Edmonton Oilers

G76 Oilers vs Kings: It's Been A Long Time Coming
March 28, 2017, 12:28 PM ET [43 Comments]
Matt Henderson
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
Well here we are. The day has finally come that the Oilers could potentially clinch a playoff berth and – No – you aren’t at home playing the latest iteration from EA Sports. This is real life. The Oilers can officially punch their ticket to the post-season with a win – any kind of win – against the Los Angeles Kings.

Like me, you’ve probably been waiting for a decade to see this again. I can’t begin to count the ways in which my life has changed since the Oilers made the playoffs last. I was a University student, working as a cook 3 nights a week to fill my wallet with anything. If you ever ate at Don Cherry’s restaurant in Edmonton in the early to mid 2000’s chances are I made your wings. The run of 2006 was so improbable, even with Chris Pronger on the blueline all year, that each game and subsequent round felt like a gift.

The proto-fancy stats guys will tell you at the time that they knew the Oilers were good but lacked goaltending until Roloson arrived. I will tell you that I was not part of the proto-fancy stats crowd so I was oblivious to exactly how good the Oil had been with the exception of their netminders. I was ignorant and happy as a clam while the team found a way to advance to the Finals.

What a glorious time that was. And what a nightmare it has been since then.

Pronger bailed on the team almost immediately after the playoffs ended. Peca, Spacek, and several others pulled the chute as well. At the 2007 trade deadline Smyth and Lowe played chicken with his next contract and Lowe didn’t just flinch, he bailed into the ditch. Smyth was gone; Robert Nilsson was in. The Oilers rebuild was centered around Nilsson, Gagner, and Cogliano. How naïve we were.

It wasn’t until the winter of 2009 that the Oilers admitted they couldn’t compete as they were built. They needed a proper rebuild and Katz himself announced it on the radio. The Gory Years were officially kicked off. At first, GM Steve Tambellini was given a lot of rope. We all hoped and wished that he had a plan beyond “Be awful, pick high, win again.” He did not have any such plan.

As the team acquired pick after pick, selecting forward after forward, the Oilers traded away all of the defenders who could have conceivably helped those young men. Even as Tambellini’s bumbling gave way to MacT’s ineptitude, the Oilers just kept sending away quality defenders. Lubomir Visnovsky, Sheldon Souray, Tom Gilbert, Jeff Petry. God, between 2009 and 2014 Theo Peckham had played the 4th most games of any Oiler defenseman. Ladi Smid had played the most. Of course this team was terrible!

The core of Hall, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins, and Justin Schultz had become synonymous with losing. Not even three consecutive 1st overall picks in an era where the team was purposefully icing incomplete teams to draft high and fix their problems had actually turned the Oilers around. Since nobody in the organization had put the same priority on finding all-around defenders as they had on finding high-end forwards, the club was still incomplete.

Then the Oilers won the McDavid draft lottery. It was as if Opportunity itself became an Oiler that day. The executive brass knew the team could not continue to operate as it had previously. That wasn’t good enough. MacTavish was demoted almost immediately and replaced by Peter Chiarelli, who was let go by the Bruins and out of work for exactly 9 days. Todd Nelson was wished good luck by the organization as his resume with their AHL affiliate was overlooked so the team could hire the veteran Todd McLellan.

Neither of the two additions have been perfect since becoming Oilers. For example, shortly after taking the gift that was Connor McDavid, Chiarelli gave away two high picks in a deep draft to get Griffin Reinhart. Those today look like blown assets. I will also contend to the day that I die that the Taylor Hall trade by Chiarelli was a drastic overpay for what has become the team’s 4th defender by ice-time.

However, what Chiarelli has done is use the living embodiment of opportunity that is Connor McDavid to find several free agents who have played large roles on this club. A lot of key players were already here but they needed support. McDavid, Klefbom, Eberle, Nurse, and Nugent Hopkins, these guys were all Oilers (or in McDavid’s case his rights were essentially secured). It was the rest of the cast that was MIA. This past summer it was Milan Lucic. The summer before it was Andrej Sekera and Mark Letestu. Sekera’s impact was immediate. Letestu needed a year to find his groove and Lucic since March has been exactly what Chiarelli had envisioned. Add in a Maroon deal, the Talbot deal, and the Benning signing and this very incomplete team started to get filled in.

When the season started, I stated that the goal could be nothing less than the Playoffs. I would not be happy with all of Chiarelli’s moves, but after they were done the team did not have any glaring weaknesses in key positions. Playoffs or bust for Chiarelli’s Oilers. With McDavid leading the charge every night and Talbot backstopping them on most, this team has found a way to win more than every other Oiler team for the last decade.

And tonight they could finally clinch a playoff berth once again. It’s been a long trip. I can fondly look back on players like Dennis Grebeshkov and Cam Barker now, but it was hell at the time. Enjoy the moment, if it comes tonight. You’ve earned at least that much.

LINEUP

It's still likely that Benning doesnt play after taking a puck off the knee. Looks like Hendricks in, Khaira out.

UPDATE: Slepyshev in, not Hendricks

Maroon McDavid Draisaitl
Lucic RNH Eberle
Pouliot Desharnais Kassian
Slepyshev Letestu Caggiula

Klefbom Larsson
Sekera Russell
Nurse Gryba

Talbot
Brossoit

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Benoit’s Back. At some point this season even I gave in to the idea that Benoit Pouliot had indeed fallen victim to a gypsy curse. He was never going to score again. He went 28 games in a row (3 months) without scoring a goal. An injury sustained falling into the boards at practice kept him out for a month and when he returned he was both that much healthier and in the company of Desharnais, a veteran centerman acquired at the deadline. Let’s say it was all of those things that allowed Pouliot to reset, because since returning to the lineup he has 4 points in 9 games. It’s not a massive amount of offense, but it’s respectable on 12:30 a night. It’s actually better than respectable. In the 9 games since coming back he’s scoring at a rate of 2.48 P/60. He was always a good 5v5 scorer in the past. For the majority of the year his offense was missing. It looks like he’s finally turning it around.

2) Nuge Scoring. One of the ongoing issues all year has been a distinct lack of secondary scoring. The entire second line were in stretches at various points that have put them in the likely position of finishing the season with some career lows (for full seasons). Among them is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. We recall that he had a very serious hand injury last season that required reconstructive surgery. I have NO IDEA how much his recovery of the same injury has played into his struggles this season but let’s say it has at least factored in a bit. He has 38 points this season and will likely finish in the low 40’s. Previously you could count on him picking up 50+ points in a campaign. He’s had 4 points in the last 2 games (yes, against the Avalanche) but perhaps he’s starting to regain a little confidence.

3) Backed Into A Corner. Just as the Oilers can clinch a playoff berth, the Kings can be effectively* knocked out of the post-season tonight. I think we should assume that they will play this game like a wild animal backed into a corner. Unless their spirit has already been broken, this club will be fighting tooth and nail to preserve the last chance at the playoffs they have left. They would need to run the table the rest of the season, so it’s possible for the Oilers to plant the seeds of doubt with some early goals. I believe this could be the 2nd season in a row that the Oil sink Los Angeles’ chances at the playoffs. It’s just sweeter this time for Edmonton that they will actually benefit from it themselves.

*Amended from "officially" as there is a slight mathematical possibility for the Kings to make the playoffs.