Tonight’s game marks the final one of the 2020-21 NHL season for the Edmonton Oilers as they prepare to begin Operation 16W 2021.

I think the Oilers will put out a pretty standard roster this evening with changes coming in at the bottom. Gaetan Haas and Joakim Nygard might be playing and Slater Koekkoek looks to be coming in. I’m still hoping that Evan Bouchard gets the nod and wouldn’t be a nice gesture to get Patrick Russell in too since he’s been a good soldier all year? Too bad Alex Stalock couldn’t get a game in during the regular season.

Should they be in the lineup, here are three players that I think you should keep an eye on for the Canucks tonight,

• #48 Olli Juolevi – It’s be a long road for Juolevi but see his career finally  trending up. He’s a solid two-way NHL defender with above average puck-moving skills.
• #6 Brock Boeser – Lit up the Oilers last week. I expect nothing less than another goal from BB tonight.
• #35 Thatcher Demko – Has given the Canucks a puncher’s chance when they’ve faced the Oilers.

With regards to Edmonton, I’ll be watching these three individuals closely,

• #10 Joakim Nygard – It’s a shame about his hand. It’s given him some real trouble for the last year. Before his latest setback, in the role of disruptor, he looked very promising.
• #19 Mikko Koskinen – The big man hasn’t had the greatest of starts the last two times out. A good game from him would put a lot of anxiety to rest as he’s the next man up in the event Mike Smith gets hurt or his form slips.
• #20 Slater Koekkoek – Unless things change at the last second, Koekkoek will play his first game since having his collar bone broken on a hit from then Flames forward Sam Bennett on February 20th.

Oilers Notes

I’m expecting a relaxed Edmonton team tonight. Their ticket to the post-season has been punched and there’s no need to push things at this point. I reckon the stars will be rested and the special teams’ second units to get more time.

That said, there’s no reason to lay down and let Vancouver have their way. A modicum of intensity and focus is still required heading into game 1 of their series with the Jets.

Speaking of Winnipeg. They’ve run into an injury crisis at exactly the wrong time and that begs the question, will we see the sort of Oilers team that has had problems playing down to its competition or will we see the one that laid waste to inferior teams this year?

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Tonight, we embark on the fourth and final frame of this four round bout between the Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks. The champions of Alberta are up 2-1 on the series this week and they’ll be looking to win this and ride into the next two games versus Montreal on a high.

On the other hand, with a win, the Canucks could close out the week with a .500 record and that is the kind of positive news the club could use. One would have to think that their goal to end the season is not to be in last place in the North (even though long-term that would probably be best for the club).

Should they be in the lineup, here are three players that I think you should keep an eye on for the Canucks tonight,

• #6 Brock Boeser – Has a goal in every game against the Oilers this week. It’d be pretty remarkable if he could get another one tonight.
• #53 Bo Horvat – I’m still a bit shocked by how quiet he’s been this week and I’m picking him to have a good game tonight and be quite noticeable.
• #35 Thatcher Demko – He was fantastic two nights ago and was the major reason why Vancouver won that game. If he’s in between the pipes tonight, he’ll have to have another great game in order for the Canucks to have a chance at the two points.

With regards to Edmonton, I’ll be watching these three individuals closely,

• #97 Connor McDavid – He’s on 96pts right now and I have a feeling he’s going to hit 100 tonight at home.
• #29 Leon Draisaitl – If Connor hits 100 this evening there’s a good chance Leon hits 80pts too. He’s sitting on 77 at the moment.
• #22 Tyson Barrie – The defensemen has 45pts to date and surely he’ll be looking to climb the ladder to 50pts before the year is out. I don’t think he’s going to get five points tonight but stranger things have happened.

Oilers & NHL News and Notes

Happy late birthday to Jesse Puljujarvi! A lot of people are flip-flopping on their feelings with regard to our man-child which makes me glad because he never deserved that vitriol. He was once a “quitter” for looking out for no.1 but I’m guessing he’s far from that nowadays and for good reason. Fourteen ginos on the season is pretty good, eh? In a normal year that’d be up near the mid-20s and to top it off, he’s not played that much on Edmonton’s PP but I’m betting that’ll change next season.

Jason Gregor reckons if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins wants $6M/yr on his new contract, he might have to go elsewhere because in Gregor’s opinion, RNH doesn’t do enough 5v5 to warrant making that much. The ironic thing is, one of Gregor’s favorite lines is, “Is a point on the powerplay worth less than one at even strength?”… So yeah… I’d be willing to bet Nuge would stay in Edmonton for $6M/yr if he was offered that and Gregor could go back to harping on the length of Jesse Puljujarvi’s hockey stick… (Dropping the Gloves)

Wayne Gretzky is out and won’t be joining ESPN next year but there’s still a chance he’ll join TNT in a Charles Barkley-type role. (The Score)

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They’re back at home for the final two games of this series and everybody is wondering, can the Edmonton Oilers make it three wins in a row over the Vancouver Canucks and hand them a seventh straight loss? If Connor’s men can do it they’ll secure home-ice advantage in the playoffs!

Should they be in the lineup, here are three players that I think you should keep an eye on for the Canucks tonight,

• #24 Jimmy Vesey – I didn’t really expect him to be as noticeable as he’s been. I can’t say he’s been all that impactful, but in the previous two games he’s had some nice rushes up the wing and showed some speed and skill that was very absent in Toronto.
• #70 Tanner Pearson – Has four goals in his last ten games but only one in his last six. Anybody else still shocked that he re-signed in Vancouver?
• #36 Matthew Highmore – This little grinder has four shots and FIVE blocks in his last five games for the Canucks. He was the player Vancouver acquired from Chicago when they sent Adam Gaudette packing at the trade deadline.

With regards to Edmonton, I’ll be watching these three individuals closely,

• #97 Connor McDavid – How much closer can The King of the North get to 100pts tonight?
• #63 Tyler Ennis – I love how this guy comes in after lengthy periods of inactivity like he’s a bat out of hell that’ll be gone when the morning comes. He’s a bit of a breath of fresh air on Edmonton’s third line, no? At least for myself, I’m used to seeing slow plodding grinders and players with less skill on that line. He’s got his faults, but I can deal with that because he’s so very entertaining when he’s got the puck.
• #52 Patrick Russell – YES! My man is in! It’s been too long since we saw the Dangerous Dane in the lineup and I can’t wait to see him work the boards and get into the Vancouver netminder’s grill!

Oilers News and Notes

This isn’t directly related to the Oilers but a former Oiler was involved in the shenanigans.

Just, first off, you wouldn’t believe the amount of hockey pundits I heard just in the Edmonton market say that nothing was going to happen in that Rangers/Capitals game last night. I was a tad flabbergasted to be honest. I mean, how could one think that the New York Rangers were just going to let the Capitals get away with what happened or wait until next year to exact revenge?

Personally, I’m glad this game was a shit show. It was as entertaining as hell for one and New York said f*ck you to the Capitals, George Parros, Colin Campbell, the Department of Player Safety, the NHL, the purists, and all the Wokesters claiming this kind of game would have a detrimental impact on the “great game” and the procurement of future fans…

The league couldn’t handle it, so the players did and everything is done now because that’s how it works if you let the players sort it out. Maybe it’s 5 minutes of mayhem or it’s a period of insanity, it might even take the entire 60 minutes, but at the end of the game, more often that not, scores will have been settled.

I’d expect the same out of the Oilers too if somebody decided to take Connor McDavid’s career into their own hands.

The Rangers ultimately lost the game but they showed everyone (because unsurprisingly everyone tuned in to see what kind of fireworks were going to go off) that there was no way they were going to be see as a bunch of… pussies (h/t to Strother Martin) and the two points didn’t matter anyhow. What did matter was how this club was going to be viewed after what Tom Wilson and the NHL let him get away with.

I wonder if all that chirping and attempting to get Buchnevich to drop the gloves was worth the Sherwood Sandwich Mantha got instead?

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Here we are for this week’s second of four rounds of hockey between the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks. J.T. Miller’s boys made it close in the latter stages of last night’s game but ultimately Connor McDavid sealed the win, and a place in the 2020-21 NHL playoffs, into an open net for his 91st point of the year leaving him six more opportunities to hit 100pts.

Should they be in the lineup, here are three players that I think you should keep an eye on for the Canucks tonight,

• #53 Bo Horvat – Did he play last night? If he did, I didn’t notice him at all and that is a rarity for the Vancouver captain. Usually he’s right in the mix of things during every shift.
• #35 Thatcher Demko – I’m not 100% sure that he’ll be starting tonight but it’s the back-half of a b2b so logic dictates that there’s a good chance he’ll be playing. This netminder is the future of Vancouver’s goaltending and he’s won games on his own for the Canucks in the past 12 months. I wonder if he’ll muster one of those games up this evening?
• #36 Nils Hoglander – Hoggie was one of Vancouver’s more active players last night. I like this guy. He reminds me of Viktor Arvidsson and if Hoglander can get to that level, the Canucks will have quite the player on their hands.

With regards to Edmonton, I’ll be watching these three individuals closely,

• #93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – I was truly impressed with the urgency of Nuge’s game last night. One could argue it looked that much better against a Canucks team that is far from 100%, but on the other hand, if this is what he’s planning to bring to the table once the playoffs start, the Oilers’ secondary forwards will be in fantastic shape heading in.
• #29 Leon Draisaitl – The best German hockey player of all-time is close to putting up the quietest 80pts in the entire NHL even though he was the league MVP last season.
• #6 Adam Larsson – The last time The Iron Swede played this well was back in 2017, the last time Edmonton made the playoffs without a pandemic interrupting their season. Back in the 80s, the dynasty Oilers had Jeff Beukeboom and Steve Smith as their shutdown pairing (nicknamed The Twin Towers) and now we’ve got Dmitri Kulikov and Larsson. They need a nickname, can you think of one?

Oilers News and Notes

There’s not a whole lot going on at this point and I wanted to change this part of the game previews up a bit. I mean, how many diverse things can I write when the Oilers are set to play the same team for an entire week…

As I write this at 10:30am Alberta time, Edmonton’s roster has yet to be announced for tonight’s match. I would like to see Evan Bouchard get into the remaining six games here but I’m not sure on that at all. It would be nice to see Alex Stalock get into a game too as he hasn’t played in over a calendar year.

In an 82-game season, Jesse Puljujarvi would be on pace for around 21 goals and 16 assists for 37pts. If we go back to the last full season that was played (2018-19), those kind of goal totals would’ve been on par with other right-wings like Andrei Svechnikov, Alex Tuch, and Jakub Voracek. If we go with his point totals, he’d have been in the range of players like Jordan Eberle, Pavel Buchnevich, and Oliver Bjorkstrand.

If we just take the season on hand and compare him with other RWs, Pulju is a point off of Josh Anderson and is more than three points higher than analytics favorite Valeri Nichushkin, Evgeni Dadonov, and teammate Kailer Yamamoto.

Apparently all this means nothing to one local media pundit though…

I wish Mr. Gregor luck in his campaign to get Jesse to alter his stick even though Pulju is having success despite doing so and has had success at multiple levels and leagues of hockey worldwide to date…

Lastly, congrats to the club for clinching their playoff birth last night. They’re having a helluva year and a guaranteed spot in the post-season is just a little bit more icing on the cake.

Here’s to the journey for that final cherry on top.

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