The door is open for the Edmonton Oilers to win the Western Conference.
Some things will need to break their way — a Seattle Kraken win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday — but we’re saying there’s a chance.
The Oilers made it possible by gutting out a 2-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night. Most of the action in this one came early on in the game. 4:52 into the first period, an own goal put the Oilers behind. While Ben Meyers got credit for it, the puck had been accidentally swept toward the Oilers’ net by Nick Bjugstad and took a bounce off Philip Broberg and in.
But the Avalanche lead didn’t last long as 36 seconds later, a Mattias Ekholm blast tied the game up at one. It would take an Evan Bouchard game-winner in overtime to break the tie.
@Edmonton Oilers
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Edmonton Oilers at Colorado Avalanche April 11th, 2023
Ekholm 1 Goal
Bouchard 1 Goal (PP in OT)
McLeod 1 Primary Assist
Foegele 1 Secondary Assist
McDavid 1 Primary Assist (PP in OT)
Draisaitl 1 Secondary Assist (PP in OT)
Skinner 28/29 .966 Save %age
3 Stars Bouchard, Ekholm, Georgiev
Edmonton Colorado
Shots on Goal 40 29
Hits 25 13
Faceoffs Won 28 28
PP 1/4 0/3
Giveaways 2 7
Takeaways 9 13
Blocked Shots 14 14
Player TOI PP TOI PK TOI SOG +/- PIM Hits Blocks GVA TKA
Nurse 24:46 1:32 4:00 2 0 0 4 5 0 1
Bouchard 22:34 5:09 —- 2 1 0 1 2 0 1
Ekholm 22:07 1:25 2:16 3 1 0 0 0 0 1
Desharnais 20:08 —- 3:47 0 0 0 1 3 0 0
Kulak 15:36 0:03 1:58 1 -1 0 1 2 0 0
Broberg 12:01 —- —- 2 -1 0 0 0 0 0
Draisaitl 24:22 5:13 1:06 0 0 0 2 0 0 2
McDavid 22:18 5:09 1:17 7 0 0 0 0 0 0
Nuge 21:44 5:11 2:24 2 0 0 2 0 0 1 (800th Career Game)
Kane 19:41 1:31 1:18 3 0 2 6 0 1 1
Hyman 19:04 4:29 0:03 7 0 0 1 0 0 1
Yamamoto 16:14 —- 1:09 2 0 0 3 0 0 0
Ryan 12:01 0:12 0:11 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
McLeod 11:45 1:20 —- 2 1 2 0 0 1 0
Foegele 11:31 1:18 —- 1 1 0 0 0 0 1
Bjugstad 9:45 0:12 2:29 4 -1 0 0 1 0 0
Janmark 9:00 —- 2:02 1 -1 0 1 1 0 0
Kostin 5:34 —- —- 0 -1 2 3 0 0 0
Faceoffs Won Lost Percent
Draisaitl 14 5 73.7
McDavid 7 7 50.0
Bjugstad 4 5 44.4
McLeod 2 6 25.0
Ryan 1 0 100.0
Yamamoto 0 1 0.0
Nuge 0 1 0.0
Kane 0 2 0.0
Janmark 0 1 0.0
Nuge's 800th Career Game. Again playing Kostin barely over 5 minutes. In my opinion what's the point. I'd say play a 7th D but we're a D down with Cody Ceci waiting for the birth of his child. Skinner and Georgiev put on a tendies clinic with Skinner coming out on top but Georgiev facing over 25% more shots. With this win and Vegas beating Seattle we're still 2 behind Vegas for first in the conference. Colorado is only 2 points behind us with a game in hand. Dallas is 3 points behind us with a game in hand. Unless Seattle does us a solid and beats Vegas at home for the last game (and we beat San Jose of course) we can't win the division. Right now our destiny depends on us winning and Vegas loosing for that Conference win. We have the same # of wins (with more regulation wins) than Colorado so even if they win only ONE of their remaining two games we'd win the conference. Unfortunately Colorado faces Winnipeg and Nashville for their two final games and Winnipeg has ZERO reason to really do anything. They can't move up the standings and NAshville is eliminated. The West final 8 are decided, now it's just placement. If Seattle looses we play LA at home to start round 1. If Seattle wins and we win we play Winnipeg at home to start round 1. Part of me would think LA would be better for us as Winnipeg can goalie you but we'll see. Take care all.
Winning with other lines how about Evan BOUCHARD 💥🇨🇦🤣
Now the foot soldiers want to lead 🇨🇦😁
Skinner respect 😂✔🇨🇦
It was a really weird game to me. On one hand, the Oilers were quite frenetic with the puck and a bit disjointed. They failed to clear the zone for no reason and missed passes. Some of that is because the Avs pressure a lot and they're fast. But some of it looked like rust or disjointedness. On the other hand, the Oilers held it together enough to win. They manufactured some chances and needed their goalie to win. I just hope that was not the direction they're going. The PP hasn't been stellar lately either. So there's both a maturity and ability to keep it together which is great but also a bit of fragmented play.
If Seattle wins, we lose and LA loses, we play Seattle
4 goals allowed in the last 6 games!
Skinner was good, no doubt, but he didn’t exactly have to stand on his head. The Oilers defended well, and if we’re honest Colorado didn’t exactly put ANYTHING in the net
I have heard a number of commentators today speak of the best teams in the west, and Vegas is almost always reduced in these discussions. But they are ahead in the standings of everyone else in the west. I interpret that to mean that over the entire season so far, they must be the best team
To be fair, the same could be said about Georgiev. Had he not stood on his head, we would have netted a few more. Phenomenal by both tendies.