Happy we’re in the second round of the playoffs to all of you! I promise to continue working on turning Mondays into civic holidays so we can all sit at home in our undies, but there’s still a ways to go. Until then, let’s all kill some time together whilst learning about the Oilers we love and arguing with the strangers we hate. Here’s another Mailbag to knock off a few minutes of company time and get you closer to going home. As always, I need questions for the Mailbag so email me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk. Enough of me – let’s learn something.

The NHL wants to make the Stanley Cup a very difficult task, and part of that is a relaxation of the rule book. It makes impact players less effective (and more vulnerable to injury) and I personally don’t like it. I will say that when your team wins the damn thing it feels all the more satisfying because you know how much they overcame to win the prize.

I can’t speak for other leagues, but this is one of roughly a million baffling things about the NHL. I’ll answer your question with a question: Why does the defending team get one free crosscheck on an attacking player after a scoring chance or goal? It always seems like the officials will let the first crosscheck go, but then call the second (Pat Maroon got in trouble for going beyond the one permitted crosscheck in a notable moment from the first round). The league does a lot of goofy things for seemingly no better reason than that just being the way things are done.

I don’t feel it has changed much. During the regular season they allow a lot of obstruction and hooking. It is the same in the playoffs, the only difference is emotions are higher and everyone watches every player closer. There is just more whacking, but I don’t think they call it much different.

The standard of what constitutes an infraction not only varies from regular season to playoffs, it varies greatly from crew to crew. I don’t think NHL head office is doing nearly enough to insist on something resembling consistency, and that’s a MAJOR fail in my book.

Rules have always gotten softer in the playoff which heightens the intensity and creates a rivalry. My only ask is that they keep it consistent throughout the series. Why do we get called for a lousy push after the whistle, and then the Ducks get away with choke-holding our players to the ice? Doesn’t make sense to me.

It’s a frustrating reality of the league, because you want to maintain a level of continuity between games, but since games are so tight, and things can change in a series so quickly, refs are wary to hand out power play opportunities. They seem to want to make the path to the Stanley Cup a rigorous one, and so long as the whistles are largely put away for each side, it isn’t a major issue. It certainly is odd, though.

I wrote about how bad the refs are again on Saturday and I feel as though I’m going to run out of negative adjectives to describe the lacklustre job they’re doing.

Anaheim has a mobile defence, but they are young. Leon is highly creative and is also physical along the wall. He is a load and has soft hands, always a difficult opponent.

I don’t know how much I want to read into it. Draisaitl had eight goals on 19 shots over the last two seasons in games against Anaheim, meaning that the Ducks’ goalies had a 0.579 save percentage against him in those 10 contests. Anybody’s going to look good when half his shots find the back of the net!

Confidence is huge and he has it when he plays the Ducks. His size and strength doesn’t allow the Ducks to physically take advantage of him, plus I think he enjoys games where there is more contact.

He has been productive against Anaheim, of that there’s no debate. There is no one reason why that’s the case.

Everybody has a team they often thrive against and fortunately for us, Draisaitl thrives against the Ducks. Maybe it’s his German blood, maybe it’s cause of a hate towards Ryan Kesler. As long as he keeps putting up points I won’t ask any questions!

He’s a very good player with a multidimensional skill set. Big and physical, but also a good skater with excellent skill and vision. I don’t know if it’s the Ducks that brings something out of him, or the results just seem to be good. Honestly I feel like he consistently plays well against every opponent.

I think we’re going to be adding more teams to Leon Draisaitl’s destruction tour before all is said and done. The dude just keeps getting better and better and having him and McDavid on the same team is one of the greatest gifts of all time.

It’s a pretty close series, I would say speed up front is a big difference (at times). The Ducks experience is a double-edged sword and the Oilers ability to scoot gives older teams fits.

Well, right now I’d have to say the 2-0 series lead (as I write this on Saturday)! One significant advantage the Oilers have is relatively good health, something that has been true for the team for most of the year; Anaheim, in contrast, has most of its best defencemen either out of the lineup with injury or only freshly returned to it.  On the Ducks’ side, experience can be overrated, but I do believe there’s value to having a leadership group that has been through the rigors of playoff hockey before.

Oilers have the advantage in goal and their defensive group is better defensively. The Ducks D corps is a bit more mobile.

Through the first two games going into last night, it was goaltending. Cam Talbot had been terrific and John Gibson had been way less-than-average (.889).

There’s a lot of things you could address here but I’m going with the home crowd for the Oilers advantage. The Honda Center was lame the first two games and that really played in our favour. Edmonton fans are the best. I’m going to say the Ducks’ grittyness is their advantage. It’s not like we DON’T have our own but they play right on the line and most often get away with the post-whistle idiocracy where we don’t.

The Ducks certainly have the bonus of being a veteran team. They can go down 2-0 in a series and come back because they won’t get too low. They’ve been in these situations before. With that age, though, Edmonton has the advantage in speed and energy.

I always love a good underdog story because no one ever really expects them to win until they do, and that’s what’s happening with the Oilers right now. Every talking head on TV spoke about how the Oilers were outmatched and outclassed and seeing them beat the Ducks is so very very satisfying. Also the Oilers have Cam Talbot and I’ll take him over Gibson or Bernier any day.

I think he earned the consideration and he has been even better in the playoffs. Winning that damned award often means a coach is close to getting fired, so it is a mixed blessing. McLellan has done well behind the bench in my opinion.

I think it’s John Tortorella’s trophy to lose. Both Todd McLellan and Mike Babcock took over rebuilding teams and have guided them to steady improvement over their respective time at the helm. It’s going to be hard to compete with the year-over-year transformation in Columbus, though, where a year ago the team looked like it was a failure potentially in need of starting a full rebuild.

Well deserved. It will be close and remember it is voted on prior to playoffs beginning. I think he has a very good chance. There is no clear favourite. Tortorella’s team improved 32 points with basically the same team. The Oilers improved by 33, but had many changes and that might be the difference.

Babcock will get a lot of votes in the east. I believe he will win. Based on performance, I actually think Tortorella should win and that McLellan is should be runner-up, but I doubt we’ll see that.

I think it’s great, of course! I don’t think he’ll end up winning. Babcock will likely take it, which is probably a good thing. Jack Adams award winners don’t really have a good reputation coaching their team following the award.

It was a well-deserved nomination, but it would be shocking if John Tortorella didn’t win. That Blue Jackets team really came out of nowhere and had an excellent season, and it seems Torts is a completely different coach than his poor stints in Vancouver and New York.

It’s well deserved, to say the least. The Oilers look so much more competent in the defensive zone than they have in previous years and it started last season. I don’t think he’ll win (because Toronto) but he certainly deserves some of the credit for helping move this franchise forward.

Predators-Blues is a blast, because there is all kinds of skill and some question about the goalies (although both were splendid in the first round).

Washington/Pittsburgh. I know it’s obvious, but it’s also irresistible.

Pens and Caps. Lots of star power and the intriguing storyline surrounding the Capitals ability to finally reach the third round.

St. Louis and Nashville. I want to know who the Oilers will face in the Western Conference final.

I always love a good Pens/Caps matchup. Definitely will be paying attention to that one as well.

Ottawa and New York seems to be the underrated series here. The Sens are a wonky team that seems to defy odds while the Rangers can score with the the best of them. Expect some dramatics from that series.

I will never not love watching Sid and Ovi square off against each other. These guys have been the two best players in the world for over 10 years and it’s a battle that I always look forward to seeing.

At ATB, we know playoff memories are priceless but tickets are expensive. That’s why we’re giving away $2,000! ATB listens, so submit your entry today at atb.com/yegfans