PLAYOFF MATCH WITH JETS NOW MORE LIKELY
Series against Jets a much better matchup for the Oilers than Canadiens would be
It didn't exactly set up as a pickyour-poison situation.
More like pick your appetizer. When the Edmonton Oilers landed in Montreal for the umpteenth time this coronavirus pandemic-shortened season, all they required was one more win in regulation to make the match for a first-round playoff series against a Winnipeg Jets team that was falling out of the sky like the remaining debris from that 21-tonne Chinese rocket that fell back to earth Saturday.
Connor Mcdavid and the
Oilers didn't wow anybody as No. 97 was on for three goals against yet ended up with yet another multiple-point night with a goal and an assist, the overtime winner making it 102 points for the season.
The Oilers would have got the win in regulation if Mikko Koskinen hadn't given up one of his gift-goal specials in the third period that head coach Dave Tippett characterized as not even being a scoring chance.
Montreal's 10th loser point of the season secured a spot in the playoffs.
Securing the matchup with Winnipeg is not a done deal yet but now down to the most minuscule of mathematical combinations.
The Jets had been the NHL'S most consistent club, never losing three games in a row all season, until they returned from a successful stretch of 17-of-22 games on the road and lost their eight of their last nine games about the same time the debris from that China rocket landed in the Indian Ocean.
If you had a chance to pick your playoff opponent — and the Edmonton team that had clinched second place without notice on Connor Mcdavid Night Saturday effectively had a choice — you would most certainly want to pick Winnipeg, the team that has been a common denominator in all five Stanley Cups the Oilers have won.
The Jets have the worst record in the entire league in their last 10 games.
Winnipeg lost 3-1 at home to the Vancouver Canucks on Monday to make it nine losses in their last 10 games.
The Oilers, for multiple reasons, including having to make at least another trip to Montreal, definitely don't want Montreal in the playoffs.
Not only had the Oilers gone 7-2 in their games against the Jets this year including winning the last five, but the Oilers have struggled against the Canadiens.
The Habs have now lost four straight but Monday were playing without five starters, including goaltender Carey Price and first-rate physical entities such as Shea Weber, Brendan Gallagher and Phillip Danault, most of whom are expected to be back for the playoffs.
As the Oilers returned to Montreal for Game 54 and Game 55 of their 56-game season, they were back at the hotel where they were forced to say for six nights without playing a game due to an outbreak of the coronavirus with the Canadiens. That postponed three games at the Bell Centre.
After eventually checking out to go play two games in Toronto, the NHL forced the Oilers to play a “scheduled loss” game against a rested and ready Canadiens team that scored a 4-0 win on their jail break.
Forced to fly all the way back east to play two of those games at this late date, the Oilers were at least presented with an opportunity to pick their playoff opponent.
For the Oilers, who went into the game with a 2-4-1 record against the Canadiens, it was not just a choice of playing a Winnipeg team crashing to earth in the playoffs but picking the Canadiens to advance against the first place Toronto Maple Leafs in the other Canadian division series.
Montreal had given the Oilers the closest thing to a pair of playoff hockey games in a recent twogame set in Edmonton featuring a combined 154 hits.
Monday night's tilt didn't resemble those two tilts, despite what the 4-3 result may have indicated.
But if there's one thing Montreal does is hit and why not send them to Toronto to tenderize the Maple Leafs?
If the Oilers return to the Bell Centre on Wednesday and win that one, they'll get that. And the NHL announced Monday the Canadian playoffs wouldn't open until at least next Wednesday.
That, considering the schedule, would be ideal, even if it would give Winnipeg more time to gather their debris from out of the Indian Ocean.