The Edmonton Oilers have seemingly fixed the kinks in their armor at the perfect time during a season filled with question marks.
The lack of depth and trustworthy goaltending options have continually been the topic of conversation when it came to the Oilers’ struggles during the 2025-26 regular season.
A 27-save shutout from Connor Ingram as a part of a 3-0 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday helped to silence the doubters as the Oilers (38-28-9, 85 points) head into Thursday’s home clash with the Chicago Blackhawks carrying a four-game win streak for the first time this season.
Connor McDavid stretched his point streak to five games with an empty-net marker (six goals, four assists), while the Oilers’ depth chipped in as Max Jones and Kasperi Kapanen each scored in the first period.
“As third- and fourth-line guys, we just try to do as much as we can and generate energy,” Kapanen said when asked about the Oilers’ depth offensive roles. “…On the power play, we’ll score a couple and the PKs been doing a lot better job than it was earlier this year. It’s all coming together at the perfect time right now, so we’re happy where we’re at.”
The Oilers’ blanking of Seattle came just three days after they picked up a massive 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks, a team they are chasing for the top spot in the Pacific division.
“Our game isn’t sexy right now, it’s not fancy,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It’s just a lot of little things, and that’s usually the difference between winning and losing.”
Luckily for the Oilers, the Blackhawks present a perfect opportunity to extend their season-long win streak seeing as they have gotten the best of Chicago in each of their past four meetings and 11 of their previous 12 clashes.
Not only is past history on Edmonton’s side, the Blackhawks (27-34-14, 68 points) stumble into the matchup mired in a four-game skid and a dreary stretch of just two wins over their past 10 games (2-5-3).
The Blackhawks’ most recent defeat has given them plenty to build off of though after they fell to the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 in overtime on Tuesday.
Former third overall draft selection Anton Frondell scored his first career NHL goal and Tyler Bertuzzi found the back of the net twice to reach a new career high of 31 goals this season.
“We were excellent in the third and I think we only gave up one chance in the third,” Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill stated following the hard-fought loss. “I don’t want to say we deserved a better fate because at the end of the night chances were exactly equal. We haven’t been good enough on 3-on-3, so that’s frustrating for all of us.”
It took Frondell just five games to find his first career marker after he had picked up four assists through his first four contests.
“An amazing feeling,” Frondell said. “A dream come true and happy to do it in my first home game.”
As for Chicago’s other youthful talent, Connor Bedard has been struggling to score of late, tallying just three goals and one assist over his past eight games.
