The Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche will have the league’s two leading scorers go head-to-head on Tuesday night in a late US-audience doubleheader.

Widen your view beyond Connor McDavid’s 108 points versus Nathan MacKinnon’s 104 points, the game will feature three of the league’s top four scorers: Leon Draisaitl has 92 points, and four of the top-seven scorers, with Martin Necas’ 76 points.

On the blueline, it’s number one in defensive scoring in Evan Bouchard against number two Cale Makar. These are the league’s two highest octane offences in goals for, so the star power is box-office for a high-profile game.

The question for the Oilers is whether they can resemble a team capable of living up to the billing, which they’ve fought all season. They are the 17th-best team in the league in points and 25 points worse than the Colorado Avalanche.

Not only are the Avs the number one scoring team, but they’ve allowed the fewest goals in the NHL at 155. Their goal differential is a preposterous plus-83, with a significant gap between them and anyone else.

The Oilers measly plus-nine goal differential is child’s play in comparison.

And by the way, there ought to be some professional pride on the line tonight. Colorado dummied Edmonton 9-1 at Rogers back on November 9, the most lopsided Oilers loss since 2009.

Low-event Oilers?

To my eyes, the Oilers’ performance against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night was a tidy and sturdy showing. The two points were massive, as they claw within two points of Vegas for second in the Pacific, and three back of the current division leader in Anaheim.

First things first with this club, they have to accumulate points to ensure a playoff spot, which isn’t guaranteed. Seattle, in the last wildcard spot, plus San Jose at ninth in the conference, each have games in hand on Edmonton.

Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch liked his team’s defensive effort.

“It was a low-event game. Obviously, we didn’t have as much offence as we usually do. But I think it’s important we can sacrifice some offence to play better defensive hockey,” he said post-game.

Vasily Podkolzin’s 15th goal of the season set a new career high, with every goal scored at even strength. He only trails McDavid and Draisaitl by one each in terms of five-on-five goals. Amongst Oilers’ regulars, only Zach Hyman (1.03) scores at a higher goals per 60 at five-on-five than Podkolzin (1.01), according to Natural Stat Trick.

Podkolzin is also tied for 37th in five-on-five goals with Mikko Rantanen and Kirill Marchenko.

Edmonton improved to 15-14-4 on the road for the season, winning two of their last five away from Rogers Place. Since the team’s gargantuan roadtrip in November, the team has showed better road results, with a 10-6-1 record.

Will Knoblauch keep the fourth line, which saw Trent Frederic score his second goal in four games, sheltered against the Avs? Colton Dach got his first point as an Oiler on Sunday, but only played five more shifts in the game, and finished with 5:05 of ice-time.

Chips pushed in

Meanwhile, the Avalanche flexed their muscle ahead of the trade deadline and pushed chips in, sensing this is a cup year.

The names included Nazem Kadri back in Avalanche silks, with Nicolas Roy, and Nick Blankenburg added to the depth chart. Including Brett Kulak in the mix, who they acquired on Feb. 24, and this team doesn’t lack on paper.

While the haul cost them Victor Olofsson, Sam Girard, Max Curran, condition first-round picks in 2027 and 2028, a conditional second-round pick in 2027, a second-round pick in 2028, and a pair of fifth-round picks, they aren’t holding back.

The Avs have won just one playoff round since lifting the Stanley Cup in 2022. It’s high time.

“I think my head almost hit the ceiling, and I was so excited,” said Kadri.

He lined up as a winger in his debut on Sunday, displaying the centre depth head coach Jared Bednar has at his disposal.

Kadri was met with a standing ovation upon his return to Denver. His 12 goals and 41 points aren’t quite to the same level of the last few seasons, but the couple everyone expected to get back together did rekindle the romance in the end.

Record-setters

At the beginning of the season, a Colorado Avalanche regulation loss was an event. With a 31-2-7 record in the first 40 games, they reached the second-highest point total all-time through 40 games since the 1929-30 Boston Bruins.

In comparison, their 12-8-2 record since then seems pedestrian. How could it not?

But Colorado is streaking again as we speak. They’ve won five straight and took a pair of shootout victories over Dallas and Minnesota in their last two games. In early January, the Avs became just the fourth team in NHL history to record multiple double-digit win streaks in a single-season. Could they make it three?

Injuries are rearing their head lately, though.

Captain Gabriel Landeskog is out week-to-week after a Cale Makar blast struck him during the Stars’ victory on Friday, which could be a blow to morale. With Landeskog’s journey to playing again, at least the Avs have dealt with this before.

For stronger contributors this season, Artturi Lehkonen is out for the “foreseeable future” with an upper-body injury sustained against the Los Angeles Kings last week. He’s fifth in team scoring with 42 points. A season ago, he had a career high of 27 goals.

In the meantime, it means more regular action for Joel Kiviranta.

Notes:

A season ago, the Avalanche ditched their goaltending and swapped in Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood mid-year. Wedgewood holds the lowest goals against average in the league at 2.19, while Blackwood is fifth at 2.35. Wedgewood is also 10th in Goals Saved Above Expected.
The Avs five-on-ifve game is operating at prodigious levels, holding a 64.79 per cent goal share. If that were to hold, it would be the highest since at least 2008-09, the first year Moneypuck began tracking the numbers. The 2022-23 Boston Bruins had a 63.69 per cent goal share.
That Bruins team had a plus-86 goal differential five-on-five throughout the year. The Avs currently are plus-79, which is 43 goals better than second-place Tampa.
Connor McDavid is on an 18-game road point streak. Only Leon Draisaitl and Patrick Kane have had longer such streaks in the last 30 years.
Leon Draisaitl will played in his 852nd regular-season game as an Oiler, surpassing Mark Messier for fourth most in franchise history.
Oilers record vs Central’s top-3? 0-5-1 and beaten overall 37-10.
Martin Necas was just named the NHL’s second star of the week, after scoring three goals and eight points in four games last week. He also skated in his 500th regular-season game on Sunday. Necas has 104 points in 89 games with the Avs since being acquired for Mikko Rantanen.
The Oilers have the clear advantage at power play at 32.8 per cent, but Colorado boasts the league’s third-best penalty kill, too, at 83.1 per cent.
What’s bizarre is how poor the Avalanche powerplay is, sitting at 15.8 per cent. It’s climbed out of the basement, but for a team so dominant at scoring five-on-five, just 32 of their 238 goals have come on the man-advantage.
Meanwhile, the Oilers have 57 of their 227 goals on the PP.
There were only two teams, as of Monday night, in the league’s top-10 in total goals that weren’t in the top-10 in league points: Edmonton (17th) and Boston (11th).
Sunday’s game was the first time since January 20 that an Oilers game had fewer than seven total goals. It’s been action-packed hockey lately.
Brett Kulak has now played seven games with COL, registering two assists. He averaged over 20 minutes a night with the Penguins, as his usage has dropped to his season start with the Oilers.
Has anyone had greater all-time teammates on multiple teams in one season than Kulak? Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Nathan MacKinnon, and Cale Makar is quite the group.
The Oilers will host the Avs one more time on April 13, game 81 of the regular season.

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and has been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, he also collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues.

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