Oilers at Kings
Two Pacific Division rivals desperately in need of a victory face off Thursday as the Edmonton Oilers continue their three-game road trip against the Los Angeles Kings. Edmonton was riding high in the Pacific but has come back down to the ground thanks to a losing streak that reached four games Tuesday with a 4-1 setback in the opener of its trek at Anaheim, which pulled into a tie with the Oilers atop the division.
Sophomore sensation Connor McDavid attempts to begin a new point streak after his four-gamer ended against the Ducks. The Oilers' scoring leader with 19 points, McDavid has gone nine contests without a goal - last tallying on Oct. 28 at Vancouver. Los Angeles returns home from a five-game road trip that concluded with four straight defeats, although it earned one point during the slide with a shootout setback at Winnipeg on Sunday. The Kings have scored a total of five goals on their skid after registering 12 tallies in back-to-back shutout victories over Calgary and Toronto.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, Sportsnet360 (Edmonton), FSN West (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE OILERS (9-7-1): Patrick Maroon leads the team with six goals and has collected seven points in his last seven games. The 28-year-old left wing has recorded 14 tallies and nine assists in 33 contests since being acquired from Anaheim at last season's trade deadline. Jordan Eberle scored three goals in his first four games of the season but has registered only two in his last 13 contests, with both coming on Nov. 8 at Pittsburgh.
ABOUT THE KINGS (7-9-1): Former captain Dustin Brown scored the lone goal in Tuesday's 4-1 loss at Colorado to tie Jim Fox (479) for ninth place on the franchise points list and pull within one tally of Charlie Simmer (222) for eighth in club history. Anze Kopitar, who has missed two games with an upper-body injury, was a limited participant in Wednesday's practice and is unlikely to play against Edmonton. "The so-called status hasn't changed, it's day-to-day," Kopitar told LAKingsinsider.com. "It's been feeling better and better but just not quite to where I need to be and not quite good enough, obviously, to play. So that's where I'm at."
OVERTIME
1. The Oilers entered Wednesday tied for fourth in penalty-killing with an 87.5 percent success rate.
2. Los Angeles C Jeff Carter, the team's lone player with a double-digit point total (11), has gone four games without a goal.
3. Edmonton has won only two of its last nine games after beginning the season with a 7-1-0 record.