Benny and the Jets...

#Oilers host the Jets tonight where Edmonton lost all three games last year. 

Defense

Your sad sad sad d-pairings for tonight:

Nurse - Schultz

Sekera - Fayne

Nikitin - Gryba

That's right, no Klefbom (knuckle bone), no Davidson (rib), and no Reinhart (in Bakersfield) and now we have Nikitin and Fayne back from Bakersfield. Sekera is the only D-man left that is playing proper defense, and is scoring. Nurse needs to pick it up.

Goalie Talbot starts, so let's pray for Talbot, who has playing better than Nilsson lately, proving this goalie tandem thingy is kinda working. Forwards

Forward lineup same as Saturday against Avs:

Hall - Draisaitl - Purcell

Pouliot - RNH - Eberle

Hendricks - Letestu - Korpikoski

Gazdic - Lander - Pakarinen

Khaira sits. Klinkhammer back on IR (ankle). Poor Klinky.

In other news, AHL prospect Bogdan Yakimov has requested to go to the KHL and leave the Oilers. I guess two Yaks is too many. Yakkity Yak, don't come back. (Pretty good, eh?!)

Standings

Because we can actually talk about this, finally, but it still isn't pretty.

34 games: 14 wins 18 losses 2 shootout losses = 30 points

League: 27th place out of 30, but 1 point from last place.

Conference: 13th place out of 14, but 1 point from last place.

Pacific Division: 6th place out of 7, 1 point behind Anaheim, but Anaheim has 3 games in hand. That said, they are only 3 points behind Vancouver (33 points), who being 3rd place, have the last Pacfiic playoff spot.

Wild Card: With the Central division so strong, obtaining a Wild Card for any Pacific team is pointless.

Tonight vs. Jets

The Oilers have played terrible defense the last couple of games and aren't really getting any scoring going. The Jets are an average team, good at home but not on the road (6-10-1) and are looking on the out for that last wild card spot (6 points out). The Jets always seem like a hungrier team and will surprise the Oilers and pull this one off with a 5-3 win with a empty-netter. Sorry, Oil fans.

The Future

The Oilers have played some strong teams over the past month and because they slipped into a playoff spot for a day, says something positive over previous years. The next pile of games are all against Pacific teams will truly determine the separation in the division and whether the Oilers can move ahead in the standings and grab onto and hold that 3rd place divisional playoff spot.

After tonight they play Vancouver, Calgary, Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Arizona.

Vancouver haven't been playing all that great where Calgary has picked up their game. L.A. just lost big time to Toronto so there's hope. Anaheim, well, it's shocking really how bad they've sucked. Isn't Horcoff on that team? And Arizona has had some rookie firepower in Max Domi, but with goalie Mike Smith out on injury, their future isn't as bright.

Hold on to your helmets, Oilers fans. It's either gonna be good or more losses will pile up and you'll be hearing the name Auston Matthews more and more.