Waking Up With The Edmonton Oilers- Finally Game Day

It has been a week to the day that the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Los Angeles Kings in 5 games to move on to the second round of the NHL playoffs. Finally tonight the Oilers are back on the ice as they open their second-round series against the Vancouver Canucks on the road in Vancouver.

Coming into this series the Oilers are favourite on most betting sites even though the Canucks finished higher than them in the standings. There are a couple of reasons for that I think. The biggest reason is the Thatcher Demko injury. The Canucks loss of their Vezina calibre goal really affects that team.

For the Canucks they won a couple of tight games against Nashville Predators and were able to dispatch them in 6 games. They have been on a pretty long break as well not playing since Friday. Both of these teams will be coming in well-rested to this series, so there should be no excuses and this should be a fast-paced game.

For this series, I think a big part is going to be special teams. If the Oilers remain as dominant as they were against the Kings then the Oilers should once again easily win this series. The Canucks though have a much better powerplay than the Kings do though so it will be a lot harder to lock down.

As far as the rest of the game goes I think the Oilers are the better team when it comes to forwards and goaltending(with Demko injured) and the defense is tighter with maybe a slight edge to the Canucks(only if Hughes plays his best). That is why I have a feeling the Oilers will win this series.

While the the 8 PM scheduled start time is still hours away, If you are trying to kill time you can check out the article I wrote yesterday where there is a list of things to do to kill time before the game tonight.