The Edmonton Oilers kick off a four-game road trip tonight in Dallas on the heels of an impressive 9-2 victory over the league-leading Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.

"No, we can't," said Renney when asked if the team can ease up after a big win Saturday. "They had a very, very good start to the season. I think we need to continue to work on our game. We've been really good at times this year and then we haven't been very good, too. It's about consistency and in order to embrace that you have to pay attention to your own game."

The Stars started out the season on fire at 11-3-0 but have dropped each of their last five games. They've struggled, too, allowing 21 goals over those five games -- 16 goals against in the last 10 periods of play alone.

"We know these guys are in a bit of a skid but by no means should you take any team lightly," cautioned Ryan Smyth. He added that the team needs to play a simple game in order to have success -- the kind of game they played earlier on in the year.

"I thought we played a good solid 60 minutes at home against Chicago. When you do that, you get the result we did."

Nikolai Khabibulin gets the start in goal once again for the Oilers.

FOURTH LINE SHUFFLE

Despite the big win, Oilers head coach Tom Renney has decided to shake up the fourth line.

"Everybody played well enough to keep playing, no question about that," said Renney.

Lennart Petrell draws back into the lineup along with Darcy Hordichuk. Magnus Paajarvi and Ben Eager will sit this one out.

"We've got Hordy now to the point where he can play, and needs to," Renney said of the insertion of Hordichuk back in the lineup for the first time since he injured his knee on October 15. "I think it might be one of those nights where we need all of our penalty killers, not just four or five or anything less than six so the bottom line is I need to get (Petrell) back in the lineup to do that and add a physical element to our game." 

That physical element is key against a Dallas team that can be a bit rough-and-tumble.

"We need a physical presence. We need a forecheck. We need to make sure we're on the body as much as we can," Renney continued. "We need to make sure it's contagious throughout our lineup."

For Hordichuk, the head coach wants him to play a simple game first and foremost beyond the physical element he's sure to bring.

"The trick there is be smart, have good timing and be a player first."

As for Petrell, with Sheldon Souray on the other team he may be in the line of fire the first few times he goes down to block one of his patented rockets from the point.

"We haven't told him anything about that other guy," Renney chuckled. "We're trying to keep that quiet. 'Just block those shots Pet.'"

SOURAY'S RETURN

After a tumultuous time in the Oilers organization, Souray will face his old team for the first time. However, the blueliner is just treating this like another game.

"It's just a regular game day so there's no problem talking. We're just focusing here tonight. It's a big game for us. We're needing the points. We're in a little bit of a tailspin here," Souray began.

"Edmonton wasn't the first team I played for. It's been a couple years since I played there. It's just a regular game for us. It's been awhile since I've been an Oiler. Just trying to focus on tonight and what we have to do here."

Souray has done well with the Stars, putting up four goals and 13 points in 19 games so far with a +9 rating. He ranks first on the team among defencemen and third overall.

-- Marc Ciampa, edmontonoilers.com

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