GAME THREAD: Edmonton Oilers @ Arizona Coyotes

Edmonton Oilers (31-32-7) (5th, Pacific)

Arizona Coyotes (36-30-5) (4th, Pacific)

8 PM MST

Gila River Arena

TV: Sportsnet, CBC

Radio: 630 CHED

SB Nation Opponent: Five For Howling

LET’S DANCE

Put on your red shoes and dance the blues. The Oilers have to win every game from here on out to have a realistic chance. By my eye, that’s about 11 or 12 games in a row. They’ll need to start tonight as they face off against the Arizona Coyotes.

One game at a time.

LINES

Milan Lucic / Connor McDavid / Zack Kassian

Tobias Rieder / Leon Draisaitl / Alex Chiasson

Jujhar Khaira / Ryan Nugent-Hopkins / Sam Gagner

Josh Currie / Colby Cave / Ty Rattie

Oscar Klefbom / Adam Larsson

Darnell Nurse / Kris Russell

Andrej Sekera / Matt Benning

Mikko Koskinen

Alex Stolarz

THREE THINGS TO LOOK FOR

• BALANCE? - This might be the most balanced lineup that the Oilers have iced all season. That’s not a ringing endorsement, but there’s something to like on the top three lines. There’s plenty to not like too. The fact that this might be the most balanced lineup shows that the Oilers have some serious crate digging to do this offseason.
• The Coyotes are on a heater. They’ve won ten of their last twelve, and they’re currently holding down the second wild card position. I don’t think anyone saw this coming a month ago, but nobody on the Coyotes roster is going to tell you different. They’ve scored 39 goals in their last dozen games, which is good for a 3.25 average. That’s quite a bit more than their season average of 2.66, which is fourth worst in the league.
• L50N? Connor McDavid scored his 100th point in Edmonton’s 6-3 loss to the Devils on Wednesday night. It’s his third consecutive season where he eclipsed the 100 point marker. Leon’s got eight goals to hit 50. He can start by picking one up tonight.

Let’s all have some fun out there.