Phoenix @ Edmonton

Okay, so this is what the NHL standings look like right now.
5. Phoenix – 51 Pts
6. Anaheim – 51 Pts
7. Vancouver – 49 Pts
8. Minnesota – 47 Pts
9. Edmonton – 47 Pts
10. Columbus – 46 Pts

And this is where I want the standings to be by the end of January:

5. Anaheim – 59 Pts
6. Columbus – 56 Pts
7. Edmonton – 55 Pts
8. Vancouver/Minnesota/Phoenix – 55 Pts
9. Minnesota /Vancouver/Phoenix– 53 Pts
10. Phoenix /Minnesota/Vancouver– 53 Pts

This is what the NHL schedule looks like tonight:

Phoenix @ Edmonton
New York Rangers @ Pittsburgh
Calgary @ Colorado
Columbus @ Vancouver

Ideally, Edmonton, Calgary and Columbus win tonight. That said: if the Oilers lose tonight it would be in our best interest for Columbus to lose as well; that would preserve our 9th place ranking. As much as I don’t want to admit that I want Calgary to win we need to keep Colorado out of the playoff hunt for as long as possible, because if they start to get into a groove that just adds one more team for the Oilers to compete with; and lets be honest: the Calgary Flames are not a team that we should be hoping to catch in the next couple weeks. If Columbus pulls out a win in Vancouver (where the home woes are under an even larger microscope than ours) and we win tonight then we pull into a tie for 7th in the West with Vancouver where technically we’d be in 7th because we have less games played. This would also move Minnie out of the top 8 and replace them with Columbus.

The Oilers managed to pull out 2 wins on the mini 3-game road-trip, which is a good start; however, if the Oilers want to be in a playoff spot by the end of the month they need at least 2 more wins inside of January, which means they can only lose 1 or 2 of their next four games. I think they can do it, whether they will or not is a different story.

I’ll only mention it once, because any one who has ever read any of my posts on the goaltending issue already knows how I feel about the trade despite the fact that I haven’t actually stated it. I am incredibly angry with the Oilers organization and their treatment of Garon this season. Not only did you not give him an honest shot at #1 this season but you traded him to a team where he is, once again, going to be a back-up goaltender. I realize that, yes, it is not necessarily the organization’s responsibility or job to worry about the position a player will play on their new team when they are traded, but the whole Roloson over Garon thing is a joke in my eyes. Roloson has ten years on Garon, you think Roloson has another cup run in him? Because I sure don’t. He’s at least as inconsistent as Garon, personally I think he’s much worse, and I think this will come to light pretty soon. The Oilers may just have screwed themselves over for any kind of playoff run this season; and if they didn’t screw themselves this season, they certainly did for next season unless they can coax a UFA goaltender here in the off-season. There are many situations that can come to fruition that will have the Oilers regretting their decision to trade Garon, and not many that won’t.

About tonight’s game:

Tonight is Glen Anderson’s jersey retirement ceremony, which will be nice, that said the Oilers have a terrible history of playing sub-par following any kind of ceremony. The Oilers really need to win this one, the only team that is left to play in January that we could stand to lose to would be the Sabres, the other three games (tonight included) are all against teams we are battling with for a playoff spot.