Music: {allcanada} PANTHERS (19-11-9) at OILERS (10-23-9)

Saturday, January 10, 2015

{allcanada} PANTHERS (19-11-9) at OILERS (10-23-9)

Sunday, January 11, 2015

7:00 PM ET

PANTHERS (19-11-9) at OILERS (10-23-9)

TV: CITY, FS-F

Season series: The Edmonton Oilers swept the two-game season series with the Florida Panthers last season. Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had five assists.

Panthers team scope: Florida has won three of four to open its six-game road trip, including a 6-5 victory against the Calgary Flames on Friday. As a result of their recent hot stretch, the Panthers are now in the thick of the Eastern Conference wild-card race with multiple games in hand on every other team in the hunt. The Panthers got good news Saturday when it was announced goalie Roberto Luongo was selected to the 2015 Honda NHL All-Star Game, his fifth, and defenseman Aaron Ekblad was named to the 2015 NHL Honda All-Star Skills Competition. Although most players skated Saturday, Aleksander Barkov (illness) and Dmitry Kulikov (flu) did not. Coach Gerard Gallant said he did not know if the two forwards would be able to play Sunday.

Oilers team scope: Prior to its homestand, Edmonton had not won in regulation in nearly a month, a span of 12 games, but so far the Oilers have been impressive in what initially looked to be a brutal four games. The Oilers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Friday. They opened the homestand with a 5-2 win against the New York Islanders before losing 4-2 to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday. Edmonton remains at the bottom of the NHL standings, but winning two of its past three games has improved the mood at practice. "It's so fun to win and it does make you forget about what place you are in the standings for a couple of days," forward Taylor Hall said at practice Saturday. "For us, we need that. We need to be a relaxed group." Nugent-Hopkins found out Saturday afternoon that he would represent Edmonton at the All-Star Game.

Team Stats