Game Night Edmonton Oilers owe the Kraken for last time

Tonight, 8 p.m., TV: SportsNet, Radio: 630 CHED

Edmonton PP: 31.5% (1st) PK: 82.8% (9th) Seattle PP: 17.7% (21st) PK: 81.0% (15th)

Edmonton Connor McDavid GP 28 G 16 A 31 Pts 47 +4 Leon Draisaitl GP 28 G 23 A 23 Pts 46 +9 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins GP 28 G 3 A 22 Pts 25 +2

Seattle Jordan Eberle GP 27 G 12 A 7 Pts 19 -15 Jaden Schwartz GP 27 G 6 A 13 Pts 19 -13 Jared McCann GP 24 G 11 A 5 Pts 16 -8

The Oilers hope Thursday’s 5-2 decision over Columbus is the start of a much-needed string of wins, but with four players and a coach in COVID-19 protocol, so far, and down to five NHL defencemen, they’re still facing some adversity. They need to settle themselves in this uncertain situation and grind out a win against the team that started that six-game losing streak on Dec. 3. The Kraken have only been in the NHL for five minutes, but the Oilers already owe them one.

The Kraken were on a 4-1-1 roll heading into their upset over Edmonton in early December, but they’ve slid to the bottom of the tank since then. They have one win in their last five starts and have been outscored 19-9. They host the Oilers and Leafs back-to-back.

Seattle’s penalty killing has been coming on strong in the last month, killing 22 of 25 penalties (88 per cent), which is the fifth best in the NHL over that span. They went four-straight games without allowing a power-play goal-against before Anaheim went one-for-two last game.

The Kraken, like the Oilers, are trying to work around COVID-19 protocol absences. They’ve had three forwards (Yanni Gourde, Riley Sheahan and Colin Blackwell) as well as an assistant coach, a video coach and another member of the travelling part in protocol isolation since last weekend.

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @Rob_Tychkowski