Nikita Kucherov and his linemates are on a roll, and so are the Tampa Bay Lightning as they continue their road swing Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers.
The Lightning (42-21-4, 88 points) arrive in Edmonton having opened a four-game road trip with consecutive 6-2 wins over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday and the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
Kucherov has racked up four goals and four assists in the two outings, while Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli both have recorded two goals and four assists.
“I think it’s just building game after game. I liked our game in Seattle and we followed it up with another win,” Cirelli said of the line that was put together for the Seattle contest.
“There’s still some things that we could clean up here and there, but whenever you get two points it’s great, and we’ve just got to keep building and looking forward for the next one.”
Tampa Bay, which has won four of the past five meetings with Edmonton, resides four points behind the Atlantic Division-leading Buffalo Sabres and four ahead of the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins.
The Lightning lost seven of nine immediately prior to this trip.
Whether it is the lineup juggling or a case of the club snapping to attention, the result is a big positive for a Tampa Bay team that has 15 games remaining in the regular season.
“Our team has played a bit more of a direct game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Every time we get in trouble, our game gets too cute. … We’ve been spending too much time in our zone, and for the last couple nights, guys have made a big effort to push that puck north.”
The Oilers (34-27-9, 77 points) are looking to rebound after a disappointing 4-0 loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday.
Edmonton, which is in second place in the Pacific Division, had a two-game winning streak snapped in the rematch of last year’s Stanley Cup Final.
“Now that’s yesterday’s news,” defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “We’ve got a big game coming up and next week, we’ve got a really big week with a lot of divisional games. We’ve got a lot of hockey ahead of us and can’t dwell on it too much.”
Despite reaching the final round in each of the past two seasons, the Oilers are struggling to find their rhythm. Edmonton’s longest winning streak this season is three games, a mark reached on only one occasion.
Despite having a shot at winning the division, the Oilers have been mediocre since the end of January with 6-8-1 mark in their last 15 games.
“If we could put our finger on it, we’d correct it fast, but it’s a hard league to win consistently, and we haven’t done a good enough job this year doing that,” forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “It’s frustrating at times, for sure, … but there’s no time to be upset and dwell on it. We gotta push forward here.”
The Oilers also will need to make another lineup change with forward Trent Frederic expected to miss the game due to an injury suffered against Florida.
Along with the importance of the game, Oilers captain Connor McDavid will push for his quest to reach a trio of offensive milestones. McDavid currently has collected 398 goals, 799 assists and 1,197 points in his career.
–Field Level Media
