides of the ice and that the defence feeds off the offence’s success and vice versa.

“Obviously, you’ve got to play good defence to get the chances and to win games, but at the same time, when you get some good offence, that helps your defence in a way as well,” Ekholm said. “Both ways help each other in a funny way, but both things seem to be working a lot better lately.”

Crude remarks

• Knoblauch said Stuart Skinner will start in goal for the Oilers;
• Expect either Colten Ellis or Alex Lyon in the Sabres goal tonight after Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen started in Calgary. Luukkonen was pulled after allowing five Flames goals for Lyon in Buffalo’s 7-4 loss;
• Sabres forward Jason Zucker won’t play against the Oilers. He’s expected to “miss some time,” head coach Lindy Ruff told Buffalo radio on Tuesday morning. Zucker, who has nine goals and nine assists for 18 points in 21 games this season, went into the boards leg-first in the first period against the Flames and was out of action for a spell before returning;
• Former Oilers centre Ryan McLeod has scored five goals and nine assists for 14 points in 29 games played this season. He was acquired from Edmonton by Buffalo prior to last season in exchange for Matt Savoie.

Projected Oilers lineup

Forward

• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins • Connor McDavid • Zach Hyman
• Vasily Podkolzin • Leon Draisaitl • Matt Savoie
• Andrew Mangiapane • Adam Henrique • Mattias Janmark
• Trent Frederic • Curtis Lazar • David Tomasek

Defence

• Mattias Ekholm • Evan Bouchard
• Darnell Nurse • Alec Regula
• Brett Kulak • Ty Emberson

Goal

• Stuart Skinner • Calvin Pickard

Projected Sabres lineup

Forward

• Jordan Greenway • Tage Thompson • Alex Tuch
• Zach Benson • Josh Norris • Josh Doan
• Josh Dunne • Ryan McLeod • Jack Quinn
• Beck Malenstyn • Peyton Krebs • Tyson Kozak

Defence

• Mattias Samuelsson • Rasmus Dahlin
• Bowen Byram • Conor Timmins
• Owen Power • Jacon Bryson

Goal

• Alex Lyon • Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen