PREVIEW: Oilers at Kraken

The Edmonton Oilers will wrap up back-to-back games on Thursday night at Climate Pledge Arena against the Seattle Kraken.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet at 8:00 pm MDT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 880 CHED.

Subscribe to Oilers+ to unlock the Pre-Game & Post-Game Shows, along with more exclusive live and behind-the-scenes content, including The Drop documentary series.

PREVIEW: Oilers at Kraken

SEATTLE, WA – Changing course to the West Coast.

The Edmonton Oilers will head to Seattle to conclude back-to-back games on Thursday against the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena without goaltender Stuart Skinner on the trip after he was forced to leave Wednesday's 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars during the third period because of injury.

Edmonton's No. 1 goaltender was taken out of the game after receiving head contact just outside the crease from the left knee of forward Mikko Rantanen, leaving Calvin Pickard to play the final 11 minutes of the third period and the rest of his teammates to try and wage a heroic comeback in his absence.

"Obviously, we're concerned about him and how he's doing," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said post-game. "We never want to lose somebody from our lineup, but that's my secondary thought – the first one is how he's doing and that he's alright. We've got the best care. He'll be looked and we'll find out exactly tomorrow what the situation is."

After Corey Perry and Adam Henrique scored on the power play, Zach Hyman made it 4-3 with the net empty to set up a nervy finish in the final 1:25 of regulation for the Stars, who were ultimately able to hold off the Oilers for the victory behind goalie Jake Oettinger's 41 saves and Jason Robertson's natural hat trick in the second period.

"I thought it was a resilient effort," winger Connor Brown said. "It's pretty easy to get deflated. We were outshooting them the whole game, but gave up some layups, which was uncharacteristic. But I thought we showed a lot of resilience. We didn't get deflated between periods.

"We came out, grinded and almost clawed our way back."

The Oilers were left to regret their mistakes that resulted in Robertson scoring three times over a 10:29 span of the middle frame to build the Stars a 4-0 lead, but Coach Knoblauch still said there were positives in the way they played to outshoot the NHL hottest team since the end of January by a 44-24 margin.

The effort is appreciated even more by the bench boss considering they were without their two superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl for the second straight game, as both continue to recover from their own respective injuries that will keep them out for close to a week and at least the next two games.

"Very proud of our guys and how they pushed, and I think for the most part of the game they played pretty good," Knoblauch said. "I didn't really see us being down 4-0, but we made some costly mistakes and gave them good opportunities. But I thought we did a lot of good things and we had to work hard for us to have any success."

"That comeback didn't have to show me anything," he added. "I have a lot of confidence in our guys. No quit. There's been a lot of pushback when things have been hard for us. I love the character in this team and the fact that we were able to come back against a really good team without our two top players."

The Oilers are anticipated to recall a goaltender from the AHL's Bakersfield Condors before Thursday's game to back up Calvin Pickard and potentially beyond with Stuart Skinner's status still yet to be fully determined.

Edmonton can beat Seattle for the 10th straight time on Thursday if they're able to sweep the season series with another victory, along with having won 12 of the 14 all-time meetings between the two clubs (12-1-1).

But this time, they'll have to do it without Stuart Skinner, who's won each of his last six starts against his team's Pacific Division rival, Connor McDavid, who's recorded a point in 11 of his 13 career games them (8G, 11A), and Leon Draisaitil, the owner of the highest points per game against Seattle (2.17) in NHL history.

Following 4-2 victories against the Kraken on Jan. 4 at Climate Pledge Arena and Jan. 27 at Rogers Place, the Oilers were victorious this past Saturday against them after Nugent-Hopkins notched his fourth career hat-trick in a 5-4 win. Adam Henrique and Jeff Skinner also got on the scoresheet, and Stuart made 28 saves for his eighth career win over the Kraken.