OIlers' Playoff Push

It isn't supposed to be going down this way. Edmonton Oilers fans are sure glad, though, that it is.

Their top free-agent signing this past offseason is injured. Their arguably best player is on the shelf. Their goaltending is made up of two career back-ups. Their most consistent line is made up of three forwards with an average of just over 20 years of age. They traded away a longtime fan favorite and all star last year when contract talks were going nowhere. They're playing in perhaps the league's most competitive division. All this, and, yet, the Edmonton Oilers are now tied for the eighth and final playoff spot in the NHL's Western Conference with just two games remaining in the regular season.

First things first: the teams with which they're tied, the Vancouver Canucks and the Nashville Predators, each have two games in hand, and, so, it's still relatively improbable that the Oilers will eek a victory in this race out. However, anyone disputing the impressive nature of the team's season needs to take a cold hard look in the mirror and take off their Calgary Flames jersey. To look at the adversity they've faced is to cheer for them to succeed.

Defenseman Sheldon Souray, despite returning home to Alberta to sign with the team has made a second one of the medical trainer's office. At-the-time leading scorer Shaw Horcoff left the team 53 games into the year to deal with a nagging shoulder injury. Mathieu Garon and Dwayne Roloson have proven themselves as one of the most competent goaltending tandems in the league. There were only 57 NHL games played under the belts of the members of the upstart trio of Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, and Robert Nilsson prior to the start of the season, all of which belonging to Nilsson, who, amazingly has the least amount of points of the three (49, 45, 41). Former Oiler Ryan Smyth was traded away at the trade deadline last year for next to nothing and left behind him and his memorable tears on the day of his departure little more than tears of confusion and uncertainty on the faces of fans of the franchise. What was to become of their team now that the heart and soul of the Oilers was gone? Apparently a whole lot of the very same.

When general manager Kevin Lowe reached out to former Anaheim Ducks power forward Dustin Penner with an offer sheet last offseason, thereby surrendering three future first-round draft picks (and potentially mortgaging the team's future as those upcoming drafts are considered very deep), the team became a veritable laughing stock around the league. Sure, no one (except for Anaheim GM Brian Burke) would go on record as saying that, but it's easy to believe that that's what most everyone was thinking behind closed doors. While the Penner signing hasn't exactly panned out (Penner is only averaging just over half a point a game, production hardly worthy of a $4.25 million dollar contract), the Oilers, as a whole, are far from being punch lines around the league, especially amongst the other teams in the tight-knit Western playoff race. Going 13-4-1 in their past 18 games, the Oilers have gone from being potential draft-pick lottery winners to legitmate contenders, at least for the postseason. And seeing as, had they finished close to the bottom of the league standings, the Ducks would have received the pick in their stead, clearly Lowe is now laughing his behind off as Burke continues to cuss, trying to make sense of the situation at hand.

With the final two games coming against division rivals the Flames and Canucks, two wins could go a long way toward propelling the Oilers into the second season, especially a victory against the latter team when the two sides meet next Thursday. No, even if they get in they're probably one-million-to-one longshots to even get to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in three seasons. Just earning the opportunity to do just that, though, is evidence enough that things are looking up for this franchise.

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