There are certain games that have \u2018L\u2019 written all over them. For Edmonton, we thought walking into the rink Saturday, this was one.<\/p>\n
Edmonton had won five straight games, nicely securing their spot in the post-season \u2014 whomever their opponent might turn out to be. They\u2019d won their past five meetings with Vegas, and if you throw in a playoff series, the Oilers had\u00a0beaten their toughest divisional rival in nine of the past 10 meetings.<\/p>\n
This was a chance to bury the Golden Knights five points into the rearview mirror. Instead, with Anaheim\u2019s loss to Calgary, the Oilers (87 points), Ducks (87 points) and Vegas (86 points) have formed a tight pack atop the Pacific with five games each to play.<\/p>\n
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32 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n
Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n The Division winner will play the wildcard Utah Mammoth. The other two will face each other in Round 1.<\/p>\n Was this a missed opportunity for Edmonton?<\/p>\n \u201cThey could have been, what, five points (back)? Now it\u2019s one, right?\u201d Frederic said. \u201cSo, yeah, pretty big.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were going against a team we are probably going to see down the line, so showing up like that\u2026\u201d said defenceman Jake Walman, whose pair alongside Ty Emberson was a combined minus-5. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to kind of step back and regroup. We\u2019re a team, so the standings separation doesn\u2019t bother us as much, Getting back to the way that we can play is probably the biggest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Are the Oilers a better hockey team than Vegas? When fully healthy, we think so.<\/p>\n Are they faster than Vegas. Undoubtedly.<\/p>\n But are they win-six-straight-and-10-out-of-every-11 games better than Vegas? No.<\/p>\n \u201cThey got the better of us tonight, we got the better of them earlier in the year,\u201d said depth forward Curtis Lazar<\/a>. \u201cA little fuel to the fire at the end of the game. I\u2019m sure it’s not the last time we’ll see them.\u201d<\/p>\n The Oilers have become fairly accustomed to playing without the injured Leon Draisaitl<\/a>. The power play has not produced, but the team is 8-4 since Draisaitl\u2019s injury, which is better than respectable.<\/p>\n