The Edmonton Oilers are playing like the team many expected them to be. They are good, and so are the other 15 teams currently in playoff spots. It is only December 9th, but one could argue the 16 teams in the playoffs today will be the 16 in April. Ouch.

1. Edmonton is 15-7-2 since October 15th, the fourth-best record in the NHL and second in the West behind the Minnesota Wild. The Oilers (32 points) still trail Vegas by seven points, with a game in hand, for first in the Pacific Division, and catching Vegas will be priority number one. Edmonton is three points behind Los Angeles and tied with Vancouver and the race for home ice in the Pacific will be entertaining, but will Calgary or Seattle put any real pressure on the top-four teams?

2. The same argument can be said in the Central. Minnesota and Winnipeg have 40 points, Dallas has 34 and Colorado 32. Utah and St. Louis have 28, and Utah has two games in hand on Colorado, while St. Louis has one. Will either of them make a serious push to challenge Colorado or Dallas? Or even a Pacific team for the second Wildcard spot? I don’t see it. Do you?

3. The East might have a race, but with the Lightning (30 points) and Rangers (29) holding the two Wildcard spots, I don’t see the Islanders, Penguins, Flyers, Blue Jackets, Sabres or Senators really pushing them. The race looks closer today because of games played. Tampa has played 25 and New York 26. The teams below them have played two to four more games. Tampa has a .600P%, NYR sits at .558P%, while NYI, PHI and CBJ are .500, PIT is .483, OTT is .481 and BUF .463P%. One of those teams will need to play better for a long stretch, and unless one of the top-eight teams really struggles, I don’t see a change — in either conference. The real race will likely be for seeding and home ice advantage.

4. The Jacob Trouba trade could help both teams. Anaheim GM Pat Verbeek wants to ice a hard-working, physical team and Jacob Trouba will bring that. He won’t play like an $8m D-man most likely, but his cap hit doesn’t hurt the Ducks as they have loads of cap space. Trouba admitted it was difficult being the Captain in New York this year while his teammates knew the organization wanted to move him. He will be more relaxed with the Ducks. He won’t make them an instant contender, but with so many young players still on the roster, they need more solid, consistent veterans. I also think his presence will allow them to move Cam Fowler, after he plays his 1,000th game with the Ducks (it will be January 2nd, if he doesn’t miss any games), and Fowler will be highly sought after.

5. The Rangers freed up $6.9m in cap space this season trading Trouba and getting Urho Vaakanainen in return. Now it will be up to GM Chris Drury to use that cap space wisely. Drury announced they signed goalie Igor Shesterkin to a record-breaking eight-year, $11.5m AAV contract within moments of making the Trouba trade. Shesterkin will get a $6m raise starting next season. That eats up most of Trouba’s cap space for next season. Unless the Rangers play better team defence, there is a very low chance Shesterkin’s contract will look good. Shesterkin is a very good goalie, but the challenge with paying your goalie huge money is that he can’t regularly steal games if you don’t play sound defensively in front of him. No goalie can stop endless high-danger scoring chances. To me that is why it is a big risk to pay a goalie so much.

The first few seasons of Sergei Bobrovsky’s $10m deal in Florida didn’t look great, until GM Bill Zito made some great moves to strengthen the roster. Claiming Gustav Forsling off waivers and acquiring Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett in separate deals — along with a great value signing of Oliver Ekman-Larsson — helped push them to a Stanley Cup. Shesterkin’s deal will force Drury to make some astute moves. If he doesn’t, the deal won’t look good, because Shesterkin won’t be able to put up elite numbers.

6. Not naming Zach Hyman to Team Canada’s roster at the 4 Nations Face-Off makes no sense. It seems the decision was based off of 19 games, and the management team completely got tunnel vision to those 19 games and ignored everything else. Hyman is one of the most productive Canadian goal scorers in the NHL. Here are the goal totals of the 13 forwards named to the team, and Hyman. I listed the previous two seasons, then the previous two and this season, and then this season.

At the start of this season, Hyman had the fourth-most goals over the past two seasons. Include this year and he is fifth. Hyman didn’t play horribly in the first 19 games, before being injured, he just couldn’t finish. Since returning from injury, he has three goals in two games. I will be stunned if Hyman isn’t in the top six among Canadian goal scorers from December 4th (day roster was announced) to February 9th (when season breaks for 4 Nations Face-Off).

From the start of 2022-23 until now Hyman has 17 more goals than Brandon Hagel, 19 more than Travis Konecny, 41 more than Seth Jarvis, 47 more than Sam Bennett and 57 more than Mark Stone. Mitch Marner is a no-brainer to make the team, and Cirelli plays centre, and I don’t see him battling Hyman for a spot in the lineup.

The aforementioned wingers are good players. It isn’t a knock on them, instead it is about finding the rationale not to have Hyman on the team. He isn’t a defensively liability, and he is an exceptional forechecker, if you need him to play in the bottom six. He also has chemistry and continuity with McDavid. This tournament is only a maximum of four games, and it would be an advantage to have a duo that knows how to play with each other, similar to Devon Toews and Cale Makar on the blue line. If the others had clearly better numbers, or skill sets, then the continuity argument wouldn’t matter, but they don’t.

Hyman could still be named to the team, if an injury occurs, but that doesn’t excuse the decision not to have him. The management team were clearly blinded by recency bias and grossly overrated 19 games, rather than looking at his overall play. Hyman scored 54 goals last season and then added 16 more goals in the playoffs. Jarvis, Bennett, Stone, Konecny and Hagel combined to score 16 playoff goals in 42 games last spring.

7. Are people actually upset that fans booed Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway in their returns to Edmonton? Seriously? Why? Teams boo opposing players all the time. It adds energy in the building, and in the big picture, it is harmless. If the home team boos their own player repeatedly, I could see how that might negatively impact the player, but Holloway and Broberg should be honoured they got booed.

I’m happy Broberg and Holloway got huge raises and are succeeding in St. Louis, and I thought it was great the fans booed them. Oilers fans cheer for their team first and foremost, or at least they should. What’s next — are those who are upset at the booing were also upset with the witty “Skinner is better!” chant that in relation to Jordan Binnington being named to Team Canada? I can’t think of a hollower complaint/concern than complaining about fans booing Broberg and Holloway. Booing them doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have signed the offer sheets. They were booed simply because they don’t play for the team fans go to cheer for.

8. Connor McDavid is already mentioned among the greats of the greats, and I often hear that “Stanley Cups” are the only thing that matters. I don’t buy that. Multiple things can occur simultaneously. Of course he wants to win a Stanley Cup, but I don’t see how that means he doesn’t want to win more Hart and Art Ross trophies. After a slow start, by his standards, with 10 points in his first 11 games, McDavid has produced 27 points in his last 13 games and now sits tied for seventh place in points and five back of Kirill Kaprizov and Martin Necas.

McDavid has already won five scoring titles (Art Ross). Only Wayne Gretzky (10), Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux (6) and Phil Esposito and Jaromir Jagr (5) have won five. I guarantee McDavid is driven to challenge Gretzky for the most scoring titles. It would be an amazing accomplishment.

McDavid has three Hart trophies (Most Valuable Player) and trails only Eddie Shore (4), Howe (6) and Gretzky (9). He’d love to climb those ranks as well. I’ve never understood the notion these accomplishments don’t matter, only Cups do. You can’t win a Cup in the regular season, but you can with a Hart and Art Ross and other trophies. He wants to be among the greats of the greats in every category, and he should.

9. With the injury to Tyler Seguin the Dallas Stars need Jason Robertson to emerge from his goal-scoring funk. He scored 41 goals in 2022 and followed that up with 46 in 2023. But he only scored 29 last year and he has six goals through 27 games this year. Robertson wasn’t named to Team USA and I barely heard a peep. He wasn’t even considered, and he’s too skilled to only have 35 goals in his last 110 games. He only has three multi-goal games in that span. The Stars really need him to rediscover his scoring touch.

10. Example 1,020 on why the NHL is difficult for young players and the majority of them take time to find their offensive strids: Juraj Slafkovsky has two goals in 24 games after scoring 20 goals last season. He’s still only 20 years old, and the NHL can humble young stars. Patience is the most important ingredient for organizations with young players. Far too often teams, media and fans like to use the word “bust” with high picks, because they don’t dominate right away. Not all development is a smooth straight line upwards projection, in fact, those players are the exception. Salfkovsky is the latest example, but he’s far from the only one. Connor Bedard has five goals in 27 games. It is hard to score consistently for any player, never mind players in their first, second and third seasons.

Thanks to all who donated to the Pyramid of Giving on Friday and to GS Construction for matching donations. We raised $16,000 for the Holiday Hamper.

DAY six: 🎁 Package #1: A High-Efficiency Furnace from A-1 Heating

Package #2: 🎁 : A Hot Water Tank from One Hour Plumbing and Andrew Sheret Limited.

You can bid via text between 2-6 p.m. on Sports 1440 by texting 833.401.1440 (can call same number) and include your name and donation amount. Money raised will support Operation Friendship Seniors Soceity.