Oilers look to limit losing skid on New Year's Eve vs. Utah

The Edmonton Oilers remember their first time playing the Utah Hockey Club – a hard-fought overtime win a month ago – and also know they're coming off their first set of back-to-back losses since mid-November.

Combine that with Utah's loss late last night in Seattle and the heat's on the Oilers to keep their brief skid from turning into a longer slide Tuesday night (7 p.m.) against the Salt Lake City-based team.

Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins told media Tuesday morning competing and defeating a skilled Utah side will require his team to "dial it up a little bit more," certainly more than what they showed in their last game, a 5-3 road loss on Sunday to the Anaheim Ducks in which Edmonton decidedly let their collective foot off the gas after taking an early lead.

"Over the past couple of years, we've been good at responding in games where we need to," said Nugent-Hopkins, whose Oilers also dropped a 4-3 overtime decision on Saturday to the Kings in Los Angeles.

"I think when you lose a couple in a row, you've got to have that sense of urgency ... I expect that from us tonight. Obviously, you never want to string together a streak of losses. It takes a mature team to find your way out of that."

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The Utah Hockey Club started operation in Salt Lake City this season after relocating there from Arizona, where the franchise had spent 28 years as the Coyotes. It started its hockey life as the original Winnipeg Jets.

Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm said while he doesn't "necessarily love looking at the opponent too much" before a game, Utah left a big impression on Edmonton when they faced off for the first time on Nov. 30 in Salt Lake City, a back-and-forth 4-3 Edmonton OT victory that saw the visitors fall behind 2-0 before scoring three straight goals to take the lead until Utah tied it late. Nugent-Hopkins scored the winner 1:18 into overtime. The shot clock (32-31 in favour of the Oilers) was almost even.

"We know they're a skilled group, and they usually have a good power play," Ekholm said. "We've got to make sure we're on top of our game ... I know what our group can do, and when we're on top of our game, good things usually happen."

Nugent-Hopkins said Utah is not only a skilled team – led in scoring by the likes of Clayton Keller (13 goals and 24 assists for 37 points in 36 games played), Edmonton native Dylan Guenther (36GP-16G-16A-32PT) and Logan Cooley (36GP-9G-23A-32PT) – "they definitely make it harder to create anything."

"They play you hard. They're in your face a lot," Nugent-Hopkins said. "They have a lot of structure and then the high-end skill. You can't give them anything easy."

Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch talks to media on Dec. 31, 2024. (Credit: TSN)

Coach hopes players 'receptive' to suggestions

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said Tuesday morning he's looking for his players to respond following Sunday's let-down in Anaheim.

"It's on them, it's on the coaching staff, it's on everyone to get a little bit better, and the coaches recognize some things that we didn't do well and why we had the result we did the other day, and (we'll) try to get better at those areas," said Knoblauch, who revealed winger Jeff Skinner will return to the Oilers' lineup after sitting out as a healthy scratch against the Ducks.

"It's up to the players to be receptive to those suggestions and making sure that they address them. The game's about mistakes, and there's going to be mistakes.

"And just because we address something, talk about something, practice about something, it's not going to be eliminated, but you're trying to get your team to be better, and hopefully we address some things that will make us better."

Utah Hockey Club forward Dylan Guenther talks to media at Edmonton's Rogers Place on Dec. 31, 2024. (Darcy Seaton/CTV News Edmonton)

Ex-Oil King key offensive cog in Utah

Guenther, 21, has been a central piece of Utah's attack this season.

After spending his first two professional seasons between the National Hockey League and the minors or junior, the ninth overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft has cemented his role among the team's top-six forwards and leads it in goal-scoring with 16 coming into Tuesday's game in Edmonton.

Fans at Rogers Place aren't surprised by that, however, having witnessed Guenther's rise in major junior with the Edmonton Oil Kings and having watched him help lead the Western Hockey League club to a championship and a Memorial Cup berth in 2022.

Tuesday's game isn't his first NHL foray at Rogers Place – he first played against the Oilers in Edmonton with the Coyotes two years ago – but coming back to the arena in which he starred as a junior is special, he said.

"It's always nice to be back and play against some guys I grew up watching, and also have some friends and family in the building," Guenther told media.

"I'm warming up on the other side, a bit of a bigger crowd, but I've played a lot of games in this building and have a lot of really good memories, too."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach