There’s an X beside Edmonton’s name on the NHL standings page for the first time since 2006. The Edmonton Oilers, regardless of what happens between now and game 82 will go to the Playoffs. What an incredible feeling this has been since the Oilers beat the Kings on Tuesday. The match tonight, though, no less important as these two clubs would play each other in a 7 game series if the playoffs were to start tonight.

It is a dogfight to win home-ice in the playoffs. The Pacific Division is wide open. The Ducks currently lead the Pacific with 95 points. Edmonton and San Jose have 93 points. The Flames round it out with 90 points. All of Edmonton, San Jose, and Anaheim have a game in hand on Calgary. For the first time in a really long time the Oilers not only care about what they’re doing on the ice, but what the competition is doing. In addition to cheering for the Oil tonight, some fans may be watching how Winnipeg fares against the Ducks too. Keep an eye on those out of town scoreboards.

The Oilers are 1-1-1 against the Sharks this season. Each club has scored 9 goals on the other. Brent Burns has racked up 5 points against the Oil and Connor McDavid 4 against the Sharks. This has been about as even a season series as one could have possibly expected against San Jose. If these teams finish the year roughly where they are then we could be in for quite the treat in the post-season. They have the experience. The Oilers have the youth. Both teams have MVP candidates leading the way. Both teams have some big bodies with skill.

When the Oilers shifted gears and put Chiarelli in charge, the emphasis became more focused on building a team to compete against clubs like the Sharks who were perennially atop the Pacific. Even before then, when Craig MacTavish drafted Leon Draisaitl he was envisioning a big bodied center who could match up against the Kopitars, Thorntons, and Getzlafs of the division. Well the clubs are on a collision course for each other and the best laid plans of the Oiler brass are going to be put to the test.

These clubs play tonight, then they play one more time in exactly a week. Then, maybe, they start a 7 game battle a week after that. We should really start to see these clubs push each other and test their boundaries. The Sharks are trying to reverse a recent trend of losing. They beat the Rangers to end a massive losing streak, but they are still 3-7-0 in their last 10 games while the Oilers are 7-2-1. Despite their recent struggles and despite the loss of Logan Couture recently, the Sharks are not to be taken lightly.

***

Lost in the shuffle of the Oilers clinching a playoff berth for the first time in a decade was the acquisition of Joseph Gambardella. The Oilers signed the undrafted College Free Agent just hours after the last GDB went live and there wasn’t any real time to talk about the move.

I know VERY little about Gambardella outside of what I discovered in the last 48 hours. He wasn’t on my radar at all, but admittedly American Collegiate Hockey is not an area of strength for me. I defer to the people who spend a lot of time watching that level of hockey. And, a lot of them say that this kid is a real player.

He's 5’10, 200 pounds and has improved his points and points per game every year through 4 seasons of NCAA hockey. In this, his senior year, he amassed 18-34-52 in 41 games at UMass-Lowell. His reputation isn’t necessarily as a point producer, though obviously he was. It was actually as a two-way player. In addition to leading his team in scoring this year, he won the Walter Brown award.

The Walter Brown award might not ring any bells in Northern Alberta, but it is given to the top Div 1 hockey player in New England and has been a major award in that region since 1953. The last three winners of the award have been Jimmy Vesey 2016, Jimmy Vesey 2015, and Johnny Gaudreau 2014. Gambardella has won it for the 2017 season.

Winning the Walter Brown isn’t a surefire sign that someone is an NHL player. There are plenty of names in the list of relatively recent winners who don’t register at all. However, there are also names like Gionta, Drury, Pandolfo, Grier, and Leetch who all made impacts at the NHL level. Gambardella is expected to sign an amateur tryout soon and join the Condors. Because there are less than 9 games left in the season, his ELC will not kick in until next season.

LINEUP

If Benning is ready he might play. I’ll list him for now but let’s assume that can change.

Maroon McDavid Draisaitl
Lucic RNH Eberle
Pouliot Desharnais Kassian
Caggiula Letestu Slepyshev

Klefbom Larsson
Sekera Russell
Nurse Benning

Talbot
Brossoit

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Twenty Nine. That’s not just a reference to the number on Leon Draisaitl’s back. It’s a reference to the number of the points Draisaitl and McDavid have combined for during this 8 game point streak that each of them are on. McDavid has 4-10-14 during these past 8 games. Draisaitl has 4-11-15 in the same stretch. McDavid is 1st in league scoring, Draisaitl is 10th. Combined they are the highest scoring duo in the NHL and no more so than in these past 2 weeks. This combination is the offensive driving force behind the Oilers success. McDavid is all speed and skill and highlight reels. Draisaitl is faster than he can sometimes appear, but he’s all about control and puck possession. He shields the puck with his wide frame and is a dangerous passer on the backhand.

2) Kassian’s Role. An Oiler that has taken me quite some time to warm up to has been Zach Kassian. When he arrived here, he was still on the Top 10 Most Wanted list of offenders who had committed crimes against the Oilers. I was not impressed with the deal to acquire him, not that the Oilers gave anything of significance up at all. However, as he’s changed his life around (for as best as anyone can tell) he’s earned the chance to be judged on what he’s done since. For most of his Oiler career, the offense has been negligible from Kassian though. If you asked me early in the year if he should even be protected in expansion, I would have said no without much thought. Take into consideration that he’s had no less than 4 goals called back by officials and maybe I was too harsh on him. Since Desharnais was acquired and the 3rd line really became more defined, Kassian has produced 3.03 Points per 60 minutes.

3) The Next Task. The Oilers did the one thing they’ve been unable to do for a decade on Tuesday (make the playoffs) and now we’re already asking the team to move on and focus on the next job. It’s probably an unfair ask for someone like Jordan Eberle who has played 501 miserable NHL games without even a whiff of the post-season. But, it has to happen. The celebration has to be over because the team controls its own destiny when it comes to home-ice advantage. They need to go roughly 4-2 to finish the year out and the 2 probably cant come at the hands of the Sharks. There will be more time to celebrate and enjoy the accomplishment of making the playoffs when the season ends. Until then, it’s on to the next job.

Puck drops tonight at 7 PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!

Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy

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