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Yes, I’m serious. Well, sorta.
Darnell Nurse had the game winner in OT for the Oilers in Vegas on Saturday night, and I’m not sure all of you are off the strip yet. There’s good news and bad news. Because I think we could all use some good news, we’ll do that first.
The Oilers are winners of two straight, and that’s wonderful. They beat the Coyotes on Friday (they should have straight up handled them, but I’ll take a 4-2 win that included an empty-netter), and they took care of the Golden Knights on Saturday
The bad news? The rest of the Pacific Division is still playing hockey while the Oilers are enjoying the tail end of their bye week. Edmonton gets back into the swing of things on Saturday in Vancouver.
Club was eight points out of a wild card after Saturday’s win. How are things shaking out this Thursday morning?
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Three days in, and the gap isn’t much wider. The Oilers are now (just?) ten points out of a wild card spot, and teams are catching up the 46 game mark alongside the Oilers. At the beginning of the week, eight points out. Today, ten. That’s not much of a difference, hey?
The bad news? The Oilers are ten points out of a wild card berth with just 36 games to go on the season. That’s a hunk of points. Can the Oilers find third place in the Pacific? Not unless Calgary crashes hard. After winning seven straight, Calgary has distanced themselves from the Oilers by eleven points.
Having won just 20 games in 46 puts them behind the eight ball because they’ll need something really rich like 25 more wins in the remaining 36 games in order to have a chance.
They’ll need to dig deep starting Saturday in Vancouver.