This Week On Oilers Hockey: 6

So the Oil went 2-2 on their four-game road trip and will be back home at Rogers Place for two games before traveling out east again. Kailer Yamamoto had an injury against Tampa and is listed as day-to-day. With Evander Kane being out 3-4 months and put on LTIR, some fans have pondered what they can do with extra cap space given. $5,125,000 is certainly not a bad number to work with. The Bruins put Mike Reilly on waivers not long ago to make room for Charlie McAvoy’s return. Reilly then cleared waivers because a $3M healthy scratch isn’t the most positive thing in the books. But even if Ken Holland decides to use this freed-up cap space to his advantage, he couldn’t possibly make it last longer, and I don’t believe it’s as simple as “Kucherov-ing it.” Kane would be back in time for early or mid-March, but if you made a trade for a player with a hefty cap hit before that, it’d be a chore to keep juggling players to send down and bring back up while having Kane back on the roster. Plus, Holland is a pretty patient senior. No matter how many shots on goal the team has allowed, no matter how many slices of swiss cheese Jack Campbell has turned into, and no matter how many fans rage tweets, he’s not going to surprise people with an insane deal. This week’s opponents are…

Wednesday, November 16th at 8 pm VS Los Angeles Kings

2nd place in the Pacific Division, a rematch of last season’s first-round matchup. They were an underrated team that surprised people last year. A young team dealing with injuries to key veterans and still managed to force Game 7. Their goaltending needs to be better, but with young talents like Andrian Kempe, Alex Iafallo, Sean Durzi, a healthy Drew Doughty, and Victor Arvidsson, followed by another season of Phillip Danault being the 2C behind Anze Kopitar, nobody should underestimate this roster anymore.

Saturday, November 18th at 8 pm VS Vegas Golden Knights

The “McEichel” may have resurfaced this season. While Connor McDavid is the undisputed best player in the NHL, Jack Eichel was the consolation prize of consolation prizes in the 2015 Draft. He may have been picked first overall in any other draft year, were it not for McDavid. Earlier this season, I mentioned that Eichel was given the Taylor Hall treatment when he played for the Sabres. The face of the franchise, playing for a mismanaged team and succumbing to a losing culture. They failed to build a good enough team around him, they wouldn’t let him have the surgery he wanted; then he moved on and is looking more like the superstar he was supposed to be. If the Oilers and Golden Knights meet in the playoffs this year, the first and second-overall picks battling each other again will just be another great storyline.

Stanley Cup Aspirations – Cue’ the Duck Boats Pod

The boys are back after a long break but have plenty to talk about as the playoffs are in full swing. We go series by series, looking at how teams have fared so far and who will come out on top. Thanks for listening! Please rate and review our show on your favorite listening platform. Check out our partner's website at www.insidetherink.com for all your latest hockey news.