The Edmonton Oilers are headed back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a seventh-straight season.
Though the team lost on Saturday afternoon, 1-0 to the LA Kings, a 7-1 Winnipeg Jets loss later that night was enough to book Edmonton’s ticket. It’s good news for a win-now Oilers squad, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t work left to do for the team.
Edmonton is no longer the Pacific Division leader, with the Vegas Golden Knights jumping one point ahead of them with just two games left on either of their schedules. This means that the Oilers’ first-round opponent is still very much in the air, though it has been narrowed down to five possibilities.
Who could it be? Well, according to HockeyStats.com, the Oilers have a 45 per cent chance of meeting the upstart Anaheim Ducks in the first round.
This would be a rematch of the 2017 second-round series between these two teams, one in which the Ducks won in seven games to cut Connor McDavid’s first playoff run short. It would be just the third-ever series between the Oilers and the Ducks. This matchup likely presumes that the two teams finish second and third in the Pacific, while Vegas holds onto the top spot.
Here is a look at the current Western Conference standings as of Sunday morning, which represent an Oilers-Ducks first-round matchup:
NHL.com
If Edmonton can reclaim the top spot, their most likely opponent is the Utah Mammoth, who are looking to make noise in their first-ever Stanley Cup Playoff appearance. The odds of an Oilers-Mammoth first-round series are sitting at 20 per cent.
Many Oilers fans are desperate for a change of pace in the first round, but there is a slim chance that it won’t happen. If the LA Kings can jump past the Ducks, it will set up a fifth-straight first-round matchup against Edmonton. Those odds are at 13 per cent as of Sunday.
Finally, the least likely odds sit with the Colorado Avalanche and Golden Knights, both of whom have an 11 per cent chance to meet McDavid and the Oilers in round one. Edmonton would need to drop to the final wildcard spot to meet the Avalanche, while the Ducks would likely need to reclaim the top spot in the division to set up the Oilers with Vegas.
The stress of making the playoffs has ended in the Alberta capital, but anxiety over their eventual opponent is just beginning.
