Oilers v. Coyotes - 1 Samuel 2:31-33

"The time is coming when I will put an end to the love affair the city of Edmonton has with the Oilers," says the Lord, "so that it will no longer serve to distract the people. Every single one of your first overall picks will be traded before his time. Not one of them will be an Oiler beyond his thirtieth birthday. You will watch with envy as I pour out favor on other teams, and watch the Oilers miss the playoffs for a ninth, tenth, and eleventh consecutive season. Those whose fandom survives will ever be filled with sadness and grief, and their children will mock them for their faith."

Edmonton Oilers @ Phoenix Coyotes

Jobing.com Arena, 8:00 p.m. MST
Television: Sportsnet

The Race to the Bottom (It's Happening Again):

Visiting Team Scouting Report: The Phoenix Coyotes are fighting it out with Dallas for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. Those two teams will play each other in the last game of the season, but is that game going to matter, or will things already have been decided? Let's take a look at each club's remaining schedule:

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So if each team wins the games that I think they should win, Dallas will already be in before the last game of the year since they have the tiebreaker locked up. Of course, I'm likely not going to be right about each of these games, and if the Coyotes win out, which is very possible, they've got a very good chance of making it to the dance.

Expected Lineups:

Edmonton Oilers (26-42-9):

Hall - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Lander - Gagner - Perron
Smyth - Gordon - Pinizzotto
Hendricks - Acton - Larsen

Marincin - Petry
Klefbom - Schultz
Fraser - Belov

Scrivens

Phoenix Coyotes (36-28-14):

Boedker - Vermette - Doan
Korpikoski - Hanzal - Vrbata
McMillan - Ribeiro - Moss
Chipchura - Halpern - Erat

Ekman-Larsson - Michalek
Yandle - Stone
Summers - Morris

Greiss

By The Numbers:

• At the beginning of the season I was talking about the possibility of the Oilers setting a new record for empty-net goals against, but they're now well off the pace, and with only 10 goals against, no longer even lead the league this season. The team that does? Phoenix, with 12, but they probably don't have much chance of getting to the NHL record of 15.
  
• Among players who are 25 and under, Oliver-Ekman Larsson has played the third most total minutes in the entire league (1946), behind only Erik Karlsson (2066) and Drew Doughty (2006). Justin Schultz (1616) is currently fifteenth despite playing just 69 games.
  
• Ben Scrivens has had some great games, but he's also had a few stinkers. His overall save percentage in Edmonton is good (.916), but when we break it down, it's an average even strength save percentage (.920) being propped up by an excellent PK save percentage (.902).