Edmonton Oilers finally have a chance to clinch playoff spot
There are just three more games left on the Edmonton Oilers’ schedule, but they still haven’t clinched a playoff spot.
The Pacific Division playoff race has been an absolute mess this season, and it appears that teams will have to wait until the bitter end before they can clinch a trip to the postseason. In past years, the Oilers have been able to clinch much earlier, but their up-and-down season has forced them to wait until this final stretch of games.
As of Thursday morning, just three Western Conference teams have that little ‘x’ beside their name in the standings: The Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and Minnesota Wild.
The Oilers will have a chance to join those three Central Division rivals on Thursday night, as the NHL has officially revealed the team’s first clinching scenario of the season. A total of three things have to happen for Edmonton to punch its ticket to a sixth-straight Stanley Cup Playoff.
Edmonton will soar into Friday with a clinched playoff spot if all of the following happens on Thursday night:
- Anaheim Ducks must defeat the San Jose Sharks in any fashion
- Utah Mammoth must defeat the Nashville Predators in regulation
- Anything but a Winnipeg Jets regulation win over the St. Louis Blues
Oilers fans will be glued to the out-of-town scoreboard to make sure that all these conditions are met. The first two don’t seem too outrageous, as the Ducks and Mammoth should be favourites in their matchups, but that third condition will be a little trickier.
The Jets have mounted a late-season playoff push, and they have looked good in recent weeks. A Winnipeg regulation win does seem probable against the lowly Blues, though you can never truly count out an NHL team on any given night.
Even if these conditions are not met, it’s still highly likely that the Oilers pick up an ‘x’ of their own over the next couple of days. Edmonton sits atop the Pacific Division standings with 90 points at the moment, which puts them at a 99.9 per cent chance to make it to the postseason, according to MoneyPuck.
They need just one point to put them out of reach of the Jets and Sharks, two for the Nashville Predators, and three for the LA Kings.
NHL.com
Barring some unprecedented collapse where every single thing goes wrong, the Oilers will be heading back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs next week. The only thing left to figure out is whether or not they can hold on for the franchise’s first division title since the 1986-87 season.