Edmonton Euphoria (Islander)

Connor McDavid is the best player in the NHL this season.

Sidney Crosby is second best, in my opinion.

McDavid has led his Edmonton Oilers out of the NHL gutter and to the lofty heights of the Pacific Division penthouse.

By virtue of their dramatic come from behind overtime win on Hockey Night In Canada, Edmonton is now in first place in their division. Edmonton and Anaheim each have 97 points, with four games remaining for each club. The Oilers currently hold the tiebreaker.

97 points. #97.

The city of Edmonton has a lot to be euphoric about this season. The fun has really just begun.

I don't think McDavid is getting the respect and props he deserves for single handedly leading the Oilers back to their days of dominance.

Watching the Oilers control the puck against Western powerhouses like Anaheim and San Jose is all the more impressive and respectable when one considers that they have been a lottery team the past ten seasons. The days of watching the Oilers tank their seasons away for the hopes of drafting a franchise savior officially ended last summer.

On Saturday night, McDavid scored a goal and two assists against The Anaheim Ducks.

McDavid has been shooting the puck more lately. Here's his 29th goal of the season.

McDavid now has 94 points and is a lead pipe lock to score 100 points this season. If I had a vote, McDavid would be my Art Ross Trophy winner this season. He's the epitome of an MVP.

The game featured tight checking and heavy checking, McDavid was targeted all night long by Getzlaf, Kesler, Perry, Bieksa, Lindholm, Fowler and the heavy, nasty Ducks. Undeterred, McDavid danced confidently on air through and around the body checks. McDavid and his linies Patrick Maroon and Leon Draisaitl stole the show from the big, bad Ducks in this Pacific Division brawl for it all.

In the end, it was McDavid's velvety feed to Draisaitl off the two on one rush that gave the Oilers the win and first place in the super-competitive Pacific Division.

The Oilers have not won a division championship since 1987. I think that will change in the next week when they wrap up the Pacific. I can't wait to watch an Edmonton vs. Anaheim or Edmonton vs. Calgary first round street fight!

***

The NY Islanders will play without their captain and leading scorer for weeks.

Tavares is officially listed as week to week with the left hamstring injury suffered on the rutty, sub-standard ice at Barclays Center on Friday night.

You can go ahead and stick a fork in the Islanders who need to stack points to catch and pass three other Eastern teams to claim a wild card berth. Tavares and his 28 goals and 39 assists will not be able to bail out the Islanders from their perilous plight..

“It’s a big challenge at a big time of year,… Doug Weight said following Friday’s 2-1 win over the Devils. “We just need to go and win a game Sunday.…

The Islanders have recalled minor league suitcase Connor Jones (5 goals and 13 assists in 56 games) from Bridgeport.

It's the end of the line for the Islanders

Here are your Sunday morning Eastern playoff standings:

The Leafs will sit idle today while Boston plays Chicago. Toronto will visit their little shoppe of horrors in Buffalo on Monday night. Here's to the Broons beating the Blackhawks and Buffalo tripping Toronto.

Let the stressful final week of the regular season begin!

**

The Sabres host the Tavares-less islanders at 3pm EDT today.

The Buffalo power play is the best in the NHL today.

Buffalo ranks 31 in the NHL with a 25.3% success rate on the power play.

The Sabres PP kicked ass and took names in March.

The Sabres have not finished a season ranked in the top five in power-play percentage since the 2005-06 season (third, 21.2%) and the team has led the league only once (1991-92, 22.5%)

The team’s current power-play percentage would rank as the third-best conversion rate in franchise history and the best since the team’s 25.4% mark in 1975-76. It would be the eighth-best season by any team since the league began publishing the stat in 1987-88.

***

When the final autopsy is performed on the 2016-17 Buffalo Sabres next week, the cause of "death" will be listed as:

Lack of 5 on 5 scoring.

The Sabres enter Sunday's matinee game with the NY Islanders ranked 28th in the NHL in 5v5 scoring. In 77 games, the Sabres have only scored 119 goals for. The New Jersey Devils have scored only 108 even strength goals while the Colorado Avalanche have scored just 104 goals at 5v5.

Dan Bylsma's Sabres will miss the playoffs because they couldn't score on their opponents at even strength.

Beat up blue line notwithstanding, Bylsma's young Sabres failed to convert their chances for at even strength.

Unlike their #1 PP unit, the Sabres failed didn't bury their even strength chances on a nightly basis. The Sabres have gotten zero even strength goal production from their bottom six forward group.

Evander Kane was the exception to the rule. Kane has scored 23 goals at 5v5. Jack Eichel has 13 even strength goals. Marcus Foligno, Kyle Okposo and Brian Gionta have scored 12 goals at even strength. Ryan O'Reilly has 11 5v5 goals, Samson Reinhart 8.

Justin Bailey, Will Carrier, Nick Baptiste, Evan Rodrigues and Alex Nylander will be counted on to light the lamp at even strength next season.

Tim Murray must address even strength scoring in the draft and in free agency.

***

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Rasmus Ristolainen entered play Friday tied for 30th among all NHL skaters with 39 assists this season.

Ristolainen has recorded an assist on 21.0 percent of his teammates’ goals. Only one Sabres defenseman has ever recorded an assist on more than 20 percent of his teammates’ goals: Phil Housley (22.6%) in 1989-90. Ristolainen would need to fail to record an assist on each of his teammates’ next 10 goals to fall below 20 percent.

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