Matchups against the Winnipeg Jets haven’t been overly kind to the Edmonton Oilers this season, losing both games by a combined score of 10-3. Maybe the third time is the charm? Dare to dream, my friends. Dare to dream.
After locking in their playoff spot on Friday night against the Sharks, the Oilers sit four points back of Los Angeles in the Pacific Division standings coming into this third and final meeting with the Jets. That gap represents a very slim chance of wrestling away home-ice advantage from the Kings and a result that will take the stars aligning to accomplish. The road to making that happen was already tough, even with a healthy lineup, and we all know the Oilers are anything but healthy. And based on Saturday’s reporting from Ryan Rishaug, the Oilers may be without their best defenceman in Ekholm for the rest of the year.
Good times, right? Yaaa. *sigh*
Despite beating San Jose as hoped, Edmonton lost Mattias Ekholm and Zach Hyman in the first and second periods, and those losses kinda put a damper on what was an otherwise fantastic night. It’s like the Hockey Gords don’t want us to have nice things or something, you know? I don’t know if I can remember an instance where the Oilers lost so many key pieces simultaneously, and having it all happen at the end of the year is a wild plot twist I certainly didn’t see coming. But even though everything seems to suck, the guys left need to figure out a way to compete without adding to the hurt parade. That’s proving to be easier said than done.
Standing on deck for today’s challenge is a Winnipeg Jets team that’s basically been cruising since the season opener. Outside of a few bumps in the road here and there, the Jets have cruised through their schedule en route to what is looking like a President’s Trophy as the NHL’s best team. With MVP-calibre goaltending as the foundation and balanced scoring throughout their lineup — Winnipeg has 10 players on the roster with 34+ points compared to the six for Edmonton — the Jets can be a world of pain, and we’ve felt that wrath a couple of times already.
Beating the league-leading Jets is a tall order at the best of times, and that job got significantly more difficult with two more skaters being taken out of the equation. While TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reported that Ekholm will be out long-term, we still don’t know what exactly happened to Zach Hyman on the play that took him out, meaning someone needs to fill his minutes by probably fighting above their weight class. And while the team is probably used to bodies leaving the bench at this stage, there’s no way around the hurdle these injuries are throwing in front of our Stanley Cup dreams.
“You want everybody healthy, but there’s nothing you can do,” said Corey Perry, stating the obvious but unfortunate reality of contact. sports. “If guys can’t play, they can’t play. You have to rally around the guys on the ice and come together. I think we have a group in here that can step up and fill holes and play bigger minutes, play bigger roles and get the job done.”
The good news is that the Jets played in Chicago last night, won in the shootout, and had to travel back to Winnipeg for the second half of their doubleheader. If the Oilers are going to take advantage of potentially tired legs, a quick start has to be at the top of today’s game plan. It would do a world of good if the boys could hit the ground running and maybe even cash in a quick goal. Even if an early goal for the visitors doesn’t happen, the Oilers can’t allow the Jets to find their legs and be the ones who set the tone. Sounds easy enough, right?
Let’s see what the numbers say…
THE NUMBERS
OILERS | JETS | |
RECORD | 46-28-5 | 55-21-4 |
WIN/LOSS STREAK | W2 | W3 |
LAST 10 GAMES | 6-4-0 | 7-3-0 |
GOALS FOR | 252 | 274 |
GOALS AGAINST | 230 | 186 |
POWER PLAY% | 24.8 | 29.3 |
PENALTY KILL% | 78.4 | 79.2 |
AVG. SHOTS/FOR | 32.1 | 28.1 |
AVG. SHOTS/AGAINST | 27.1 | 27.0 |
TEAM SAVE% | .902 | .934 |
CORSI FOR% | 54.16 | 50.27 |
PDO | 0.982 | 1.027 |
TEAM SHOOTING% | 7.98 | 9.36 |
EXPECTED GOALS FOR% | 54.27 | 52.47 |
Numbers courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (Sv%, CF%, PDO, Shooting%, xGF% all at 5×5)
- Sunday’s matchup will be the third and final meeting between the Oilers and Jets. With Winnipeg taking the first two games, the task on deck for the Oilers will be to avoid the season sweep and do what they can to take advantage of a team that played last night. The Oilers have won their last two visits to Winnipeg and three of their last four.
- While he won’t play today, or maybe again this season, Mattias Ekholm leads all active Oilers in career games (42) against Winnipeg, while Connor McDavid leads the team in career points (57) versus the Jets.
LINE COMBINATIONS
Oilers
J.Skinner – McDavid – Brown
Arvidsson – Henrique – Kapanen
Podkolzin – Janmark – Perry
Jones – Ryan – Philp
Arvidsson – Henrique – Kapanen
Podkolzin – Janmark – Perry
Jones – Ryan – Philp
Nurse – Bouchard
Kulak – Stecher
Dineen – Emberson
Kulak – Stecher
Dineen – Emberson
Skinner
Stuart Skinner will be back between the pipes for the first time since Mikko Rantanen landed a knee to his head on March 26th against Dallas. Skinner returned to the bench on Friday night to back up Calvin Pickard against the Sharks, and it will be fascinating to see how he looks in his first game back.
Jets
Connor – Scheifele – Iafallo
Ehlers – Namestnikov – Perfetti
Niederreiter – Lowry – Appleton
Tanev – Barron – Anderson-Dolan
Ehlers – Namestnikov – Perfetti
Niederreiter – Lowry – Appleton
Tanev – Barron – Anderson-Dolan
Morrissey – DeMelo
Samberg – Pionk
Stanley – Schenn
Samberg – Pionk
Stanley – Schenn
Comrie
The Jets had a late night in Chicago last night en route to their 5-4 shootout win, and it will be crucial for the Oilers to try and get something done early. The Jets are too good and too deep to give them the opportunity to getting their legs under them, and part of that will be Skinner making whatever early saves he needs to to weather the storm. As for the rest of the line combos, we didn’t get much of an idea this morning about who would be slotting in where, so what I’ve listed above is just a guess.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…
Less than 24 hours ago, the Winnipeg Jets clinched first place in the Central Division for the first time in franchise history. It came with the single point they earned by forcing overtime in Chicago—and they ended up grabbing two after a 5–4 shootout win.Winnipeg sits five points ahead of the Washington Capitals in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy. The Caps have a game in hand, but with just two games left for the Jets, they’re in the driver’s seat.“Obviously, come game 83 what you did in the regular season doesn’t matter, but it does give us confidence that we know we’re one of the top teams in the league. And it’s the way we’ve done it this year,” said Josh Morrissey.“It hasn’t just been one line or a couple guys. We’ve done it with our special teams, with our goaltending—that might be the one position where you can clearly single out a Hart Trophy-type season. But I think for us, it should just give us confidence heading into the playoffs.”
TONIGHT…
Photoshop by Tom Kostiuk at Handmade by Tom
Game Day Prediction: Nothing better than a 4-2 Oilers win on a Sunday to cap off your weekend.
Obvious Game Day Prediction: Connor McDavid keeps his hot run going with a third consecutive 3+ point performance.
Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: Cam Dineen first NHL goal. No one will see this one coming.
