Styles Clash: Edmonton Oilers "O" Collides With Seattle Kraken "D"

Conclusion Of Six Game Road Trip Can't Come Soon Enough

When this week started, Thursday's clash at Rogers Place shaped up as the Edmonton Oilers' unstoppable force meeting the Seattle Kraken's immovable object.

Since mid-December, it's been impossible to stop the Oilers. They carry a league-best 11-game winning streak into tonight's game, outscoring opponents in that stretch 43-19.

For a glorious 13-game run (11-0-2), it was virtually impossible to start against the Kraken. 

Over those baker's dozen of games, Seattle surrendered a miserly 20 goals. In 11 of the 13, goalie Joey Daccord and his defense-first mates allowed two or fewer scores.

On Monday and Tuesday, however, the immovable Kraken got moved twice - losses by 3-0 in Pittsburgh, 5-2 in Manhattan. Seattle wasn't able to give the Penguins and Rangers their best, due to a host of players unavailable or under the weather.

Winger Andre Burakovsky exited Saturday's game in Columbus with what could be his third injury of a snake-bit season. Center Matty Beniers didn't finish the Blue Jackets game either, placed on IR after being boarded head-first by Cole Sillinger. 

Top-pairing defenseman Vince Dunn came to Beniers' rescue, fought Sillinger - and now he, as well as Burakovsky, is listed as day-to-day. Don't forget that a fourth Kraken, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, is still weeks from returning.

To add illness to injury, it's hard to know how many Kraken are battling the effects of flu season. Coach Dave Hakstol cited illness as the reason Dunn's top-D partner Adam Larsson was limited to four minutes TOI in Pittsburgh. 

It's not in Hakstol's best interest to reveal to us - and by extension, the Oilers - just how many of his charges are fighting through the chills, headaches, etc. that teams risk with a wintertime trip through six different hotels and six different airport terminals.

No one on the Kraken would use that as an excuse for the most recent back-to-back losses; nor would they cite injuries or a condensed schedule.

Actually, it's not an excuse; it's reality. Tonight against Connor McDavid & Company, a depleted and weary Seattle contingent concludes a bruising cross-continent itinerary of six games and two countries in 10 days: Buffalo, Washington, D.C., Columbus, Pittsburgh, New York and Edmonton.

The best news is that win or lose, one last flight will allow the Kraken to sleep in the own beds, and play just two games in the next six days; hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday and Chicago Blackhawks next Wednesday.