Before Edmonton’s seven game home-stand, I said that the Oilers would need to go 5-2 to save their season and get back in the race. Edmonton ended up going 4-3, not as good as I thought needed, but not terrible. It was a winning record, something Edmonton has struggled obtaining during home-stands for the last, oh, eight seasons?
Edmonton now heads east, and will have a five game road trip. It starts tonight in Philadelphia, and then goes through Boston, Buffalo, New York and Nashville. That’s four eastern teams, and a western team which is off to an extremely hot start.
The start of the road trip features three games against teams that are not exactly clicking right now. The Flyers are banged up, without defenders Andrew MacDonald and Braydon Coburn. On top of that, the Flyers have a goaltending problem, as Steve Mason has reverted to old form and the team is relying on Ray Emery for solid goaltending.
Meanwhile, Boston is rolling out an AHL defense corps. Zdeno Chara is out with a knee injury, Kevan Miller has been out, Torey Krug has a finger injury, and Johnny Boychuk was traded away. Oh, and their top offensive option, David Krejci, is currently out with an undisclosed injury.
Buffalo, well they are positioning themselves for Connor McDavid. Buffalo simply can’t score, and this team looks a lot like the 2010-11 Edmonton Oilers. They try hard, but they simply are not very good. Buffalo lacks star power, and has a lot of younger players that are trying to learn the ropes.
The fourth game is in the most famous arena in the world, Madison Square Garden. The Rangers have an elite goalie, and are starting to click yet again. New York is a good team with a lot of talent and depth, and will likely feast on a weak Oiler team. This is a game that I’m writing in as a loss, especially with Taylor Hall out of the line-up.
Lastly, Edmonton travels to Nashville to battle the red-hot Predators. Nashville just dominated Edmonton last Wednesday night in Edmonton, and really you can’t expect anything different when these two teams meet in Nashville. That said, the Oilers have had success in this building in recent years, and that is certainly a factor.
The Expectation:
Ideally, Edmonton comes home with a 3-2 record, and a game below .500 overall on the season. It would be massive for Edmonton to stay around .500 without Taylor Hall to give themselves a chance to make a run when they get fully healthy. There are winnable games here too, Edmonton should be able to beat Buffalo, and can snag games against beat up teams in Philly and Boston.
I’ll say Edmonton needs to go 3-2 here, but I’ll say 2-3 is more likely for this road trip. IF Edmonton is able to go 3-2, and I stress IF, then we can start talking about Edmonton maybe making a run towards competing for a playoff spot.
That’s best case scenario however, and highly unlikely with Taylor Hall out of the line-up for all five games.
What say you Oiler fans? What is the record you will be looking for on this road trip? It starts tonight in Philly! I’ll be keeping a close eye on this team to see how they respond to losing their best player and captain, it’s going to say a lot about these guys. If they go 3-2, I’ll lay off them for a little bit, deal?
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