Are playoffs still makeable?

[Replacement*]

Not sure why few seem to be concerned about Columbus. That team is arguably the hottest team in the West over the last ~20 games. They have crawled out of the basement into 8th.

I don't see that trend reversing as they seem to have figured out that hard work and determination can win games.. even against much more talented opposition.

I see them as being a legit playoff threat down the stretch. They have already basically been playing playoff hockey just to get where they are and I doubt they let off the gas when they can see the prize in sight.

They have 4 home games left for one thing. Check out there road record. The Blue Jackets record has an awful lot to do with an abundance of home games played. Unfortunately for them they haven't found their "game" anywhere else all season.

 

[nexttothemoon]

If the Oilers play like they can/should play... then honestly the way opponents play down the stretch should be a much more secondary concern.

Honestly though I think Columbus will be there until the end fighting for a spot... road/home games disparity taken into account. They seem to be able to play competitive hockey against most teams and rarely crap the bed.

Down the stretch and when the pressure is on... talent takes a back seat to determination and hard work and you can't deny Columbus is one of the harder working teams because they simply don't have the talent level as many other teams.

Oilers need to have that level of desire/determination every game and combined with their superior talent they should literally walk into the playoffs... we'll see though, much easier said than done of course.

 

[Six in O6]

I think we still need 10 more wins to get this done.

 

[shoop]

I think we still need 10 more wins to get this done.

Ten wins pretty much guarantees it I think (55 points). They might sneak in with nine wins. A few of the loses in OT/SO wouldn't hurt either.

 

[Mcnofool6110]

6:40
Blues - Wild * (Wild currently losing)
Detroit - Colorado * (Colorado currently losing)
Dallas - Anaheim * (No score)
Nashville - Chicago
Calgary - Edmonton *******%%%
San Jose - Vancouver *

We would need 2/4* to stay in the race, 3/4 would be wonderful. Seeing that already 2 games aren't going as planned, we should take 2/4 and run with it. 4/4 would be perfect.

And of course, *******%%% needs to happen.

To say today is a big day is clichéd.

 

[timekeep]

Blues just got better with JBow.

But he has never played in the playoffs. So...

 

[McXLNC97]

Blues just got better with JBow.

But he has never played in the playoffs. So...

Jay-Bo is like Rick Nash....wherever they go, they bring the teams down....watch STL now miss the playoffs.

 

[McShogun99]

With the Jay Bo curse going to STL does our odds of making the playoffs go up 20%?

 

[SK13]

San Jose can't be out of the woods.

They've traded their top shootout scorer (which has yielded them multiple wins this year) and their top PKer today. They get softer without Clowe, and some say Boyle is gone. They're subtracting and they haven't been very good since Game 8.

If you look at their pace from Game 8 to Game 34, they're only on pace to hit 53 points.

 

[402]

st louis won
Detroit won
Nashville got one point
Dallas lost
Looks like we will win

So not a great day in terms of other teams but best news is its looking good for an oilers win

I think this means no 8th tonight but we stay very very close as do a bunch of teams

Edit
San jose winning 3-0

 

[SK13]

st louis won
Detroit won
Nashville got one point
Dallas lost
Looks like we will win

So not a great day in terms of other teams but best news is its looking good for an oilers win

I think this means no 8th tonight but we stay very very close as do a bunch of teams

Our odds go up with an Oilers win regardless of what happens.

Just not as much as it could've.

 

[Section337]

Thanks, almost nobody.

 

[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

Those two blown leads against Detroit and San Jose are really killing us right now

 

[Mcnofool6110]

**** Canucks can't finish the comeback, giving us 1 measly starred game out of the 4... Today was good in that we won, but terrible in terms of 6-10. At least Anaheim beat Dallas...

We're going to need a little bit more help down the stretch.

 

[Oiltankjob Fail]

We are 7-2-2 since i made this thread your welcome

 

[McDeepika]

Huge road trip coming up. Have to go at least 2-2 to give ourselves a chance. Beat Calgary and try to steal a win in the other 3 games.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Just win. That's all they have to do. They don't even have to bother looking at the scoreboard and watching what other opponents are doing... just win.

Honestly I'm looking at this roadtrip as 8 pts that are achievable... and they should be grabbing those 8 pts by winning 4 times... not coming up with "stealing pts" strategies or trying to go .500 on the road.

That's a loser's mentality and won't get them anywhere. Time for mediocrity is past.

 

[McIce Whole]

Huge road trip coming up. Have to go at least 2-2 to give ourselves a chance. Beat Calgary and try to steal a win in the other 3 games.

We need to go 3-1 or 2-1-1 at the very least IMO. Going 2-2 wouldn't be horrible but it doesn't put us in a good position either.

 

[MessierII]

First off we need to beat Calgary. After that we need 14 points in our final 12 games. Not that crazy but we'll need to play well.

 

[Replacement*]

San Jose can't be out of the woods.

They've traded their top shootout scorer (which has yielded them multiple wins this year) and their top PKer today. They get softer without Clowe, and some say Boyle is gone. They're subtracting and they haven't been very good since Game 8.

If you look at their pace from Game 8 to Game 34, they're only on pace to hit 53 points.

What a silly way to look at it.

Sharks have 5 wins in a row and are 7-3 in the last 10.

42pts, 13 games left. If they even go a pathetic ppg the rest of the way they finish with 55pts. I would imagine they get closer to 60.

The Oilers would have to pretty much win out to be pushing the Sharks.

5pts with 13 games left is a huge advantage.

You're dreaming if you think the Oilers are reeling the sharks in.

 

[Jepprey]

These type of win streaks are what makes a playoff team. No more of that ******** inconsistent win one lose one tendencies that we are so used to.

 

[Hoogaar23]

Bad news is that the out of town scoreboard sucked tonight. Good news is that it still doesn't matter. If we win out, we're in. Realistically that's not going to happen, but the Wings still play the Blues, Sharks, and Kings once. St Louis play the Canucks, Wild, Hawks 3 times. San Jose has the Wild twice, the Wings, 2 against the Kings...basically a lot of the games over the next week will have the teams we are chasing playing one another.

Right now, like has been mentioned, we will probably need to get to at least 52 (30% chance), but more likely 54 (75% chance) to make it in. The number of 3 point games could move the line a bit - luckily there haven't been that many the last little while.

So to get to 54, we will need 17 points in 13 games. So 8-4-1. Still a pretty tall order, but if we can continue this win streak for a couple more games, all of a sudden we will just need to go like .500 in our last 10 games. Every game here on out is the biggest game of the year.

 

[s7ark]

Going to close this one down because people seem to want to use another thread to track the playoff chase.

New thread is here