Oilers at Golden Knights
The Edmonton Oilers were expected to be among the top contenders for the Pacific Division title while the expansion Vegas Golden Knights were a great unknown. Yet when the teams square off Thursday night in Las Vegas, the stumbling Oilers find themselves a staggering 28 points behind the division-leading Golden Knights.
The enormous gap in the standings aside, the fortunes of each team were on display in their respective last games. Vegas scored four unanswered goals in the third period in a 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks to improve to an NHL-best 20-4-2 at home. "There's not a lot of panic in this room, that's for sure," forward Reilly Smith said. "When we're down by a goal in the third period, we know we can battle it out." Conversely, Edmonton surrendered four third-period goals to visiting Florida to tumble to its fourth consecutive defeat. "It's frustrating for everyone in this room and the coaching staff," Oilers forward Patrick Maroon said. "Everyone is not happy with our results of late."
TV: 10 p.m. ET, Sportsnet1, Sportsnet West (Edmonton), AT&T Sportsnet-Rocky Mountain (Las Vegas)
ABOUT THE OILERS (23-28-4): Cam Talbot, who has lost three starts in a row and saw his goals-against average rise to a career-worst 3.17 after he was beaten six times in Monday's loss to Florida, pointed the finger squarely at himself. "I'd say about four of them I'd like to have back," Talbot said. "Any time you go out and score five goals, you should win a game every night. I didn't give us a chance to win tonight." Connor McDavid, who has eight tallies and four assists in the last six games, has five points in two encounters versus Vegas.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (37-15-4): David Perron scored one goal and set up another in Tuesday's victory to reach 50 points for the third time in his career -- and first since he collected a career-high 57 with Edmonton in 2013-14. Perron has been on a scoring spree over the past month, notching five goals and 12 assists over the past 13 games dating to Jan. 18. The Knights are also receiving scoring from an unexpected source -- Ryan Carpenter, a waiver-wire pickup from San Jose, has all three of his goals in the last five games.
OVERTIME
1. Vegas has scored at least one power-play goal in 10 of the past 11 games.
2. Edmonton has won both matchups, winning in a rout 8-2 on Nov. 14 and handing Vegas one of its four regulation home defeats with a 3-2 decision on Jan. 13.
3. Golden Knights F William Karlsson needs one assist to reach 100 for his career.