Western powers Oilers, Avalanche finally kick off season series

Game Day 65: Colorado at Edmonton

Games like this one don’t happen often enough in the National Hockey League: 2 teams with legitimate aspirations for the Stanley Cup meeting up after 2 clear days of rest for both sides.

The Oilers remain home in Edmonton where they were last seen blowing out Washington Capitals on Feelgood Night. At one end of the ice, Stu Skinner had his way with goal scoring legend Alex Ovechkin making a trio of highlight-reel stops and 7/7 in all.  At the other, a pair of right wingers who grew up together as virtual equals with Toronto Maple Leafs both found glory, Connor Brown with his first goal of the season and Zach Hyman with his fourth hat trick (!) of that same season. That statement says it all about their diversion of fortunes since leaving Toronto. Yet here they are, teammates again.

In the process, Colorado completed a season sweep over Vancouver, yielding just the 1 loser point along the way. Those 6 points, compared to the 0 the Oilers collected in their 3 early season games against the Canucks, are exactly the gap between COL and EDM just now. 89 points to 83, the Oil holding 3 games in hand. Win those, and the margin disappears.

Theoretically there’s another way to gain 6 points, which would be to sweep this season series, which finally gets underway in Edmonton on Saturday night. It’s Game #65 for the Oilers, #68 for the Avalanche, but #1 against each other. Just another weird kink in the space-time-NHL schedule continuum.

The scenario is plausible enough that it would be very nice to establish home ice advantage just in case. From an Oilers perspective it would also be nice to beat the Avs on general principles; the memory is still fresh of that club lifting — or at least being photographed with! — the Clarence Campbell Bowl right in Rogers Place just 2 springs ago. Fresh and sour both.

Of course, beating the Avalanche is a lot easier said than done. So is beating the Oilers for that matter, currently on an epic 35-9-2 roll that has ameliorated an awful start to the campaign.

On the season, the 2 powerhouse clubs match up rather well:

Same major categories a used in our recent post comparing the Oilers under Kris Knoblauch vs. Jay Woodcroft, but this time comparing rival teams in 2023-24.

• The Avalanche are the highest scoring team in the NHL, but also give up goals at a higher rate than the Oil, leaving the 2 in a dead heat in the all-important Goal Differential category.
• The Oilers have the slightly better powerplay and the slightly worse penalty kill.
• The Oil have the better of the flow of play, but the Avs are converting their shots at a somewhat higher rate.
• Goaltending is close to even.
• So are the teams!

There are great match-ups at the individual level, led by Hart Trophy candidates Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon going head to head. Both speedsters are making a strong bid for the Art Ross Trophy as well, with MacKinnon currently holding an 8-point advantage, McDavid those 3 games in hand.

Their Euro sidekicks Leon Draisaitl and Mikko Rantanen are both fantastic players as well, with Draisaitl a former MVP. Colorado boasts a former Norris and Smythe Trophy winner in the brilliant young rearguard Cale Makar, while Edmonton’s primary “attack triangle” is rounded out by Evan Bouchard having a breakout season.

Interesting to compare the draft pedigree of both trios: Edmonton cashing the #3 overall in 2014, #1 in 2015 and #10 in 2018; Colorado hitting paydirt with the #1 in 2013, #10 in 2015 and #4 in 2017. 3 great picks for each club in a similar, nearly overlapping 5-year span.

The Oilers also sport a handful of other draft successes in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse, Stu Skinner and Ryan McLeod. Whereas the Avalanche only have 1 other active draft pick on the roster, backup goaltender Justus Annunen who has played just 7 games in 2023-24.

Sakic drank from the trade well repeatedly in 2024 as well, acquiring 4 roster players in 4 separate deals over a 2-day span. Notable among them, a pure hockey trade of young defenceman Bowen Byram for young centre Casey Mittelstadt. That was balanced by a swap that sent out aging centre Ryan Johansen and his half-retained big ticket for right-shot d-man Sean Walker, a player coveted by some in these parts. In these 2 related deals, the Avs got better up front and changed the left-right mix on the back end.

The club also added grinding depth forwards Brandon Duhaime and Yakov Trenin in return for futures in both cases. That’s a lot of changes, but the club has done nothing but win games since the reinforcements arrived.

By contrast, Oilers GM Ken Holland added a middle-6 centre/winger of his own in veteran Adam Henrique, a grinding pivot in Sam Carrick, and depth defender Troy Stecher. He traded nobody off the current roster, though the acquisitions effectively impacted Sam Gagner and Dylan Holloway who both landed in the AHL, along with Derek Ryan who finds himself the 13th forward most nights.

Tonight’s line-up

A single change from the group that thumped the Caps, with Holland’s finest trade acquisition Mattias Ekholm drawing back into the line-up alongside his regular partner Bouchard after a brief illness. Brett Kulak, who did a splendid job with Bouch last game, slides back to the third pair with Cody Ceci while Stecher returns to the pressbox. The recently-matched second pairing of Darnell Nurse and Vincent Desharnais will face its sternest test yet against the skilled, speedy Avalanche.

Up front, Zach Hyman attempts to accomplish the near-impossible, namely break one of Wayne Gretzky’s fanchise records. This one is for 10 consecutive home games scoring a goal, a 42-year-old mark which Hyman equaled with his hat trick vs. the Caps.

Gretzky’s standard was set during and immediately after his historic run to 50 goals in 39 games in 1981-82 when he was just 20 years of age. Just for fun, here are the production numbers for each Oiler during his streak:

• Wayne Gretzky, 1981 Dec 13-1982 Jan 20: 10 GP, 23-22-45, +20
• Zach Hyman, 2024 Jan 25-Mar 13: 10 GP, 15-1-16, +16

Gretzky’s run was bracketed fore and aft by goalless games of “just” 0-3-3, this in a season the phenom posted an incredible 59-64-123, +57 in the 40 home games. Put another way, it isn’t easy to challenge a Wayne Gretzky record and good on Zach Hyman for doing just that.

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A big change for Colorado in the return of Lehkonen, overtime hero of that elimination game in this same building 2 years ago. He’d missed Colorado’s wins at Calgary and Vancouver due to illness.

Georgiev, who has played 5 more games and nearly 360 more minutes than his counterpart Skinner, is expected to get the start.

Saturday’s showcase game occupies the late slot on Hockey Night in Canada, with puck drop a few minutes after 8pm MDT.