With seven games remaining, the Edmonton Oilers can end their 39-year drought and win the Pacific Division. The Oilers haven’t finished first in their division since 1987, the longest drought in NHL history. But suddenly they are within two points of Anaheim, and both teams have seven games remaining.

The Ducks blew a 3-2 lead late last night and lost 4-3 to San Jose. The Sharks tied the game with 99 seconds remaining, and then Alex Wennberg scored the winner with 31 seconds remaining. Now the Oilers are two back of the Ducks, and the Sharks are one point back of Los Angeles for the final playoff spot.

Edmonton has five more regulation wins than the Ducks and if the teams finish tied, the Oilers would win the tiebreaker. The Oilers have found their game and are playing their most consistent hockey of the seasons with four consecutive victories in which they’ve only allowed seven goals. They reduced the bad giveaways, or risky passes. They are winning puck battles. They are extending shifts in the offensive zone, and all four lines are contributing. They’ve outscored teams 11-6 at 5×5 during the winning streak. They only blemish is their power play is 0-for-6, but considering they are barely getting any power plays it hasn’t cost them, because they aren’t giving up much.

The Sharks did them a huge favour last night and the Oilers have to take advantage tonight against the 31st-place Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks are young, inexperienced and don’t have depth, but they’ve been in almost every game since March 1st. They are 5-6-5 and all five wins came against teams in a playoff spot. They’ve beaten Utah three time, while defeating the Wild and Islanders. All five of their OT/SO losses came against teams in the playoffs or just outside with two losses to Winnipeg and one to Minnesota, Nashville and Dallas.

Edmonton can’t take them for granted. The Oilers have won four in a row by playing sound, smart and fast hockey. I’d be surprised if they reverted back to their sloppy, inconsistent play through the first 70 games, and this is a game they should win and need to win if they want to catch Anaheim. Edmonton’s experience of the past few playoff runs and knowing they have to be in the moment and focus on one game should help them tonight.

SNAPSHOTS…

— Connor McDavid is riding a five-game goal-scoring streak. McDavid’s career high is seven games set in the 2022-23 season, and he had a six-game streak late in the 2022 season. This is his fifth streak of five games.

— McDavid has nine points in the four-game winning streak and is four points ahead of Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon for the scoring lead. He is looking to win his sixth Art Ross, which would tie him with Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux for second most in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky (10). Don’t fool yourself, McDavid wants to win and I expect he will be very driven to do that, along with continued solid team play in their final seven games.

— Chicago is one of 10 teams with two 30+ goal scorers in Tyler Bertuzzi (31) and Connor Bedard. The problem is they are one of only four teams with 20+ goal scorers (San Jose, Seattle and Vancouver are the others). Chicago’s third highest goal scorer is Ilya Mikheyev with 15 and the main reason they are 31st in GF/GP is a severe lack of scoring depth.

— Here are the remaining games for the teams in the playoff mix, either at the top of the Pacific or for the Wildcard spots.

Anaheim has four game remaining against teams in the race, although St. Louis is close, and Edmonton has five. The schedules are pretty even and it will come down to which team will be the most consistent, and maybe get a few lucky bounces.

— Earlier in the season many wondered if the Oilers had enough depth to compete, and now the discussion has turned to who will play. When Leon Draisaitl returns I think the top nine will have him, McDavid and Jason Dickinson down the middle with Zach Hyman, Jack Roslovic, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Matt Savoie, Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen as the wingers. Head coach Kris Knoblauch will decide who plays with who, but those look like the top nine to me.

The fourth line has Trent Frederic, Adam Henrique, Max Jones, Josh Samanski, Curtis Lazar and Colten Dach. Dach is eligible to return on Saturday. He has skated all week and is very close. Frederic will play tonight. Jones has played very well in a fourth line role. He’s added speed and tenacity and has made an impact most games. Samanski is more of a natural centre than a winger, but he isn’t on the penalty kill as often as Henrique. I could see a fourth line of Jones-Henrique-Frederic to start.

Jason Gregor

@JasonGregor

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Lots of discussion about Henrique or Samanski. Here are their stats since January 1st. Henrique 17 GP, Samanski 18GP. 5x5... SF-SA: AH 61-48, JS 58-50 GF-GA: AH 4-6, JS 8-5 xGF%: AH 58.4%, JS 54.7% PDO: AH 0.941, JS 1.038 FO%: AH 54.3% (50-42). JS 52% (38-35) PK: AH: Show more

8:46 PM · Apr 1, 2026

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Samanski has better GF%, but Henrique has better underlying numbers and is better on faceoffs and used on the penalty kill more. He also has much more playoff experience, which is why I’d lean to Henrique starting. But remember, Connor Brown and Kasperi Kapanen didn’t start in the playoffs in 2024 and 2025, but when they got in the lineup they made an impact. Whoever starts game one isn’t guaranteed to be in the lineup every game. If the Oilers go at least a few rounds, we will see more than 12 forwards.

LINEUPS…

Oilers…

Podkolzin – McDavid – Savoie
Hyman (?) – RNH – Roslovic
Samanski – Dickinson – Kapanen
Jones – Henrique – Frederic

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Murphy
Walman – Emberson

Jarry

Tristan Jarry starts and Trent Frederic draws back in. Zach Hyman is a game-time decision according to Kris Knoblauch. If he can’t play the lines will be adjusted. Based on Curtis Lazar staying out late after the optional, it would seem like he’d the one who comes out for Frederic. However, if Frederic and Hyman play, that would mean the Oilers aren’t in an emergency recall position in anymore and they’d either have to send one of Josh Samanski or Max Jones down, or just move them to normal recall. It it is the latter, then the Oilers would have two more recalls available to them. With only six games remaining after tonight, the need to maintain four recalls matters as much. We will find out at the pre-game skate. If Hyman and Frederic both play, the Oilers

Blackhawks…

Greene – Bedard – Lardis
Bertuzzi – Frondell – Mikheyev
Donato – Nazar – Burakosvsky
Teravainen – Boisvert – Slaggert

Vlasic – Crevier
Kaiser – Rinzel
Korchinski – Del Mastro

Knight

The Hawks have three young exciting centres in Bedard, Frondell and Nazar, but outside of Bertuzzi none of their wingers are really producing. Frondell has played five NHL games and has five points. The third overall pick last June has looked very good since signing with Chicago.

Andrew Mangiapane is injured and is unlikely to play. Defenders Matt Grzelcyk and Artyom Levshunov are both out for the season.

I also had a 1-on-1 with Connor Bedard today, that will air on Sports 1440 this afternoon, and we talked about many things. The story he doesn’t eat candy or sweets was a bit misleading. He does like sweets and joked he probably eats one per day right now.