{"id":537183,"date":"2026-03-15T03:15:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T03:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/537183\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T03:15:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T03:15:51","slug":"edmonton-looks-to-end-road-trip-on-high-note-against-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/537183\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton looks to end road trip on high note against Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

It won\u2019t be enough to surge forth into the playoffs in a stacked Central Division<\/a>, and likely not enough to get them to a wild-card spot, but a 6-1-1 stretch out of the Olympic break means the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> can\u2019t take them lightly.Edmonton Oilers at St. Louis BluesDate: Friday, March 13, 2026Start time: 6 p.m. MTLocation: St. Louis, MissouriVenue: Enterprise CenterWatch: Sportsnet1.\u00a0The Blues\u2019 resurgence has seen some big offensive performances by their top line of Dylan Holloway<\/a>, Jimmy Snuggerud and Robert Thomas. The trio each have over a point per game over this eight-game stretch, with Holloway scoring five goals and 12 points, Snuggerud scoring five goals and 10 points, and Thomas scoring four goals and 10 points. Old friend Philip Broberg, meanwhile, has a goal and four points, and is now quarterbacking their top power-play unit.<\/p>\n

2. Strong starts to games have been crucial for the Oilers this season, but not so much for the Blues. Edmonton has gone 24-4-4 when scoring first in games and a measly 8-22-4 when their opponent scores first. The Blues, meanwhile, are 19-10-8 when scoring first, and 7-19-2 when St. Louis\u2019 opposition scores first.<\/p>\n

3. St. Louis is also playing on the second half of a back-to-back tonight, after beating the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh Thursday night. Carolina opened the scoring 8:38 into the first period before Snuggerud scored a pair of goals and Pavel Buchnevich added an empty-netter.<\/p>\n

Jordan Binnington tended the crease, stopping 29 of 30 shots for a .969 save percentage, in a game in which he posted the second-highest save percentage in a game this year. That means the Oilers will likely see Joel Hofer, who has seemingly usurped Binnington as the No. 1 as of late. If he gets the start, tonight\u2019s game will mark Hofer\u2019s first career start against the Oilers.<\/p>\n

Connor Ingram is slated to start for the Oilers, and he\u2019s posted strong numbers against St. Louis in his career, going 6-5-2 with a 1.68 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage.<\/p>\n

4. The Oilers and Blues have been among the worst teams in the first-half of a back-to-back this season. Edmonton has a 4-7 record in them, posting a measly .364 points percentage, the 28th-ranked mark in the league. St. Louis, meanwhile, has a 4-6-1 record and a .409 points percentage, ranking 26th.<\/p>\n

Where things change is in the second half of back-to-backs. The Blues are one of the best teams, ranking ninth in the league, with a 6-3-2 record and a .636 points percentage. The Oilers? 3-4-4 for a 20th-ranked .455.<\/p>\n

5. Friday\u2019s game marks the third and final meeting between the Oilers and Blues this season. Edmonton lost the first game on Nov. 3, 3-2, but rebounded well in the second game on Jan. 18, with a 5-0 victory. Ingram posted a 27-save shutout in that second game, as Zach Hyman scored two goals and three points, Vasily Podkolzin had a goal and an assist, and Connor McDavid and Mattias Ekholm both had two assists.<\/p>\n

6. Edmonton will look to close out their four-game road trip on a high note, securing road wins over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday and Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, dropping Thursday\u2019s game in a disappointing way to the Dallas Stars. A 3-1 road trip would be nothing short of a success, given Edmonton\u2019s meagre 16-15-4 road record this season.<\/p>\n

What they said\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve definitely kind of dug in for each other,\u201d Holloway said. \u201cIt seems like right now we\u2019re really pulling through together as a team. We\u2019re playing smart hockey. We\u2019re playing kind of the way our team is built and playing to our identity. Once you get a couple games like that, everybody feels it. You know what it takes to win and you kind of try and keep that momentum going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you play together you can beat any team in this league. We\u2019re all buying in. We\u2019re blocking shots, we\u2019re playing free. I think sometimes around (NHL trade deadline) time it gets a little tense. After that, you\u2019re allowed to not think and just play. I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing. It\u2019s good to see us just focusing on getting better and better every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zach Laing is Oilersnation\u2019s managing editor, and The Nation Network\u2019s news director. He also makes up one-half of the Daily Faceoff DFS Hockey Report<\/a>. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing<\/a>, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It won\u2019t be enough to surge forth into the playoffs in a stacked Central Division, and likely not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-537183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}