Blackhawks visit sliding Oilers

The Chicago Blackhawks will try to get back in the win column tonight, as they visit the sliding Edmonton Oilers for a clash at Rexall Place.

Chicago, which leads the NHL with 27 points on the year, had won four in a row before getting dealt a 5-2 loss Friday in Calgary. The setback dropped the Blackhawks, who are playing the third test of a six-game road trip tonight, to a 5-4-1 record as the guest.

The Blackhawks allowed Curtis Glencross to post two goals and an assist in Friday's loss at the Saddledome. Viktor Stalberg and Marian Hossa netted goals for the Blackhawks, while Corey Crawford made 21 saves in the loss.

"When you play Calgary it's about working hard and making it simple and we didn't do that tonight," Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville said.

Hossa, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith all enter tonight with five-game point streaks. Toews has the most points out of three players during his run, notching five goals and five assists along the way.

Ray Emery could get the call in net tonight for Chicago rather than starting Crawford on back-to-back days. Blackhawks forward Michael Frolik (shoulder) is questionable for tonight, while defenseman Brent Seabrook (lower body) is expected to miss the contest.

While the Blackhawks had been on a roll prior to Friday's loss, the Oilers have dropped four in a row and have been outscored by the opposition, 20-8, during the slide. One of the setbacks in the skid came Sunday in Chicago, as the Blackhawks dismantled the Oilers by a 6-3 count.

Chicago has taken three straight and seven of the last nine encounters with the Oilers and the Blackhawks have claimed six consecutive meetings in Edmonton. The Blackhawks have outscored the Oilers, 30-8, during its winning streak at Rexall Place.

The Blackhawks have played twice since beating the Oilers last week, but Edmonton's only test since then was Thursday's 5-2 home loss to Ottawa. The Senators struck for a trio of first-period goals and rode that momentum to victory. The Oilers, meanwhile, had a four-game home winning streak halted and fell to 6-2-1 as the host this season.

"We had a hard time coming back from that and that's too bad," Oilers head coach Tom Renney said about the first period.

Devan Dubnyk replaced Nikolai Khabibulin to start the middle stanza and stopped seven shots for the Oilers, who received goals from Anton Lander and Ryan Jones.

The Oilers have been battling a slew of injuries lately and the club recently learned that it will be without defenseman Cam Barker for the next three months. Barker sat out the last three games after suffering an injury to his left ankle in Boston on Nov. 10. The 25-year-old former Blackhawk underwent surgery on Thursday to repair the ankle.

Barker, who signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal with Edmonton this summer, has one goal and a plus-three rating this season.

Edmonton defensemen Andy Sutton (groin) and Corey Potter (ankle) are questionable for tonight and the Oilers have recalled blueliners Colten Teubert and Taylor Chorney from Oklahoma City of the AHL to potentially suit up tonight.

Oilers forward Sam Gagner could also miss a second straight game tonight with a sore back.