With the Bakersfield Condors being eliminated from the AHL playoffs, who, if anyone, will be called up as a “black ace” to help bolster the Edmonton Oilers NHL playoff run? Since teams no longer have a 23-man roster limit nor a salary cap during the playoffs (the latter which everyone has become very familiar with for reasons that don’t need reiterating since they’re basically written in stone by now). Will it be prospects who come up mostly to get the experience of being around the team during the most important season? Will it be veteran players who are insurance to step in due to injury or ..read more

We are three games into the 2024 NHL playoffs with the Edmonton Oilers currently holding a 2–1 series lead over the Los Angeles Kings. As it is the third consecutive season that these teams are facing off in the playoffs, it is understandably getting feisty. Even in just these three games, we have gotten to see a variety of different versions of this Edmonton Oilers team. We’ve seen them dominate at times in game one and through game three. As well as struggle to implement their own game as they did through most of game two. So far, pretty much everyone on the roster has delivered some sort of ..read more

Through the first three games of the first round, the Edmonton Oilers have had plenty of success at exposing former Oiler Cam Talbot. They scored six in Game 1, followed by four in Game 2, and another six in Game 3 in Los Angeles. Talbot has a career 16–18 record in 36 games with a goals against average of 2.75 and a save percentage of .915 in the playoffs, but has started this series with a .861 SV%, 5.30 GAA, and -3.08 Goals Saved above Expected. It’s pretty clearly been a rough time for the former Oiler. The familiarity with the Oilers, in particular Oilers’ Goalie Coach Dustin Schwartz has ..read more

The Edmonton Oilers took a decisive victory in Game 3 versus the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night with a 6–1 victory at Crypto.com Arena. After being largely stifled in Game 2, the stars of the Oilers were back in full force. Connor McDavid (one goal and two assists), Leon Draisaitl (two goals and one assist), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (three assists), and Zach Hyman (two goals) dominated play and guided the Oilers to victory as they take a 2–1 series lead over the Kings. But one last goal was unaccounted for amongst those four players. It was scored by Evander Kane. On a point shot from Cody Ceci ..read more

The hockey world received the tragic news on Thursday that legendary play-by-play man, Bob Cole, passed away at the age of 90. For almost every Canadian hockey fan, Bob Cole’s voice is the voice you hear when thinking of a hockey commentator. It wasn’t just the sound of his voice that made him iconic, but his ability to add to any moment he was describing, whether it was through his word choice, cadence, timing or just straight gravitas. He was one of the reasons why Hockey Night in Canada was must-see TV every Saturday night. In honour of Mr. Cole, here are some of the best calls he made for ..read more

Two games into the series, the Edmonton Oilers find themselves tied 1–1 as the series shifts to Southern California for Games 3 and 4. The first game was a clear Oilers win, where they showed just how good their star-power is. However, L.A. responded in Game 2 with an incredible trap game, keeping the Oilers’ star players to the outside for much of the game. The Oilers did force their way back into the game in the back-half of the second period and into the third, but the Kings just willed themselves to a victory in overtime. Game 3 goes tonight and the Oilers will need to find a way to beat t ..read more

Goaltending is not something you can take for granted. The Edmonton Oilers showed this last night, with Stuart Skinner playing just okay between the pipes, and the outmatched, outplayed, and outworked Los Angeles Kings walked away with an undeserving win in Game 2.  Skinner’s goaltending numbers Last night, Skinner was not the busier goaltender. Looking solely at 5v5, Skinner faced 22 total shots, made 17 saves, and allowed five goals. Every goal the Kings scored was at 5v5 last night.  In comparison, Cam Talbot faced 20 shots at 5v5, made 17 saves, and allowed just three goals. The ..read more

The NHL playoffs are a time of high emotions and slim margins, with often only a bounce or two separating the thrill of victory from the agony of defeat. With the small margin of error and the high stakes it’s no surprise that fans are swept up in the momentum of the moment. After the Los Angeles Kings won in overtime of Game 2, the series heads to California tied at a game apiece, the mood across Oil Country much different than it was days ago after a dominant Game 1 victory. Despite the tight loss, where the Edmonton Oilers did well to fight back from an early 3–0 deficit, there was a big po ..read more

After a strong Game 1, the series looked to be heavily in the Edmonton Oilers’ favour. However, between back-and-forth goals where the Los Angeles Kings would score first followed by Edmonton finding a way to tie things up, the goaltending was not great for either team. Furthermore, with suspect officiating that may or may not have impacted the outcome, and a brutal overtime goal that definitely and obviously impacted the outcome, the Oilers ultimately came out of Game 2 with a gutwrenching loss. Despite Dylan Holloway scoring two goals in the game to boost Edmonton’s depth scoring, the game w ..read more

By beating the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night, the Edmonton Oilers did something they haven’t done since April 26, 2017: win Game 1 of a playoff series. In fact, it is only the fifth time in 22 series since 1996–97 that the Oilers have won a Game 1. Suffice it to say, the Oilers aren’t known as quick starters out of the gate. But they’ve slayed that demon in this first round series, ending a streak of seven straight series going down 1–0 (and yes, that includes the play-in in the 2020 bubble because that is considered playoffs by the NHL). Here’s a rundown of those previous series, which ho ..read more