NHL Game Preview: Edmonton Oilers vs. Colorado Avalanche | 04/18/2024

Seeing Louie DeBrusk and Jack Michaels interview Shane Doan during last night’s game brought back a lot of memories from when I became an avid hockey viewer. There’s nothing at stake for Edmonton until Saturday, just show up for the schedule and play to not get hurt. But I feel sorry for Coyotes fans. When a hockey fan in attendance takes part in the ceremonial puck drop, it’s supposed to be a really fun experience. Except it’s hard to celebrate that, knowing it’s the last time you’ll watch your team play a game. Even if their arena didn’t sell out like others, those fans still cared about that team, and it’s heartbreaking for them. You could see it on the camera shots of them while the standing ovation and final team photo were taking place. We cheer for a team in a country that breathes the sport 24/7, imagine if we had to go through that heartache.

Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci were healthy scratches, replaced with Philip Broberg and Troy Stecher. Broberg had a pretty good first game back. He was skating better than we remembered, and got an assist on Warren Foegele’s 20th goal of the season; the first 20 goal season of his career. Other than that, I didn’t really care enough to critique anything. Nor will I care to critique tonight’s game, to be honest. There was nothing to play for on our side, and Arizona was always going to want it more. I just want some of the bigger names on the Oilers to sit out and not risk injury before the Playoffs start. They do end the regular season with a pretty tough opponent, though. So let’s see how many of our big names care enough to still sit out this one. The keys to the game are…

OT Battle: The Oilers and Avalanche have gone to Overtime in six of their last eight meetings against each other. The majority of these games have always been close.

More Call-Up Auditions: Forwards Sam Gagner and Adam Ernie were recalled from Bakersfield yesterday afternoon. Some of Edmonton’s big name players were in the line-up last night, you should expect a couple of noticeable changes tonight.

Future Playoff Series?: Every team in the postseason is a good enough team, that’s why they clinched. Should Edmonton make their way to Round 3 this year, perhaps we see a Conference Final rematch from 2022.