Oilers Gameday – vs Colorado – This is the End….

The Oilers are back in action tonight against the Colorado Avalanche, who will be playing their last game at Rexall Place.

The Oilers are coming off a a 2-0 win over Vancouver, while the Avs are riding a bit of a win streak (which they need to keep up if they want to make the playoffs for real).

Last Game

Friday night’s game against Vancouver (which wasn’t the Canucks’ last visit to Rexall – more on that later) was a pretty decent effort all around. It helps that Cam Talbot is capable of stopping the puck 40 times, but it was also nice to see a pretty complete team effort. Of course, these efforts are coming in games that legitimately don’t matter any more, but if the Oilers can at least put together a solid game in each of their remaining 8 outings, there’s a pretty solid foundation to build on for next season.

Don’t believe me?

“It’s a consolation prize at the end of the year, but we’ll take it.” @hallsy04 finishing #Oilers season stronghttps://t.co/0VhmkJO4Ml

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 20, 2016

(As if you didn’t know that was coming….)

Keys to the Game

The last two games, wins over St Louis and Vancouver, have been fun to watch. There are good things happening on the ice, fewer giveaways, a little more toughness (or grit, as it were), and it looks to me that they’re having fun playing hockey again. I know it sounds kind of strange, but as much as we like to hang our hopes and dreams on the success of the team, we need to remember that at the end of the day they’re just human beings who are exceptionally good at playing a game. And that’s what it is – a game. Games are meant to be fun, and if I can watch 8 more this season where my team doesn’t look downtrodden and defeated almost immediately after the puck drops, I’m in.

Players to Watch

Taylor Hall. Still good at hockey, despite what his detractors say.

Gabe Landeskog is back from his 3-game suspension, so look for him to try to make a big impact in his team’s puch for the playoffs.

Projected Lineups

(I’m Jon Snow. Don’t shoot the messenger.)

Edmonton

Patrick Maroon – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle

Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Iiro Pakarinen

Lauri Korpikoski – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Nail Yakupov

Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian

Andrej Sekeera – Mark Fayne

Darnell Nurse – Adam Clendening

Jordan Oesterle – Griffin Reinhart

Laurent Brossoit

Colorado

Gabriel Landeskog – John Mitchell – Jarom Iginla

Mikkel Boedker – Nate Mackinnon – Blake Comeau

Mikhail Grigorenko – Carl Soderberg – Andreas Martinsen

Cody McLeod/Shawn Matthias – Jack Skille – Chris Bigras

Francois Beauchemin – Erik Johnson

Nick Holden – Tyson Barrie

Eric Gelinas – Zack Redmond

Calvin Pickard

Final Thoughts

The Oilers last game at Rexall Place is on Wednesday April 6th. At 5pm MT. Yep, you read that right. The game (originally scheduled for 8pm MT) has been moved to 5pm at the request of the team, because they have a massive post-game ceremony planned.

From the media release:

The Farewell Night game and closing ceremony festivities will be broadcast nationally on Rogers Sportsnet allowing Oilers fans from across the country to tune into this historic evening.

I’m obviously not privy to the details of the ceremony, but I read somewhere that it involves people in attendance being able to take things away from Rexall. There are around 150 Oilers alumni already confirmed to attend, and if the Oilers treatment of other major celebrations is any indication, I’m sure this will be pretty cool.

However, I have some questions about this change, and the rationale behind it.

First of all, am I the only person who remembers how inconvenient it was during the 2006 playoffs when all the games during the finals started at 6pm? And they want to start at 5?

Second, why is the Oilers last game at Rexall not their last game of the season? It’s not like anyone in the NHL offices thought the Oilers were going to make the playoffs, so why is their last game in their rink on a Wednesday?

Third, and perhaps most important, why would anyone think that anyone in any other part of Canada wants to watch the Oilers (who won’t make the playoffs) play the Canucks (who also won’t make the playoffs) in eastern prime time? THAT’S the puzzling thing.

Ryan Batty, over at Copper & Blue, probably said it best:

Even if I believed that a national audience is actually interested in what the Oilers have planned for a closing ceremony, and I don’t, starting the game at 5:00PM on a Wednesday night is unbelievably stupid because it’s going to be inconvenient for almost every person attending, you know, the people who paid money to watch the game. In many cases those people who will be season ticket holders who have stood by this team for the last decade when the on-ice product has been absolutely atrocious and they’re the ones who get screwed over here in favour of a national audience.

I’m going to be scratching my head about this one for a good long while.

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