Waking Up With The Edmonton Oilers- Oilers Host Ovechkin, Washington Capitals

The Edmonton Oilers will look to start another winning streak tonihgt as they host the Washington Capitals down at Rogers Place. The Oilers have a record of 39-21-3 while the Capitals are 30-24-9. The Oilers have pretty much secured a playoff tonight while the Capitals are still fighting for one.

Coming into tonight's game the Oilers sit 10 points ahead of the Minnesota Wild with 3 games in hand, the Wild are the team that sits 3rd in the Wild Card race. So with the amount games remaining, it is very unlikely that the Oilers will be passed and moved out of a playoff spot.

The Washington Capitals on the other hand sit 3 points out of a playoff spot and have only one game in hand. The playoff race in the East is a lot tighter than it is here in the West. The Capitals need to finish their final 19 games strong if they hope to make it into the playoffs. The Oilers would love to play spoiler to that tonight.

These two teams have faced each other once already this season. On November 24th the Edmonton Oilers rolled into Washington a laid a beat down on the Caps beating them 5-0. That win might have been the game that turned the season around for the Oilers. It was the first game of an 8 game winning streak, a streak that in my mind saved the Oilers season.

Brown Gets Bump To Third Line

According to the lines at practice yesterday it looks like Connor Brown will be bumped up to the third line to start tonight. Lots of people are unimpressed that Brown gets the bump to the third line, but to me, I think it makes sense.

The duo of Kane and Henrique is pretty good, but they need to add a level of speed to the line and that is just what Brown does. I completely understand that he needs to score a goal or at least contribute offensively if he hopes to stay in that spot, but I think if he scores one goal he will go a bit of a streak. which would be great news for the Oilers.

As the race to catch the Canucks continues the Oilers can't afford to lose many games if they hope to win the Pacific Division they can't lose many more games coming down the stretch, and a team below them in the standings is a must-win.