The Edmonton Oilers celebrate a goal scored by forward Leon Draisaitl against the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place in Edmonton, on April 1.Perry Nelson/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
At this point, it is difficult not to see the Oilers as a serious contender to win the Stanley Cup. They had the best record in the NHL in March, boast the league’s top two offensive players and have much-improved goaltending.
They are two points behind Vegas with five games left in the regular season but are on a trajectory to win the Pacific Division and finish as the No. 1 team in the Western Conference.
On Saturday night Edmonton beat up on the Anaheim Ducks and officially clinched a playoff spot in a game in which Leon Draisaitl scored on a power play, short-handed and at even strength to reach 50 goals on the campaign.
It is the second successive year he has scored 50 or more and the third time in his career. Over the past five seasons he has more goals (229) than any other player. In that span Auston Matthews is second with 222 and Connor McDavid is third with 214.
The latter got his 62nd on Saturday and is now just four points shy of 150. The Oilers are the first team to have two 50-goal scorers since 1995-96 when Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr did it for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It is not out of the question that they will have three 100-point scorers: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has 97, a career best, and Draisaitl has 120. If Nugent-Hopkins reaches the milestone, Edmonton will be the first team with three since Jagr, Lemieux and Ron Francis did it, also in 1995-96.
This is the fourth consecutive year the Oilers have reached the postseason. A year ago they lost to the Stanley Cup champion Avalanche in the Western Conference final.
It is hard to compare them but, with the exception of the Boston Bruins, the Pacific is likely just as tough as the Atlantic Division. Edmonton is 13-2-1 in its past 16 and 9-0-1 over its past 10 and has had to be to keep up in the standings. As of Sunday, Vegas was 7-2-1 in its past 10, Los Angeles was 6-2-2 and so was Calgary.
There are lots of iterations but here is an interesting one: The Flames have won three in a row to vie for a wild-card spot and could possibly face the Oilers in the first round if Edmonton wins the conference title.
Only a month ago the two teams that participated in a huge off-season trade – Calgary and Florida – looked as though they had little hope of going anywhere. The Panthers have at least temporarily passed Pittsburgh in the race for the second wild card.
The Oilers went 12-2-1 in March to match a franchise record for wins and points in a calendar month. McDavid was chosen as the NHL’s first star for March with 11 goals and 18 assists. Draisaitl was the second star; all he did was put up 11 goals and 17 assists.
Stuart Skinner, the team’s No. 1 goaltender, was the league’s rookie of the month. He went 10-1-1, winning one more time in 30 days than any netminder in Edmonton history. That’s right. Not even Grant Fuhr won more than nine in a month.
A lot of things seem to have come together at the right time for the Oilers. Nugent-Hopkins (35 goals) and Zach Hyman (34) are providing secondary scoring, Evander Kane has returned to form after a serious injury, Darnell Nurse registered his 42nd point on Saturday and Mattias Ekholm has made the defence much more formidable.
Even Jack Campbell, who has had a terrible first year with the Oilers, contributed with 36 saves and a shutout against the Ducks.
Skinner shut out Los Angeles on Thursday.
“My game hasn’t been at the level I expect it to be at any point this year,” Campbell, who lost the starting job to Skinner, said afterward. “Tonight was a great step for me personally.”
Campbell, who signed with Edmonton after three years in Toronto, is unlikely to see much if any action during the playoffs. But until now he has looked like the team’s weakest link and just pitched a shutout.
“He is such a great guy,” Draisaitl said. “All year he has been one of the best teammates I have ever been around whether things have gone his way or not. Hopefully this will turn a corner for him.
“Sometimes it takes a little longer when you join a new team.”
The Oilers look ready for another postseason run right now.
“You might look at me and shake your head because we just set a record for our organization with 12 wins in the month of March, but I think there is more there,” said Jay Woodcroft, the head coach. “We can develop a level of consistency to our game night in and night out that will prove very difficult starting in Game 83.”