Vancouver Canucks at Edmonton Oilers - Saturday April 12 - 7:00 p.m. - CBC
Vancouver Canucks: 35-34-11, 81 points, 12th in Western Conference
Edmonton Oilers: 28-44-9, 65 points, 14th in Western Conference
Good news! Carolina beat Detroit on Friday night, and Winnipeg beat Boston in a shootout.
The Canucks are currently listed as 24th in the NHL, but that's because they have a game in hand on the Hurricanes, who are tied with Vancouver at 81 points. But Carolina holds the tiebreaker, with 34 regulation/overtime wins. If the Canucks lose both their games this weekend—and it's possible—they could finish with the sixth seed in the draft lottery ranking.
We'll find out soon just what this means. I haven't paid much attention in recent years, but the draft lottery will be held live on TSN next Tuesday, just before the playoffs begin. The lottery has been restructured this year, with every non-playoff team given a chance of securing that first pick.
If the Canucks finish in the seventh seed, they'll have a 4.7 percent chance of picking first overall; if they finish in the sixth seed, the possibility jumps to 6.2 percent. Long odds, but every little bit helps.
Buffalo has the first seed locked up by a mile. They'll have the best odds of any team: 25 percent.
Click here to see the chart.
But first—a game tonight in Edmonton.
Mercifully for the Oilers, it'll be their last game of a dismal season, where the team regressed from 10 points out of a playoff spot last year to 26 points out this season, going into the final weekend.
Will Edmonton fire its fourth coach in five seasons? If they do, would the Canucks consider a do-over on Dallas Eakins? He was a coveted candidate for Vancouver's job last season but I think it's fair to say his cachet won't be as strong if he's back on the market this summer.
The Canucks also considered Lindy Ruff after dismissing Alain Vigneault. In hindsight, that might have been a better 'old-school' pick than John Tortorella. Ruff has done a solid job guiding a young team in Dallas, who finally clinched their first playoff spot in six years with a win over St. Louis on Friday night.
After getting shut out of his chance to own part of the Canucks by the Aquilinis, current Stars owner Tom Gaglardi must be feeling great about his team making the postseason in just his third year at the helm—especially with Vancouver sitting on the sidelines.
The Oilers are wrapping up their season by celebrating the retirement of Ryan Smyth at age 38. Over his 19-year career, Smyth put up 386 goals and 842 points in 1,269 games, not counting tonight. He'll finish tied for 66th with Rob Blake for most NHL games played.
Known for getting into the dirty areas around the net, Smyth finishes up this year with a respectable 10 goals in 71 games.
Watch out for Smyth on the power play tonight. He's currently tied with Glenn Anderson for most career power play goals by an Oiler—one more tonight would give him sole possession of the record.
As for the Canucks, it sounds like we'll see a full complement of the kids tonight. Look for Jacob Markstrom to make his second start in net, with everyone from Zac Dalpe and Jordan Schroeder to Frank Corrado to recent college signing Mike Zalewski stepping in.
One other note, as we usher out the Mike Gillis era. Earlier in the week, James Duthie was on TSN Radio and shared a story of an encounter with Gillis and Francesco Aquilini in Boston during the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. Gives a pretty clear image of why Mike Gillis is sometimes referred to as "arrogant."
Mike Gillis talked like he’d already won the Stanley Cup. And I walked out of there going, man, if they lose this, like, he really thinks they’ve won the Stanley Cup. And Aquilini, the way he’s throwing around the booze — again, really nice guy, thank you, I appreciated the shot, my $400 shot of tequila or whatever it was — but they were acting like champions already.
Pass it to Bulis has the full transcription of the story, as well as a link to the original audio (fast-forward to 14:25 for the story) and a followup interview by Duthie on TEAM1040 on Friday.
Click here for all the details.
To end on a positive note—the Utica Comets won their game against Lake Erie on Friday night. They're still in 11th place in the AHL Western Conference, but they're just two points out of the final playoff spot. The Comets have four games remaining—the AHL schedule goes one week longer than the NHL—so they still have a chance. Expect the Canucks' youngsters to make the trip back down to the farm next week to help out on this final playoff push.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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