After wrapping up an exciting 4 Nations Face-Off tournament on Thursday, the NHL will return to regular-season play on Saturday with a 14-game slate across the league. The Edmonton Oilers are beginning a five-game road trip through the Eastern Conference and they’ll kick things off with a matinee match in Philadelphia.
1. This is the most challenging road trip on Edmonton’s schedule, so it’s a good thing the team will be well-rested. They start with a back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday against the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals, and then they face three consecutive contenders in the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Carolina Hurricanes.
Connor McDavid scored the game-winning goal for Canada in the Championship Game of the 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday, while Mattias Ekholm and Viktor Arvidsson suited up in three games for third-place Sweden. Otherwise, the Oilers have had the last two weeks to get themselves prepared for the stretch drive.
2. The Oilers are coming out of the break tied for first place in the Pacific Division with the Vegas Golden Knights. Both teams have 72 points but Edmonton has one game in hand and one more win, so they have the edge in the standings for now. The two teams will meet once more during the regular season — April 1 in Vegas.
It’s been a very long time since the Oilers lifted a division banner. The team won six consecutive Smythe Division titles between 1981-82 and 1986-87 but they haven’t won one since.
Edmonton never won the Northwest Division in the 14 seasons that it existed and they haven’t finished at the top of the Pacific Division standings since moving there over a decade ago. The Oilers have wound up in second place in their division in each of the past five seasons, including when they played in the All-Canadian North Division during the shortened 2021 campaign.
3. Though winning the Pacific Division is the most clear target in sight, the Oilers are also in the mix to win the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time since 1986-87.
The Winnipeg Jets lead the way with 81 points through 56 games and the Washington Capitals are right behind them with 80 points in 55 games. The Oilers, Golden Knights, and Dallas Stars each have 72 points and the Florida Panthers have 71 points.
Edmonton only had home-ice advantage in one playoff series last spring: their annual first-round warm-up with the L.A. Kings. They had to beat the Canucks in Vancouver in Game 7 in the second round, they avoided what would have been a very difficult winner-take-all in Dallas by finishing off the Stars at home in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final, and then they fell in Florida in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
4. With the Capitals, Lightning, Panthers, and Hurricanes on tap, the Flyers are easily the weakest opponent the Oilers will face over this trip. That said, even though the team is tied for last place in the Metro Division, a game on the road in Philadelphia is never an easy victory.
The Flyers have a 24-26-7 record, good for 55 points in 57 games. They rank 19th in the NHL with 159 goals and they’re in 28th with 189 goals against. The team has a league-average penalty kill of 78.5 percent but they have one of the league’s worst power plays, scoring on only 15.8 percent of opportunities.
Travis Konecny leads the Flyers with 22 goals and 61 points, followed by Russian rookie Matvei Michkov, who has 16 goals and 36 points in his first season playing in North America. Travis Sanheim has been Philadelphia’s top defenceman this year, logging 24:34 per night on average.
Goaltending has been a struggle for the Flyers this season. Samuel Ersson, Ivan Fedotov, and Aleksei Kolosov have combined for a league-worst .887 save percentage and -25.8 goals saved above average. The best of the trio is Ersson, who has a .896 save percentage in 31 appearances.
5. After winning their season-opener against the Canucks, the Flyers went on a six-game losing streak that immediately had them out of playoff contention in the Eastern Conference.
Among those six losses was a 4-3 overtime loss in Edmonton. The Flyers got out to a 2-0 lead in the first frame thanks to the first two goals of Michkov’s career and they carried a 3-2 lead into the third period.
The tide turned in the home side’s favour after Troy Stecher dropped the gloves with Philadelphia captain Sean Couturier in the middle of the third. Evan Bouchard scored the game-tying goal with just under four minutes left to play in regulation and Leon Draisaitl scored the winner in overtime.
A win for the Oilers in Philadelphia on Saturday would complete Edmonton’s first two-game season sweep over the Flyers since the 2015-16 campaign.
