Depending on when you went to bed you may or may not have heard who the Oilers are playing in the second round of the playoffs. With their 1-0 win last night, the Vancouver Canucks will be playing the Oilers in the second round of the playoffs, after beating the Preds 4-2 in the series.
I am pretty sure that most Oilers fans we hoping to face the Nashville Predators as they were the weaker of the two teams battling it out in that first-round series. Not to forget to mention the record the Oilers had against the Canucks and Predators during the regular season.
During the regular season, the Edmonton Oilers lost all 4 meetings to the Canucks losing, 8-1, 4-3, 6-2 and 3-1. Of these meetings, Kris Knoblauch was only the coach for the last meeting of the season, even though they still lost it was a blowout like most of the others.
You can look at this series in two ways. One way is the Canucks have owned the Oilers all season and that is going to continue into the playoffs. If that is the case the Oilers will be in trouble because in their games against the Canucks they didn't play well at all. They will need to improve on that if they want to have a chance to beat the Canucks.
The other way to look at this is to look at it the same way the Colorado Avalanche did against the Winnipeg Jets. That is the view that the playoffs are completely different than the regular season, therefore the games are going to have a different outcome.
During the regular season, the Avalanche got worked by the Jets just like the Oilers did by the Canucks. The Avs ended up beating the Jets in 5 games. I think that we will see a similar fate for the Canucks as the way the Oilers are playing right now vs how the Cancuks are playing set the Oilers up for success.
The NHL has not released the Oilers' second-round schedule, but my best guess on the start date would be Tuesday the 7th. Monday would be the front-runner for start days, but there is a concert in the Canucks arena on that day. So, if you have any plans on Tuesday I would recommend cancelling cause you are going to want to watch this tone-setting game 1.