With their playoff spot officially clinched earlier this week, all the injury-riddled Edmonton Oilers have left to play for this season is a faint shot at finishing second place in the Pacific Division.
They’ll face the Winnipeg Jets on the road on Sunday and then they’ll host the Los Angeles Kings on Monday. If the Oilers are going to jump the Kings in the standings, they’ll have to sweep this back-to-back.
1. The Jets opened the 2024-25 season with a 6-0 win in Edmonton after the Oilers raised their Western Conference Champions banner. They won eight games in a row to start the year and were 15-1-0 by the middle of November.
That strong start along with an 11-game winning streak in January and February has helped Winnipeg put together the best regular season in team history. The Jets are in first place in the NHL with a 55-21-4 record and a win would clinch their first-ever Presidents’ Trophy.
2. The Jets rank third in the league with 272 goals and their 185 goals against is the fewest in the NHL. Winnipeg has the top power play this season at 29.3 percent and their 79.2 percent penalty kill is 15th in the league. They’re also tied with the Ottawa Senators for the most shutouts this season with 10.
3. The MVP for the Jets this season has undoubtedly been goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who leads the league with 46 wins, eight shutouts, a .924 save percentage, a 2.02 goals-against average, and 39.1 goals saved above average.
Hellebuyck will certainly win the third Vezina Trophy of his career this year and he might even wind up with the Hart Trophy given how much of a role he’s played on the top team in the league’s standings. Leon Draisaitl leads the NHL with 52 goals and 11 game-winning goals but this late-season injury unfortunately hampers his case.
4. Leading the way offensively for the Jets this season is Kyle Connor with 41 goals and 96 points while linemate Mark Scheifele is second on the team with 38 goals and 85 points. Winnipeg’s top forward line is usually rounded out by Gabe Vilardi, who has 27 goals and 61 points, but he’s week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
While that top line does a lot of heavy lifting for the Jets, Winnipeg has a lot of depth scoring. The second line of Nikolaj Ehlers, Cole Perfetti, and Vladislav Namesnikov have combined for 53 goals while Nino Niederreiter and Adam Lowry have combined for 33 goals from the third line.
5. The top defensive pairing for the Jets this season has been Josh Morrissey and Dylan DeMelo. Morrissey leads Winnipeg’s defencemen with 61 points in 79 games and he leads the team with an average of 24:22 minutes per game.
Let’s hope Morrissey doesn’t land another crosscheck on Connor McDavid in this game. The last one caused him to miss eight games and the team went 4-4-0 in his absence.
6. The Oilers have won both games since McDavid returned from injury and he’s picked up seven assists on the eight goals the team has scored. Through 65 games this season, McDavid has 26 goals and 97 points.
With a long list of injuries and question marks heading into the playoffs, the Oilers need McDavid at his best even more than usual this spring.
7. Stuart Skinner will make his first start since March 26 when he was kneed in the head by Mikko Rantanen in a 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars. He missed seven games with a concussion and returned to Edmonton’s bench as Calvin Pickard’s backup on Friday against the San Jose Sharks.
Pickard played very well for the Oilers while Skinner was out and he might be the starting goalie when the playoffs begin next week. After an ugly 6-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken the night following the loss to Dallas, Pickard settled in and has posted a .917 save percentage while winning five of six games.
It’s difficult to say what to expect from Skinner coming back from a head injury. He made nine starts in March before getting concussed and posted a .873 save percentage. His save percentage on the season is a career-low .894 and he has a 24-18-4 record.
8. With a win, the Jets can sweep their regular season series against the Oilers for the first time since 2017-18.
They beat Edmonton 6-0 to open the season and they beat the Oilers 4-3 in overtime a few weeks ago. Those wins both came in Edmonton and this will be the first time the Oilers play in Winnipeg this season.
