Yesterday the Oilers had themselves a much needed break, after playing 3 games in 4 nights, where they picked up 5 of 6 possible points. Throughout the month of December, the Oil have one of the best teams in the NHL, picking up 13 of a possible 16 points. The frustrating thing, as fans watch the out of town scoreboards, is that the Pacific Division is still a 6 team race.
Calgary is the only for sure lock for a non Wild-Card position in my opinion. Their +24 goal differential is the best in the Pacific by a mile and among the best in the entire league.
The Ducks, sitting second are the most likely team to fall back. They've relied massively on John Gibson to bail them out of games, and rank first in the league with the highest save percentage, while also allowing the second most shots.
San Jose is certainly a playoff team, but they are not looking like the dominant force in the West that people expected, with the acquisition of Erik Karlsson. Goaltending has definitely let them down.
Edmonton is the first Wild-Card team right now in the West and their 8-1-1 record in the last 10 games is the main reason.
Vegas, currently occupying the second of two Wild-Card positions are similar to Edmonton, in that they started the season poorly but have gone on to gain ground and are playing steady hockey of late.
Lastly we have Vancouver, a team I originally picked to finish last in the West; I though the Canucks would be an awful team, with some glimpses of the future in Pettersson, Horvat, and Boeser, but these three individuals have carried this team on their backs into playoff conversation. At the end of the day, the Canucks will still likely be on the outside looking in; fans in Vancouver are still going to get to watch some fun hockey for the remainder of the season.
Vancouver has scored the second most goals in the Pacific Division with a total of 106; the reason they are not higher in the standings is the fact that they have allowed the second most goals in the entire Western Conference with 116 (Chicago is the worst with 128). The Canucks are also 1-2 on the second of back to backs, being outscored in total 11-7. Tonight could be a night to see the goals rolling.
If I had to pick, how I think the Pacific standings would look at the end of the regular season I would go with this:
Calgary
San Jose
Edmonton
Vegas
Anaheim
Vancouver
Arizona
LA
- Last game was the first time we really saw Hitchcock start to mix the lines up during the game. Lucic and Rieder swapped spots to great success, as both lines generated more chances once they had swapped spots.
- Sutter and Baertschi are still out of the lineup with injuries. Jacob Markstrom started last night against Philly, making it safe to say Anders Nilsson gets the start tonight.
4 KEYS TO VICTORY
1) Give Nurse More Minutes? Hitchcock spoke after the victory against Philly about Darnell Nurse and his ice-time. Hitch equated Darnell to Alex Pietrangelo, in that the coach felt he was a player who played best when he was playing more minutes. Nurse played 20:19 at EV, 4:30 on the PK, and 2:58 on the PP. Young Darnell has looked solid for most of his shifts with Larsson and I don't mind seeing he's EV minutes north of 20 but other players need to shoulder some of those minutes in other areas... especially with how long Klefbom will be out.
2) Elias Pettersson Is Pretty Good At Hockey. In his last 5 games, Pettersson has 11 points (3G,8A). Pettersson should be the clear-cut favourite for the Calder Trophy this season. An interesting fact about Pettersson is that it doesn't seem to matter whether he is playing at home or away; he has gone 8-8-16 in 13GP at home, and 8-10-16 in 16GP on the road. Shutting him down will be the toughest challenge for the Oil.
3) Turnovers. In both the Philly and Jets game, goals were scored against Edmonton as a result of their inability to clear the zone. Against Philly in particular, Draisaitl was the cause of a blatant turnover which resulted in the Flyers one goal. Draisaitl is an incredible player and has done some great things this month but too often in games he is too casual with the puck. Vancouver thrives on generating shots on the rush so Leon needs to play smarter hockey.
4) Round 2 For Caleb Jones. I thought Jones had a fairly average first game with the Oilers, and by no means is that an insult. He played just under 12 minutes at EV, was not on the ice for the Flyers goal, blocked three shots, and had only one giveaway. Jones made some smart passes in the game and didn't do anything to put his team in jeopardy. Tonight on the road, it will be tougher for his coach to shelter him, making it likely that he will be facing Boeser or Pettersson throughout the game.
FILM OF THE DAY
Not knowing who is or isn't real is one symptom of schizophrenia, a mental disorder that Nobel Prize winner John Nash suffers from in the award winning film A Beautiful Mind
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