The Oilers will face the Bruins for the first time this season before they wrap up their series in less than two weeks at Rogers Place on New Year’s Eve.
Last year, the Oilers swept the season series by winning 3-2 in overtime in Edmonton on Dec. 19 before blanking the Bruins 4-0 at the Garden on Jan. 7, having earned at least a point in nine of their last 11 meetings (7-2-2) and winning on their previous five visits to Boston.
The Bruins are 20-14-0 this season – the only team without an overtime or shootout defeat – and have been one of the better teams in the NHL since the end of October with 16 wins in their last 23 games under Marco Sturm, who’s the second in points among Germans all-time behind Draisaitl with 487.
Sturm’s approach of having the Bruins outwork their opponents by grinding them down and keeping their energy up over the full 60 minutes has helped turn their season around, continuing on Tuesday in a 4-1 win over the Utah Mammoth that was their fifth victory over their last six games.
“I think as a team, I think we’ve really found an identity,” Casey Mittelstadt said. “Marco’s come in firm and strong on that. I think the way he wants to play fits the personnel we have as well.”
“We try to wear them down. The system we’re playing, when everybody is on the same page, it’s not easy to play against,” David Pastrnak said. “We just try to be patient, wait for our opportunities, and sometimes it works out in the third. That’s a perfect example today.”
Morgan Geekie scored two more goals on Tuesday against Utah and leads them with 24 in 34 games – 11 ahead of David Pastrnak.
The Oilers will get a look at Viktor Arvidsson for the first time in a Bruins’ sweater on Thursday when his Swedish countryman and previous Nashville & Edmonton teammate Mattias Ekholm plays in his 200th career game with the Blue & Orange.
