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The Oilers return to Rogers Place on Wednesday night to begin a two-game homestand against the Detroit Red Wings.
You can watch the game on Sportsnet One & West or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED.
Subscribe to Oilers+ to unlock the Pre-Game Show that will begin at 7:00 p.m. MT, along with more exclusive live and behind-the-scenes content.

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS

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INSIDE THE OILERS

News and notes from Oilers practice at Rogers Place on Tuesday, where Coach Woodcroft talked about his team's need to respond against a Detroit team that will be up for the challenge.
>> READ MORE IN THE INSIDE THE OILERS BLOG

PRE-GAME REPORT

EDMONTON, AB - The Oilers return home to Rogers Place looking to get back on track after a brief setback in Montreal to end their recent four-game road trip.
Edmonton had gone 11-consecutive contests where they had registered at least a point, but the second game of the back-to-back was ultimately the undoing of that streak. Despite a 2-1-1 road trip, the Oilers Captain knows that this team is capable of much more heading into Wednesday night's contest against the Detroit Red Wings.
"I mean, picking up five-of-eight points is not terrible, but It's not it's not great either," Connor McDavid said. "We felt like our game, before the break, we felt we were playing good. I think our game has maybe taken a bit of a step back since, and we've got to find it again pretty quick."
The Oilers recipe for success as of late has been Head Coach Jay Woodcroft's usage of 11 forwards and seven defencemen on a regular basis. The setup has allowed the Oilers coach to create competition among the forward group for ice time, while slotting his defencemen in situational roles which greater fit their strengths.
It was Warren Foegele, who sat out in the game before the NHL All-Star break, who responded with a goal in his first game back against the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 7. In his stead, Jesse Puljujarvi was relegated to watching the game from the press box above. The Finnish forward was re-inserted into the lineup against the Ottawa Senators and rewarded his coach with the game-winning goal in his 12:18 of ice time.
The breeding of competition among a locker room all pulling in the same direction has helped elevate the entire team's level of play.
"(Coaches) can say all we want, but when players feel the competition to be in the lineup, I think that says all that needs to be said. I think one of the things that we've had going on here since Christmas time is that it's been very competitive to get into our lineup," Woodcroft said. "Sometimes guys get taken out of it for reasons that have nothing to do with poor play. It's just the fact that we want to look a certain way, and that means some good players don't get into the lineup that night. I think maintaining that level of flexibility is important for us. I think it's helped us have the type of success that we've had in the month of January and early February."
Another area where Edmonton has seen a reversal of fortunes is in their home record. Edmonton entered the New Year with an 8-11-1 record at Rogers Place and now sport a 13-11-3 mark prior to tonight's matchup against the Red Wings.
"You've got to win at home, and we know that obviously," McDavid said. "We haven't been good enough at home all season long and it feels like we've been gaining a little bit of momentum here. We're just really focusing on our game when we're here, and we've put a few together in a row here, and need to do it again tonight."

PRE-RAW | Connor McDavid 02.15.22

FIGHTING CHANCE

The Oilers won't have thing easy tonight.
Despite the Red Wings currently sitting 22nd in the league, they come into Edmonton winners of three straight and are 6-3-1 over their last 10. Detroit's last loss was to Edmonton just over a week ago, with the Oilers escaping a feisty affair at Little Caesars Arena with a 5-2 win. Although the margin of victory was well in the Oilers favour, the game was tightly contested up until the game's final few minutes with a pair of Jack Campbell breakaway stops keeping the Red Wings from levelling the game.
The teams came out flying and fighting with 32 penalties-in-minutes on the night, with 14 of those minutes being for roughing and four being for crosschecking - all coming in the final two periods. Evander Kane and Connor McDavid were asked about the possibility of last week's animosity boiling over into tonight's contest.
"I think I maybe can (see that), just because it was not too long ago, but we'll see," Kane said.
"I guess we'll see," McDavid added. "I know they've been playing well since our game. They've put together a couple of good wins and are another good test for us"
The electric atmosphere of the last matchup was a perfect jumpstart for an Oilers team coming out of a prolonged All-Star Break. There could have been an inclination to ease back into action, but the Red Wings certainly didn't allow that -- and it was a style of game the Oilers were more than willing to oblige in.
"It's weird coming off a long break like we had and Detroit coming off their break. You don't know what you're going to get in those types of games," Woodcroft said about the contest. "I thought it was a competitive game. I think they're fighting to gain points to make a playoff push. We're fighting for the same points to secure a place in the playoffs. If you put all those factors into that stew, sometimes it bubbles over."
Edmonton has shown they are not willing to pushed around over their stretch of success. Coach Woodcroft has alluded to the team's top-rated power play as a form of team toughness, but they are also willing to show toughness while things are five-on-five.
It can be Evander Kane -- who picked up his first fighting major with the Blue & Orange in a tilt on Saturday against Ottawa's Brady Tkachuk -- who is willing to mix it up physically. Or, it can be the towering Vincent Desharnais who showed his eagerness in Montreal to step up for a teammate. That mindset has permeated throughout the team with eight different players with fighting majors this season, while Jesse Puljujarvi and Klim Kostin both have multiple tilts.
"I think we are a group that can play in those games. We got some big boys that like to play physical and can play that type of game if that's how teams want to play," Kane said. "I think we feel pretty good about our group in terms of any style of the game that a team wants to play and if that's the route teams want to take, we're happy to do that."

PRE-RAW | Evander Kane 02.15.22

WILD, WILD, WEST

Points, like the two up for grabs tonight against the Red Wings -- while no more valuable than the ones available in the first game of the season --they certainly start to feel like they are in the post All-Star NHL.
The Oilers are jockeying for position in a Western Conference will no real lead horse. Edmonton currently holds the second wildcard spot but are just three points out of the division lead and five points (with a game in hand) out of the conference leading Dallas Stars. The tightness of the standings will certainly make for an entertaining race to the finish, and it's one the Oilers hope to find themselves on the podium in the end.
"I think our division specifically is so tight, you can be in the second wildcard spot, and then you can be in first place in a matter of maybe three days," Kane said. "I think teams are still jockeying for position, teams are still trying to find their game and get more consistent. For us, I think we have a real good confidence with where we are as a group and what we can do down the stretch here and into the postseason. I don't know if there's a Colorado like there was last year, but hopefully we can be that team come the end of the year."
Coach Woodcroft isn't much for standings watching, preferring to keep his focus on the 'day's business.' A hyper focus on the task at hand is common characteristic in the coaching fraternity. It is one Woodcroft has preached since day one and continues to preach heading into Wednesday night's game.
"Right now, today, we have a very good team coming in to play us -- a team that played us hard a week ago and a team that hasn't lost since that game," he said. "That is where our focus is."
-- Michael Arcuri, EdmontonOilers.com

PRE-RAW | Jay Woodcroft 02.15.23

PREVIEW

OILERS vs. RED WINGS
WATCH: 7:30 p.m. MT; televised on Sportsnet One & West
Oilers Team Scope
It was a poor result for the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday afternoon that was justified in the eyes of Head Coach Jay Woodcroft: "I thought both teams got what they deserved," he said.
In the second of back-to-back matinees to close out a four-game road trip, the Oilers saw their 11-game point streak end in a 6-2 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.
Alex Belzile gave the Habs their deserved lead 8:14 into the first period before Jordan Harris and Josh Anderson made matters worse for Edmonton in the middle frame's first half. Evander Kane and Vincent Desharnais looked to have sparked the Oilers soon after with trips to the penalty box, leading to goals from Leon Draisaitl and Kane himself to make it 3-2, but Rafael Harvey-Pinard scored on the power play with 1:19 left in the period to restore the two-goal Montreal lead.
The third period would be a forgettable one before the final buzzer sounded on a 6-2 defeat, ending Edmonton's 9-0-2 unbeaten in regulation run and Connor McDavid's 15-game point streak.
"Montreal played a very good game and credit to them, I didn't think were very sharp at all," Woodcroft said. "We got what we deserved. We ended up getting behind the game and we made a push there in the second period which made it close, but in the end we didn't get it done."
The Oilers returned home and hit the ice at Rogers Place for practice on Tuesday, with forwards Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane taking maintenance days with the expectation from Woodcroft that they'll be able to go on Wednesday versus the Wings. Klim Kostin and Kailer Yamamoto both skated, with the former nursing an undisclosed injury from hitting the boards awkwardly in Ottawa on Saturday.

RAW | Jay Woodcroft 02.14.23

Coach Woodcroft hopes to see an animated response from his Oilers team on Wednesday against a Red Wings side that took some hard work to get through to claim two points this past week in the Motor City.
"I'm very interested in seeing how our team plays the game tomorrow night," he said. "Nobody was happy with the way we played in Montreal. We weren't good enough and we lost the game, but that game is over. That was two days ago. For us, we're focused on a really good Detroit team that played a very good game against us in Detroit. It was a close game. I know what the score said (5-2 win), but it was a very close game and there was some emotion in that game and they came out on the wrong end of it.
"I know how I would feel if you got another crack at a team a few days later, so we expect a real challenge here tomorrow."
Red Wings Team Scope
Since that 5-2 defeat on home ice to the Oilers that still carried a lot of positives, the Red Wings have rattled off three straight victories.
The win streak for the Wings includes a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames and consecutive 5-2 and 6-1 victories over the Vancouver Canucks in a home-and-away set to move within five points of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Eastern Conference's final Wild Card spot.
"When we're successful, we're sacrificing our bodies, getting in lanes and playing with intensity," Detroit captain Dylan Larkin, who's recorded multiple goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, said. "We've done that the past three games. With Edmonton, it's gonna go that way sometimes. But the last two wins have been huge for our confidence."
Wednesday's meeting with the Oilers for Detroit will be the first of back-to-back games that continues Wednesday at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary before they carry on with their Western Conference road trip into Seattle to face the Kraken on Saturday night.
"We're playing together and playing our structure," Larkin said. "That's when we're really good. I think they are very cliché things, but that's what makes us successful. We have to do those things, especially in road games."

RAW | Zach Hyman 02.14.23

By The Numbers
The Oilers are 10-3-3 in 2023... That is tied for the third-best record in the NHL during the calendar year... The Oilers had their 11-game point streak snapped on Sunday vs. Montreal (also snapped their seven-game road point streak)... Their home point streak, however, is still intact at 6 games (4-0-2)... The Oilers have the top power play in the NHL this season, going 59-for-190 (31.1 percent)... That would be the fourth highest PP in a season in NHL history, and the highest in franchise history... The Oilers are on pace to score 89 PPG this season, which would also be their most in a season in franchise history... The Oilers have scored an NHL-high 80 goals in the second period this season (also allowing the third most goals - 75), while the Red Wings are allowing their most goals in the second period (62)...
The Red Wings are 11-5-5 vs. Western Conference opponents this season (.643) and just 13-15-3 vs. Eastern Conference opponents (.468)... Their .643 points percentage vs. the West this season would be their second highest in a season since moving from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference in 2013-14... The Red Wings went 15-0-1 vs. Oilers from Mar. 20, 2010 - Mar. 9, 2015 but are just 5-8-0 in 13 GP since the start of 2015-16... Larkin is averaging a career-high 0.98 PPG this season (previous high was 0.97 -- 69 points in 71 GP -- in 2021-22)... He is on pace for a career-high 79 points (32G, 48A) this season... He would be the first Red Wings player with back-to-back 30+ goal seasons since Pavel Datsyuk & Henrik Zetterberg both did so in 2007-08 & 2008-09 (Zetterberg had 4 straight seasons dating back to 2005-06)...
This game will feature two of the highest scoring players from the 2014 Draft: Leon Draisaitl (695 points - 1st) and Dylan Larkin (408 points -- 5th)... Draisaitl scored a goal in Sunday's 6-2 loss to Habs for his 30th of the season, giving him five total & consecutive seasons with 30+ Goals... David Perron, a former Oiler, needs three points to reach 700 for his career... He will be the 4th player from the 2007 Draft to reach 700 points... Ville Husso has won six of his last eight starts, posting a 2.14 goals-against average & .929 save percentage (was 3-6-2 with a 3.99 GAA in his previous 12 games)... McDavid needs six points to reach 800 for his career (has recorded six points in a game just once in his career on Nov. 14, 2019 vs. the Avalanche)... He will be the fifth fastest to 800 points in NHL History (only four players have needed fewer than 550 career games to record 800 points)...

RAW | Devin Shore 02.14.23

Injury Report
OILERS - Oscar Klefbom (shoulder) is on IR; Mike Smith (undisclosed) is on IR;
Ryan Murray
(undisclosed) is on IR;
Kailer Yamamoto
(undisclosed) is on IR; Klim Kostin (undisclosed) is day-to-day.
RED WINGS - Mark Pysyk (achillies) is on IR; Jake Walman (upper body) is day-to-day; Lucas Raymond (lower body) is day-to-day; Jakub Vrana (personal) is day-to-day.
-- Jamie Umbach, EdmontonOilers.com