PREVIEW: Oilers at Lightning

TAMPA, FL – If Edmonton’s experience has taught them anything about dealing with these difficult stretches, it’s that the only solution is to show trust in one another and their process before arriving the next day ready to work.

“This group is pretty resilient. This group has a lot of confidence,” defenceman Darnell Nurse said following Monday’s practice at Amalie Arena.

“We're not going to quit on ourselves or dismantle the way we think of ourselves based on a couple of efforts. With that said, we also know that we’ve got to get back to the approach of taking it one day at a time and just conquering that day by being the best we can, and the rest takes care of itself.”

After suffering back-to-back defeats coming out of the 4 Nations Face-off break to the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals, the Edmonton Oilers will attempt to regroup and get back on track as they head to Amalie Arena for a meeting with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night.

The Oilers have just two wins over their previous 14 visits to Tampa (2-11-1) and hold a record of 2-4-1 in their last seven games, with both of those victories coming in overtime against St. Louis and Chicago before the break and three of those losses being consecutive games.

Edmonton has allowed a power-play goal in each of their last six games, going 5-for-13 on the penalty kill in that span, and will look to avoid becoming the fifth team in the NHL this season to allow a PPG in seven straight games.

The Lightning have won five games in a row and earned a point in seven straight outings after beating the Seattle Kraken 4-1 on Sunday afternoon.

Tampa are 12-3-1 in their last 16 home games and hold the NHL's best home record since Jan. 7 at 8-1-1, owning a plus-10 goal differential in all three periods this season and continuing to show their perennial contender status by holding down third place in the Atlantic Division with a 32-20-4 record.

On Sunday afternoon in Washington, forward Leon Draisaitl extended his goal streak to five games with a goal and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist for the Oilers, but it finished in disappointing fashion with a 7-3 defeat to the Capitals that resulted in back-to-back afternoon defeats to push their losing streak to three games dating back to before the break.

Connor McDavid had an assist to record his ninth consecutive season with 50 helpers despite failing to record a shot on goal for only the sixth game this season. Only Sidney Crosby has more (11) among active players, and McDavid needs three assists to reach 700 for his career and become the third-fastest player to reach the mark.

McDavid didn't practice on Monday for maintenance reasons after earning an extra break for his work with Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, but the Oilers captain will no doubt be in the lineup against the Lightning on Tuesday to help his side work their way out of a mini three-game slump.

The Oilers haven’t been able to manage their details so far on this road trip that’s seen them struggle coming off a two-week layoff from action – most notably on the defence, where inconsistent puck management and an inability to play as a five-man group has come back to bite them on a few occasions.

In Philadelphia, four of the Flyers’ six goals were at even strength and a direct result of turnovers, while in Washington, the Capitals were able to pick the Oilers apart off the rush to score seven times, including Alex Ovechkin’s hat trick that leaves him 13 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894.

Goaltenders Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard have allowed a combined 11 goals on 65 shots, and the Oilers are hoping to get a little bit more out of everyone on the roster to help get back to playing the level they know they’re capable of as a team that made it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals last season and aspires to do it again and win the Pacific Division.

“We need to put last couple games behind us and learn from them,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. “But I just think everyone needs to just get a little bit better. One guy's not going to turn it around, whether it's a defenceman, forward, or a goalie standing on his head. Just collectively, we’ve got to be much better.”

Monday's practice in Tampa was a chance for the Oilers to reset and look at where they find themselves on both an individual and collective level, while observing the fact that despite the poor run they find themselves on, they're still firmly entrenched in the race for first in the Pacific Division as one of the League's top teams.

"Just come to work and keep chipping away," Nurse said. "I think our group has played a lot of good hockey over the course of the season. If you zoom out and look at it as a whole, we haven't been happy with how the last two have gone and probably a little bit of a stretch before that, but for us, we get back to work and get back to playing the way we're capable of playing."

Nurse says it's about the little details in the locker room, and that if they're able to make those minor adjustments, it can translate into making up for the shortcomings they've experienced in recent games that've costed them.

"For us as a group it's little tweaks, but it's just getting back to the simple details and work ethic as I don't think we're very far away as a group at all. I think it's just making those tweaks and the emotion that we bring to the rink and the details that we take care of on the ice each and every day.

"We take care of those, and the rest kind of takes care of itself."