PREVIEW: Oilers at Blackhawks

The Edmonton Oilers conclude their four-game road trip with a visit to the United Center to take on the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet at 5:00 MT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 880 CHED.

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PREVIEW: Oilers at Blackhawks

CHICAGO, IL – First Crosby, now Bedard.

After a poor showing in the first period against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday, the Edmonton Oilers will look to correct their mistakes with a visit to the Windy City to take on Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center on Saturday.

The Oilers were tagged for four goals in the opening 20 minutes against the Penguins, with Leon Draisaitl’s 30^th goal of the season being the only positive from a period that saw the Blue & Orange give up four in a frame for the first time this season.

After shutting out Boston 4-0 the previous game, it was an uncharacteristic period from Edmonton, who’d see their four-game win streak snapped in a 5-3 defeat despite a respectable pushback over the final two periods – including Draisaitl notching his second for his league-leading 31^st goal and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins extending his point streak to five games on the power play for his 11th goal of the season.

Edmonton outshot Pittsburgh 43-26, but goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic was up to the task of shutting down the red-hot Oilers and their weapons to hand them their first loss of 2025. Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists to pass Joe Sakic for ninth all-time on the NHL's points list with 1,643 points and forward Bryan Rust also had a goal and two assists.

"We weren't ready. They outworked us and outskated us. Attention to detail wasn't there," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said post-game.

"We had a heck of a game effort-wise against Boston, but tonight, in the first 20 minutes, we absolutely took them off, and the deficit was too big for us to overcome."

Draisaitl continues to make his case for the Hart Trophy this season as we pass the midway mark of the campaign with seven goals in his last six games and leading the NHL in goals (31), even-strength goals (24), game-winning goals (9) and OT goals (4), sitting second overall in points (61) and owning a six-goal lead in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy.

Draisaitl is the fifth player born outside of North America with seven straight 30-goal seasons (Ovechkin, Jagr, Kurri and Kovalchuk) and is on pace to eclipse 60 goals for the first time in his career, scoring over 40 four separate times and reaching 50 twice in his career (2021-22 & 2022-23).

Draisaitl’s linemate Vasily Podkolzin can’t believe some of the things the German is able to do on the ice, but he’s been a very valuable teammate who’s helped him become a better player since coming over to Edmonton in an off-season trade from Vancouver.

“Crazy. Crazy,” Podkolzin said. “Yeah, I got lucky that I’m [playing] with him right now, and I’m lucky that I see it with my own eyes right now.”

“Just don't really think overthink too much. Just play to your instincts and try to be somewhere and try to find him. Of course, he loves to play with the puck and I understand that. For me, I want to create some space or a little bit more time for him to make his play, and also be ready for a pass or a rebound.

"I try to help him and he tries to help me.”

Like Podkolzin, defenceman Ty Emberson is feeling a lot more confident heading into the second half of the season, learning more and more about what kind of player he is at the NHL level and how that can help him become a more effective player for the Oilers.

"I think just confidence and making sure that I understand the type of player that I can be and when to make a play and when not to play," he said. "And that's something I talked to [Assistant Coach Mark Stuart] about today is just that there are times to make plays and sometimes there are times not to make plays, and that's the best play you can make. So I think just continuing to build on that, making plays when they're there, but also understanding that it's not a make-or-break play."

McDavid had three helpers in the defeat to Pittsburgh to give him points in back-to-back games after his 12-game point streak came to an end in last Saturday’s 4-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken.

Following the game, McDavid remained in Pennsylvania while the team travelled to Chicago so he could attend his jersey retirement ceremony by the Erie Otters and watch his number get raised to the rafters at Erie Insurance Arena on Friday.

• BLOG: Erie Otters retire McDavid's jersey number

Goaltender Stuart Skinner looks to bounce back from his tough first period in Pittsburgh that was shared by the rest of the team, and the netminder has been good value in games following losses this season.

The Edmonton product has won each of his last eight starts following defeats, putting up a 1.75 goals-against average and .938 percentage in those games and allowing two goals or less in seven of them. Skinner is undefeated over four career starts against Chicago with a 2.00 GAA and .924 SV%.

The Blackhawks are coming off a 5-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on the road Friday and will wrap up back-to-back games back at home at the United Center against the Oilers, who they defeated 5-2 at Rogers Place back on Oct. 12 in their first meeting of the season. The two teams will wrap up the season series back in Chicago on Feb. 5.

Connor Bedard had an assist on Friday to extend his career-best point streak to nine games and is one point away from becoming the second Blackhawks’ player behind Eddie Olczyk to record 100 points as a teenager.

Teuvo Teravainen scored twice and Petr Mrazek made 23 saves for the Blackhawks, who are 14-26-2 this season after losing seven of their past nine games.