The Oilers are now in the final stretch of the season and they are playing only Pacific Division opponents to close out the year. Edmonton is last in the Pacific with 65 points in 75 games, but there are only 4 points separating them and the Coyotes who are 4th.
That almost sounds like they could be close-ish to a playoff spot, but even the Coyotes at 4th in the Division are 11 points out of a Wild Card spot. The Pacific division has been a raging tire fire for most of the year. The Kings have been pretty good all year but the thing that really saved the Pacific from being a complete disaster was the resurgence of the Ducks. Somehow they overcame that incredibly brutal start to gain 40 wins so far.
Starting tonight the Oilers will play the Coyotes, Sharks, Kings, Ducks, Flames, Canucks, Canucks. This final stretch wont matter *too much* for the Playoff teams, but the bottom 4 could swap positions multiple times in the race for the bottom of the standings.
The Oilers are not trying to tank this year, but the injuries have been impossible for this team to overcome and a 30th placed finish is still more than possible with the Leafs only 2 points behind in the standings. At this point the Oil are in a position to make the eastern media cry uncle. In fact, there will likely be articles from 30 NHL cities talking about how the draft is broken if Edmonton wins it.
Of course that’s ridiculous, but it will happen anyway.
I want the Oilers to win. I want McDavid to pick up his points. I want the Oilers to pick in the top 3 of the Draft. Thanks to the rules that the NHL made to stop teams like Edmonton from winning the lottery all the time, they can actually do all of those things. If anything, the rules changes benefitted Edmonton the most. It’s pretty fantastic to think that the extra odds given to the field and the lottery opening to the 2 & 3 spots likely gave the Oilers McDavid and a fighting chance to pick at the top again in 2016.
The Coyotes have been crushing Edmonton for a long time. They’ve won 3 of 4 this year again as well. For whatever reason the Oilers struggle mightily against this team. Another loss would be painful in the sense that there is no reason why Tippett’s club keeps dominating Edmonton, but on the other hand it brings Edmonton one step closer to driving everybody insane on April 30th.
Long term, losing on this final death march is probably beneficial for the draft. Short term, I want to see Shane Doan lose in his final game against the Oilers (hopefully ever). I will be ever thankful for the day we never have to be reminded that the Oilers passed on Doan in the draft. Ever thankful.
LINEUP
Maroon is in doubt due to illness. Talbot will be back in net. Cracknell could take Maroon’s spot.
Hall Draisaitl Pakarinen Cracknell McDavid Eberle Korpikoski RNH Yakupov Hendricks Lander Kassian
Sekera Fayne Nurse Clendening Reinhart Oesterle
Talbot
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Blown Chances. Patrick Maroon might be sick because of all the chances he blew in the 1st period of the game against the Avs. I counted 3 blown opportunities created by Connor McDavid and 2 of them would have been into wide-open nets. Whoever is playing with McDavid, and in practice it was Cracknell (Oh God), has to be able to bury those chances. At least 1 of the three has to go in the back of the net. McDavid is better than every player on the ice in almost every game he plays. The puck is going to find whoever is open. The Oilers have to capitalize on them. This goes to highlight what kind of a loss Pouliot is to the team on the left side.
2) Limp PP. Speaking of not converting chances, the Oiler PP has gone 0-6 in its last two games after exploding against the Blues. They worked on it again in practice, but this has to start making contributions or whatever bit of winning they have been doing will screech to a halt. A lot has been made of shots from the point and handedness. At this point I’m comfortable in saying everything needs to be better. There aren’t enough shooters on their off wings, the point men aren’t creating shooting lanes from the top, the team isn’t winning enough board battles, and zone entry is a problem too often. When it’s bad for the Oilers, the whole thing is bad. It’s very disheartening for a team with that much high end offensive talent. If I had answers I could make a lot of money, but I don’t. Just get the puck to the net and I’ll be happy.
3) Playing For Pride. Neither of these teams have anything to play for with regards to playoffs. The Oilers were mathematically eliminated the other day but reality is they’ve been done since February. The Coyotes are in the same boat. The game is over for both of them. All that’s left is pride and personal accomplishment. McDavid can continue to establish his claim to the Calder trophy and one of the NHL’s most dynamic players. RNH is playing for a spot on team North America. Doan is going to finish this season off as strong as he can like the pro he is. Reinhart has a lot to prove to management. There are a lot of sub-plots still ongoing even though the main one is over.
Puck drops tonight at 8PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!
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