PROJECTED LINEUP: Oilers vs. Sharks

“To be involved in the crime you need to defend yourself,” Knobloch said. “Every team that scores a lot of goals, their defensemen are getting involved in making plays. They’re scoring goals, or they’re creating pucks on forwards or getting them to the net so we can get rebounds. You need your defensemen to be a bigger part of your offense, and we’ve definitely seen that the last few games with back-to-back hat tricks. But overall, they’re playing great as a group.

“A lot of it also has to do with Wallman coming back. Wallman is an offensive guy who moves the puck well and can make some plays. So moving forward, yes, we want to continue to do that. But overall, he mentioned the defensive side of it, and we need to reduce our goals against.”

Jake Wallman didn’t record any of those four straight goals on Tuesday, but as Knoblauch noted, the 29-year-old has been an excellent addition to the lineup since returning from a two-month injury layoff on Jan. 13 against the Nashville Predators after missing the previous 23 games.

“The rest of us are getting a little jealous,” Wallman joked. “But no, it’s amazing. That statistic and the record they set is amazing. Everyone in our D corps can add points and create offense. So it’s good to see it gives the whole group confidence.

Despite winning their last two games with a total of 13 goals, the Oilers have allowed nine goals in that span, and their defensive team will be looking to step up their play in their zone to help reduce the stress on their netminders and forwards, who are being helped by their offensive possession.

“I think it’s getting a stop in the D zone,” Wallman said. “Our forward team is very powerful, so we’ll hold them off as much as possible. Try to limit the other team’s time in our zone and play in the O zone as much as we can. Just be a little tougher, do little things and try to play in their zone.”