The Edmonton Oilers had one last game to play before the playoffs started, but as it turns out, game 82 ended up having greater stakes than any of us likely imagined when we kicked things off back in October. Yet, with a job to do and an awful Vancouver Canucks team in town to wrap up the year, the Oilers not only won a game they needed to. They absolutely dismantled a Canucks team on the tail end of an all-world tank job. Final score: 6-1 Oilers

As much as I’m incredibly bullish on Matt Savoie, I’m not sure that I would have guessed that he’d put up a hat trick in the first period, regardless of how bad the Canucks are at hockey. Not only did our man pop three goals, but he got the job done in just under 13 minutes. And what was most impressive for me was that Savoie made nice plays on all three. It wasn’t like the kid was scoring greasy ones or having lucky bounces go in off his jeans. Instead, he made a skilled play or was in the right spot on all of them.  Courtesy of Jack Michaels, I also learned that Savoie was the first Oilers player to score a hat trick in the opening period since Zach Hyman did it against Seattle back on November 11th, 2023.

As much as watching Savoie rattle off three goals in a period was, the more important part is how much he’s started to figure things out down the stretch. Since coming back from the Olympic break, Savoie registered nine goals and 10 assists for 29 points in 24 games, which works out to 78% of the 37 points he finished the year with. In terms of turning it on at the right time, there’s no better case of that than what Savoie did down the stretch. Not to mention, he’s also found some very nice chemistry with Connor McDavid on the first line, and with the team starting to get healthier, that gives Kris Knoblauch a lot more options with the rest of his lineup. And while this will be Matt Savoie’s first playoff run, it’s hard not to be excited about what he might do next, given how well he finished his rookie season.

Despite Thursday night being the last game of the 2025-26 regular season, the Edmonton Oilers still had plenty to play for, considering they still had no idea where they’d slot in the Pacific Division or who they’d be facing in Round 1. If they got a single point or better, the Oilers would lock themselves into the second spot in the division. But if they lost in regulation and both Anaheim and Los Angeles won their games, Edmonton would have fallen to the second Wild Card spot to face the Colorado Avalanche. Needless to say, certain outcomes were a whole lot better than others, and it’s crazy that this was the spot the boys were in after what has been a rollercoaster of a season.

Thankfully, we didn’t even have to think about past the seven minute mark because of how the Oilers were absolutely steamrolling the Canucks. Even when Vancouver scored to make it a 2-1 game, the score being close never really felt like it mattered. From my side of the TV screen, it seemed like only a matter of time before the boys pulled away and left the Canucks to die in the ditch. This was a game that the Oilers needed to win and they handled their business about as clinically as they could have against a team that bad. It was a 60-minute beatdown. How else would you describe a night in which the boys posted six goals and allowed only 12 shots against? It was as close to a total annihilation as you can get in this sport.

After beating the Nashville Predators 5-4 in their last game of the season, the Anaheim Ducks will be making their way to Rogers Place for Game 1 on Monday night. Over the last few days, it looked more and more like we were going to get a fifth straight matchup with the Kings until the Ducks pulled off the third period comeback to lock in third place in the Pacific. Now the stage is set for a rematch of the 2017 second round series where the Oilers blew their chance to move onto the Western Conference after a run of blown leads and Kesler-held pads led to a heartbreaking series loss. Nine years later, it’s the Oilers who are the veteran team pushing toward a Stanley Cup while the Ducks are young, scrappy, and mostly inexperienced in their return to the post-season.

The biased Oilers fan in me thinks that playoff experience should be a valuable checkmark in Edmonton’s favour, but I also know that the Ducks are going to be jacked up to play in the big dance and are young enough to not know any better. Young and sloppy as they might sometimes be, Anaheim gave the Oilers all they could handle in the three meetings they had this year, and it’s going to take the boys’ best if they plan to get through. If our side tries to play loose, shinny style hockey then the Ducks have more than a few weapons in their lineup that can jump on those opportunities. While the Oilers won two of three during the regular season, we know all too well that what happened during the year doesn’t matter much in the spring. All I know for sure is that this series is not going to be easy, and it’s going to take more than just a few guys to get that job done. Monday can’t come soon enough.

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