Last night the Edmonton Oilers without their superstar captain, Connor McDavid, made quick and easy work of the Vegas Golden Knights. The Knights themselves were short-handed due to a couple of injuries, but the way the Oilers played last night I don't think it mattered who was in the lineup.
From almost the drop of the puck, the Edmonton Oilers looked like the better team and the scoreboard reflected that. With McDavid out of the lineup, everyone stepped up and played a solid game resulting in a win. Draisaitl, Hyman, Nugent-Hopkins, and Ryan McLeod all had two-point nights.
With the win the Edmonton Oilers gain to more points in their race to overtake the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks last night lost in overtime to the Arizona Coyotes, a team who has been helping the Oilers out lately, beating both the Canucks and Golden Knights now in the last week.
As it sits right now the Edmonton Oilers are 4 points back of the Canucks with 2 games in hand. So if they win both those games the Oilers would be tied for first. These two teams do face each other this Saturday in what I believe will end up being the battle for first place.
Whoever comes in first place in the Pacific would most likely end up playing the Nashville Predators, while the second-place team would play either the Los Angeles Kings or the Vegas Golden Knights. Even though the Oilers just beat the Golden Knights pretty handily, I would still be scared to face a team that just won the cup, Experience in the playoffs could really move the needle.
I think the Oilers would much rather play the Nashville Predators a team that had one of the hottest steaks this season, but have now come back to Earth with a 5-4-1 record in their last 10 games. Not only would the Oilers get an easier match-up they would also get the home-ice advantage for the first two rounds.
Make note there is still a chance that the St. Louis Blues make the playoffs by passing either the Kings or the Knights, but that doesn't change the match-ups for the Oilers as are extremely unlikely to face the 2nd place wildcard team.
With only 5 games remaining in the Edmonton Oilers schedule, it makes the rest of the season exciting to watch as the Oilers look to overtake the Vancouver Canucks. Even if they do not pass the Canucks, I think the Oilers still have a good chance of winning the Cup this year.