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Despite sitting last in the Western Conference, the Edmonton Oilers enter Thursdays tilt with the Buffalo Sabres on a two-game winning streak and are coming off Tuesdays 5-1 home victory over Nashville. Catch the game on TSN starting at 9:30pm et/6:30pm pt. Jordan Eberle had two goals and an assist to lead the Oilers in the rout of the Predators. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and two assists while Sam Gagner also scored for Edmonton. Eberle is also ailing, tending to a knee injury sustained in Tuesdays victory and will sit out tonights contest. Nail Yakupov has been sidelined by a sore ankle and will also miss tonights action. Gagner has 10 points in his last 11 games and recently told the Oilers official web site how hes playing with more confidence since the Olympic break. "Im feeling better, Im feeling more confident," Gagner said. "Im obviously not happy with how my year has gone. I think the Olympic break was good for me to just kind of refocus and Im feeling better and our team is playing a lot better" All told, the 24-year-old Gagner has eight goals and 25 assists in 56 games in 2013-14 after recording 38 points (14 goals, 24 assists) in 48 tilts last season. Taylor Hall added the other goal for the Oilers and Viktor Fasth stopped 28 shots in the win. Edmonton improved to 13-16-3 at Rexall Place this season and is playing the second test of a six-game homestand tonight. The Oilers halted a six-game losing streak in the series with the Sabres by recording a 3-2 win in Buffalo on Feb. 3. Ilya Bryzgalov made 42 saves to help Edmonton register that regulation victory, but the goaltender has since been traded to Minnesota. Ben Scrivens gets the call between the pipes for the Oilers this evening. Meanwhile for the Sabres, it has already been a trying season. The club will try to avoid its longest losing streak of this difficult campaign when the Sabres visit the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place. Buffalo is at the bottom of the NHL standings with just 46 points. The next- worst team is the Oilers, but Edmonton is still 13 points ahead of the lowly Sabres, who have lost seven straight in regulation. The teams current skid matches a season-opening 0-6-1 stretch from Oct. 2-14 for the longest winless drought of 2013-14. Buffalo has managed just six goals over the course of its present slide. Buffalo began a five-game road trip Tuesday night in Calgary and dropped a 3-1 decision to the Flames. Mike Cammalleri and Paul Byron scored in the third period to help Calgary pull away for the win at the Saddledome. Drew Stafford scored the lone goal for the Sabres, who have lost four straight on the road and are 7-22-3 as the guest this season. Nathan Lieuwen made his first NHL start and turned aside 23 shots in the loss. Lieuwen was recalled from Buffalos AHL affiliate in Rochester on Sunday and made his NHL debut later that day in a 2-0 loss to Montreal after Jhonas Enroth left 36 minutes in with a lower-body injury. The 22-year-old Lieuwen was playing for the fourth time in five days after starting games for Rochester on Friday and Saturday. "I thought he (Lieuwen) played well," Sabres interim head coach Ted Nolan said. "The second goal we kind of backed right into him and we lost our positioning. They got a good shot and tipped it in. Overall I thought he played well." With Enroth and fellow goaltender Michal Neuvirth expected to miss tonights game with injuries, Matt Hackett will get the call in net. Hackett, 24, has seen action in 13 NHL games, but last played at this level when he started for Minnesota at Dallas on March 29 of last season and he surrendered five goals on 33 shots to take the loss in that game. Hackett is 3-7-0 with a 2.64 goals against average over his 13 career outings. Buffalo still carries a three-game road winning streak in this series into Thursdays game. Deandre Baker Jersey . The struggling New Orleans Pelicans were simply overmatched. Crawford hit seven 3s on his way to 24 points, and the Clippers beat the Pelicans 123-110 on Monday night. "We understand what we do well. If we all do what we do well, well make our team stronger," Crawford said. Doug Kotar Womens Jersey . Minutes before the final whistle of Sporting Kansas Citys 3-0 victory over a shorthanded Montreal Impact squad on Saturday afternoon, Saputo tweeted: "Our fans deserve better. http://www.authenticnygiantspro.com/Julian-love-giants-jersey/ .com) - The Columbus Blue Jackets rewarded starting goaltender and pending restricted free agent Sergei Bobrovsky with a four-year contract extension on Friday. Custom New York Giants Jerseys .com) - Many people at Eastern Washington are waiting to see if star quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. Daniel Jones Giants Jersey .com) - The Grand Slam season will get underway Monday at the Australian Open in Melbourne, where a new champion will be crowned this year.PARIS -- Marianne Vos of the Netherlands won the inaugural womens version of the Tour de France on Sunday, a 55-mile (88.5 km) circuit on the famous cobblestones of ParisChamps-Elysees. "I felt quite good," the Rabobank-Liv team rider said after the race. "My team was upfront all the time -- we were in every breakaway so I could stay relaxed. It gave me extra motivation to be there in the final sprint and to push maximum power." Vos teammate Kirsten Wild finished second and Leah Kirchman of Canada was third. In this first edition of "La Course by le Tour de France," 120 women from 20 teams raced thirteen laps of Paris broad tree-lined boulevard for a prize of (euro)22,500. For many of the professional cyclists, being able to race in Paris was a gift in itself. "Its fantastic to be here, on the Champs-Elysees and to have this opportunity for women cycling to show ourselves in front of this crowd and in front of the whoole world," Vos said.dddddddddddd In the crowd, cycling fans were equally enthusiastic. Dirk Dillen, from Belgium, said it was about time this race was created. "Women do the same efforts as guys, so they deserve to get more in the picture. And its a very good thing that they can ride here in the picture." British Olympic silver medallist Emma Pooley said she hopes this race will be the start of something bigger. "It will take time and it has to be sustainable," said Pooley. "It has to have the viewers and the sponsors. I think this is a really good test." Tour de France Director Jean-Francois Pescheux said he was already looking to the future. "The next step will be, first to consolidate as much as possible this race, to make it sustainable in the long run, and then to try and organize a race with different stages which would really respond to the demands of professional female cyclists." ' ' '