The Pacific Division is only becoming tougher to place against. Prior to the All Star Break the Edmonton Oilers added Evander Kane, a legitimate power forward for the top six. Today the Calgary Flames paid a decent price but gain a strong 5 on 5 producer in Toffoli, for two more seasons after this one. In addition today, the Golden Knights announced that Mark Stone would be placed on the LTIR and Jack Eichel will play his first game of the season on Wednesday. What great luck for the Golden Knights and I wish Stone a speedy recovery... I hear the current timeline for the player will be just as the first round of playoffs is about to begin.....
We are seeing big moves happening far earlier than normal and this arms race could spur other teams to make bigger deals prior to the trade deadline. Edmonton should be in on this action to bolster their own deficiencies more. Reports are out that the big areas Edmonton wants to improve are their right side defence and of course their goaltending.
Holland is not a very cap savvy GM and has repeated on multiple occasions that should the team make any more moves it will be dollars in and dollars out. Holland doesn't seem to have the ability to find a third team to take on salary like many other GM's have been able to.
The Flames and the Golden Knights are the top two teams right now in the Pacific Division and I don't know how anyone can argue against that. Woodcroft hopefully can help this Oilers team put their best foot forward but right now a third place finish in the Division is the most realistic positive outcome for Edmonton.
In order to reach third, the Oilers need to push past the California teams that are currently above them in the standings and they will get that chance on this road trip. These are must win games for the Oilers. Tonight the Oilers will face off against the weakest of the California teams in the San Jose Sharks who after starting the season red hot, have slipped back to the team most of us expected them to be this season. With a -16 goal differential and a 3-4-3 record in their last 10 this is a game Edmonton has to win.
Tonight also marks Evander Kane's return to San Jose and for some reason I find it highly unlikely that the Sharks have a video tribute prepared for him. Kane has avoided commenting on this situation but you can bet he will be looking to finish some checks a little harder tonight. It'll also be interesting to see if the Sharks take any additional liberties on Kane and afford the Oilers a few more power play opportunities.
Slowly we will see this Oilers team adapt the systems of Jay Woodcroft. One area I loved seeing improvement in his Oilers debut was having the blue line actually stand players up as opposed to immediately conceding the blue line. I could never understand Tippett's reasoning as it just seemed so obvious that all he was doing was allowing teams free possession and free reign to fire on net.
Tonight expect Woodcroft to run the same lines and 11/7 group. Stuart Skinner has been confirmed to start. Hopefully the surge the new coach has brought will continue to manufacture wins.