The Edmonton Oilers will try to snap a four-game winless skid Tuesday night when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers at Rogers Place (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 5:30 p.m., game at 7 p.m.).
The Oilers are 0-1-3 in that span. They’ve been up 4-2 after two periods in their last two games but wound up losing in a shootout to the New York Rangers on Friday, then in overtime to Colorado on Sunday.
“Especially later in the season, you have to find a way to close out games. We didn’t do that the last couple of nights,” said forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “We have to find a way to get some confidence back when you have a lead and play with some poise.”
“There are moments in those third periods we know we can better in. So where do we go from there. Do we learn from them and use it as an opportunity to get better so that when we get into the month of May and the month of June, games get closed out? That’s what the hope is, but we have to see it,” said head coach Jay Woodcroft.
The Flyers beat the Oilers 2-1 in a shootout on February 9. It was a good goalie duel between two Edmonton-area goalies: Carter Hart of the Flyers and the Oilers Stuart Skinner.
“It was our first time I ever played against him in the NHL,” said Skinner, who has been going head-to-head with Hart since their days in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League. “It’s nice that we are friends because it keeps things a little lighter.”
“Good goalie,” said Nugent-Hopkins of Hart. “He made some big saves for them. At the some time, I thought Philly played a hard game, didn’t give up much.”
The Oilers are expected to go with eleven forwards and seven defencemen. Neither Evander Kane nor Klim Kostin took the morning skate. Blueliner Vincent Desharnais is expected to return after missing three games with an illness and a brief assignment to the AHL.