Oilers Tough Schedule May Decide Their Cup Aspirations
For the Edmonton Oilers to progress towards their goal of winning a Cup, much will depend on how they play for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.
They have six games out of the remaining 10 games this month against teams whom they trail in the standings.
They started out on the right foot (or skate) by defeating the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Thursday night. Darnell Nurse scored the game winning goal at the 15:11 mark of the last stanza.
The Oilers still have tough games against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Seattle Kraken, and will face the Vegas Golden Knights twice.
The Edmonton club resides in the first wild-card spot of the Western Conference with a 36-22-8 record good for 80 points. They are tied with the Seattle Kraken for third place in the Pacific Division with the Kraken possessing one game in hand.
Stuart Skinner continues to shine in net with a 19-13-4 record. He has a .913 save percentage along with a 2.83 goals-against-average. Jack Campbell has had his trouble in goal this season. He has a 17-9-4 record with a dismal .882 save percentage and an even worse 3.57 GAA.
The team's improved defensive play should he noted. Spotting the Bruins two goals and then scoring three unanswered tallies has to be encouraging. The addition of Mattias Ekholm on the blueline certainly has helped.
He has two assists in five games and has averaged 20:38 minutes of ice time in an Oiler uniform. It was obvious that GM Ken Holland had to improve his defence to compete, and he did just that.
Another big plus for the Oilers to compete for a Cup is the return of Evander Kane. He played 18 minutes in the Bruins game and seems to be recovering from his injuries.
The Oilers also added Nick Bjugstad to fortify the bottom-six forward group. The 6'-6", 209 pound forward can bang the net and screen opposing goalies with the best of them.
All in all, the Oilers need to come out of March with some points to establish their spot in the postseason. They have a good start after going 4-1 thus far. Let's see if they can win the vital games against opponents ahead of them.
| POLL | ||
Will the Oilers be able to come out of March in a good position to compete in the playoffs? | ||
| Yes! | 110 | 75.9 % |
| Only if they can play good defence | 24 | 16.6 % |
| The addition of Ekholm is vital | 6 | 4.1 % |
| We'll see | 5 | 3.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
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