It certainly hasn't been a December to remember for the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames.

These provincial rivals have been the Western Conference's worst teams this month heading into Saturday night's matchup in Calgary in this season's second 'Battle of Alberta.'

Edmonton (7-21-7) has produced a league-worst five points this month, with Calgary totaling two more to match Carolina's 3-7-1 record in December as second-worst.

The Oilers are enduring an 0-6-2 slide that isn't even as bad as their 0-7-4 winless run Nov. 11-Dec. 3. They have one victory in their last 20 games, and the league's worst team was eager for a three-day break between games over the holidays.

"This season, I couldn't imagine a worse start to a year than we have," winger Taylor Hall said. "But it will be a new year and I think this break will do nothing but good for our team."

Calgary (18-15-3) would be mired with the same number of December points as its rivals to the north if not for Monday's 4-3 overtime win at Los Angeles that ended a 0-7-1 slide. The Flames seemed headed for another listless defeat as they trailed by three goals before rallying as rookie Johnny Gaudreau scored twice in the final 2:12 of regulation before Mark Giordano's winning goal.

Giordano increased his team-high point total to 34 to lead all NHL defensemen.

"Nothing impresses me anymore about Mark Giordano," coach Bob Hartley said. "It's consistency, all the time, (he) always shows up."

The coach said that the Flames are using Monday's effort as the start of a new season, with this contest beginning a six-game homestand.

"We're back in front of our fans against the Oilers, game two of our seven-game segment and that's how we prepare," Hartley said. "There's no sense dwelling on the losses."

The Flames seek to avoid extending their home slide to four - their longest since losing seven in a row Dec. 27, 2013-Jan. 16, 2014.

Being at home may not be good since the visiting team has taken the last eight meetings in this series. The Flames won 5-2 at Edmonton on Oct. 9 behind a hat trick from Mason Raymond, who has two goals in 16 games since.

The Oilers visit Calgary twice in the next five days after another dismal performance in Tuesday's 5-1 defeat to similarly lowly Arizona. Ben Scrivens allowed two goals on three shots in the first 5 minutes before he was pulled for Viktor Fasth.

"We obviously took a step back tonight," interim coach Todd Nelson said. "It wasn't the game that we wanted. I thought that our execution was pretty poor."

Nelson is 0-2-2 since replacing the fired Dallas Eakins on Dec. 15.

Edmonton owns the NHL's fifth-worst attack with 2.14 goals per game and the league's worst defense, yielding an average of 3.40 goals.

The Oilers are last in the league on the power play on the road at 5.3 percent, coming up empty in 21 straight chances. Edmonton enters on a 0-5-4 road slide - its worst since going 0-8-2 from March 2-April 3, 2010.

 

Flames Projected Lines:

Forwards

Glencross-Monahan-Jones

Gaudreau-Granlund-Hudler

Raymond-Colborne-Byron

Bollig-Stajan-Bouma

Defence

Giordano-Brodie

Russell-Wideman

Diaz-Engelland

Goalies

Hiller - starting

Ramo

Oilers Projected Lines:

Forwards

Hall-Nugent Hopkins-Eberle

Perron-Gordon-Putcell

Pitlick-Draisailte-Yakupov

Hendricks-Arcobello-Pinizzotto

Defence

Ference-Petry

Hunt-Schultz

Klefbom-Fayne

Goalies

Fasth - likely starter

Scrivens