The NHL playoffs are now officially underway, with the Edmonton Oilers beginning their quest for the Stanley Cup on Monday night in Los Angeles. Opinion is split, with some thinking this is finally the Kings' year, but others believing the Oilers will prevail for a fourth consecutive season.
Before looking ahead entirely though, we thought it would be a good chance to have a look at the final NHL power rankings of the regular season and see how the Oilers stack up. And as you'd expect given the season they've had, the various media outlets are neither fully confident or entirely down on Kris Knoblauch's players.
Biggest move of the week for the Oilers
We begin with Bleacher Report, who actually have the Oilers as one of their biggest risers of the final week of the regular season. Lyle Fitzsimmons decided they were worthy of jumping from 12th to ninth place in the rankings.
Fitzsimmons does make note of the Oilers' injury issues but likes the way this didn't stop them going 4-1-0 to finish the regular season. And as is a common theme among most hockey outlets and analysts, Connor McDavid's surge of 10 points in his previous four games serves as a catalyst for understandably not betting outright against Edmonton's hockey team.
Keeping with the positive theme, NHL.com also moved the Oilers up in their weekly "Super 16" power rankings, albeit just one place from 12th to 11th. It should be added they are only ranked sixth-best out of the Western Conference teams, including notably behind the Kings in seventh place overall.
For this week's theme, NHL.com selected an under-the-radar depth player who could make the difference for each team in the playoffs, with Derek Van Diest picking Jeff Skinner specifically for the Oilers. This will be Skinner's first ever playoff run and even though he wasn't as prolific this season as for the majority of his time in the NHL, you can't count out a player with nearly 400 career goals.
Another decent rise in the rankings for the Oilers
Turning to the Score, they decided to do a top 16 like NHL.com in anticipation of the playoffs, and move the Oilers up from 12th to 10th place. Once again though they are only sixth out of the Western Conference teams, alluding to the size of the task facing them to get back to the Stanley Cup Final for a second consecutive year.
Finally we come to Sportsnet, who are the one sports media outlet we looked at who decided to move the Oilers down in their rankings, from 10th to 11th place. They justify this by quite rightly pointing out the absence of Mattias Ekholm for at least the first round of the playoffs, combined with the erratic goaltending which has plagued the team all season.
As for the positives, Ryan Dixon quite simply points towards McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who are arguably two of the top five players in the NHL. However, no matter how good they are -- and it's very -- hockey is one of the ultimate team games, with a need for plenty of teammates to step up their game and prove all the doubters wrong, beginning on Monday night.
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