OILERS PRIMED TO BEGIN PLAYOFF PUSH
Mcdavid, Draisaitl, Smith get the night off for final game of season against Canucks
OILERS 3, CANUCKS 2 (SO)
That's a wrap.
Eighty-two games later, the Edmonton Oilers' regular season is all over. And, even by Oilers standards, this was a wild one.
An organization that has become famous for never being boring — grabbing headlines for lifting too many Stanley Cups, winning too many draft lotteries, missing too many playoffs or firing too many coaches — did it again.
They flew around the emotional spectrum like drunks in a bouncy castle, hitting almost every nerve in Edmonton before finally settling on their current trajectory — screaming toward the post-season as one of the hottest teams in hockey.
And that was just the dress rehearsal. With Friday's regular season finale against the Vancouver Canucks in the books, things are about to get even more intense when the Oilers and Los Angeles Kings dust off a decades old rivalry in the first round.
“This is going to be my first playoffs in front of fans and I'm excited,” said Oilers 20-goal man Kailer Yamamoto. “Talking to the older vets, they say this town is insane when it comes to playoff hockey. They say the fans are incredible.
“I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully it's going to be a deep one and a fun one.”
If it's anything like the regular season, expect the unexpected, because the last 82 games were nothing but one surprise after another.
Nobody expected the Oilers to start out like the league owed them money, roaring to the very top of the NHL roller-coaster after 21 games (16-5-0). And once they made believers out of everyone, nobody expected they'd be firing their coach two months later.
And once they were all scraped up and bloodied from an uncontrollable speed wobble that sent them sliding down the asphalt till they were six points out of a playoff spot, nobody expected they'd go all Terminator and come back even stronger than they were before.
And when they lit up the mid-season news cycle by signing controversial winger Evander Kane, nobody expected a guy who'd barely played in a year would flip a switch and turn into exactly what the Oilers needed: a menacing power forward scoring at a 40-goal pace.
Did someone say 40? Who puts their fortunes in a 40-year-old goalie, tells everyone to relax when that goalie falls off the face of the earth, then shrugs nonchalantly and says `Hey, that's Smitty, he's a battler,' when that 40-year-old goalie goes 9-0-0 with a .951 save percentage and two shutouts when his team needs him most?
Doubting old guys wasn't limited to Smith, either. The airwaves were laced with anger and scorn when general manager Ken Holland traded for 38-yearold Duncan Keith, but he's been exactly what Edmonton wanted, a steady second-pairing guy who adds a veteran calm in the room.
Holland took a lot of heat this year, starting in the summer when he didn't get a goalie, peaking in February when he made the first in-season firing of his career and flaring up again when the cap restrictions left him handcuffed at the trade deadline.
But with his team going 18-4-2 down the stretch to secure home ice in the first round, and subtle moves like Cody Ceci, Brett Kulak and Derek Ryan showing their value, he ended up with a 100-point team with legitimately high expectations for the post-season.
“The biggest thing that stands out is the balance throughout the lineup,” said Kulak. “We have a good mix of everything you need. There's a bit of that on every single line. That's going to be a winning formula for us — the depth we have.”
Bring on Game 1. As good as the 82-game appetizer was, it's time for the main course.
“Around the arena, just that buzz around the city, you can feel it,” said Ryan Nugent-hopkins. “It's already starting.”
THE BETTER PART OF VALOUR
With nothing on the line except possible injury, the Oilers sat Connor Mcdavid, Leon Draisaitl and Smith on Friday. In a season with this many twists and turns, playing them simply wasn't worth the risk.
“We talk about it as a coaching staff, a management group and then we talk with our players about it,” said head coach Jay Woodcroft. “We just think it's a smart move heading into playoffs that could start as early as Monday.
“I think it's just about making sure their energy levels and complete wellness is where it needs to be heading into a playoff series.”
So Mcdavid finishes his seventh NHL season with a careerhigh 123 points, more than enough for the fourth Art Ross Trophy of his young career. With only Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe also winning four scoring titles by age 25, there aren't even enough guys to make a Mount Rushmore of players who've accomplished that incredible feat.
For Draisaitl, 110 points ties a career high and his 55 goals establishes a new one.