Oilers at Golden Knights, G74 2024-25

We are down the stretch and at the final turn now, the regular-season schedule is in sight. The marathon season finally sees winter ease and spring emerge in the land of ice and snow. We have yet to see the roster Stan Bowman imagined in the hours after the deadline. There is no Miro Satan 1994-95 bubbling under and awaiting recall. Or is there?

WHAT TO EXPECT IN APRIL

• On the road to: VEG, SJS, LAK, ANA (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• At home to: STL, SJS (Expected 1-0-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
• On the road to: WPG (Expected 0-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• At home to: LAK (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• On the road to: SJS (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• Overall expected results: 5-3-1, 11 points in 9 games
• April result:
• Final projected record: 47-29-6, 100 points in 82 games

The Oilers will finish second or third in the Pacific Division, and are destined to play the Los Angeles Kings in the first round. It’ll be Vegas in the quarterfinals, Winnipeg in the semifinals and the Capitals in the Final. Bring Stanley home, men.

IF IT WERE ME…

I’ve been thinking lately about ideal lines for the playoffs. This won’t happen, but as a blue-sky think piece I like it.

LINE 1: Jeff Skinner-Connor McDavid-Zach Hyman

Since January 1, this trio has been on the ice for just 21 minutes at five-on-five. However, they have scored 4-1 goals and own a 60 percent expected goal share. That’s 11.25 goals-60 on a trio that doesn’t involve both glimmer twins. I’ll take it.

LINE 2: Trent Frederic-Leon Draisaitl-Viktor Arvidsson

This line, with Vasily Podkolzin playing left wing, has outscored opponents (five-on-five) to 56 percent with an expected goal share of 61 percent. I believe Frederic can provide the same level of performance defensively while controbuting more offense.

LINE 3: Vasily Podkolzin-Nuge-Connor Brown

Nuge and Brown have combined to outscore the other side (five-on-five) at a 64 percent (55 expected) clip. I placed Podkolzin here, but Evander Kane might be more suited to the role. This line, and the next one, are more about outscoring as opposed to scoring.

LINE 4: Evander Kane-Adam Henrique-Corey Perry

If Kane can’t go, and that’s very possible, Mattias Janmark would get my vote to draw in. I can’t take Corey Perry out of the lineup for any of Janmark, Kasperi Kapanen or Max Jones. Injuries will take care of playing time, same as it ever was.

AHL POINTS-GAME FOR FORWARDS

I thought it might be fun to run some points-game totals for rookie Condors over the last several seasons.

• Matt Savoie 2024-25: 0.81
• Jesse Puljujarvi 2016-17: 0.72
• Dylan Holloway 2021-22: 0.67
• Kailer Yamamoto 2018-19: 0.67
• Xavier Bourgault 2022-23: 0.55
• Noah Philp 2022-23: 0.53
• Raphael Lavoie 2021-22: 0.46
• Ryan McLeod 2019-20: 0.41

Huh. Interesting names there. I wonder if Savoie factors in to things this spring. If injuries hit, it would be possible.

The Lowdown is noon-2pm today, Sports 1440. We’ll look at tonight’s game in Vegas, the lines and pairings for the playoffs and more with Daniel Nugent-Bowman at The Athletic. We’ll also talk plenty of MLB. The Tuesday vibe is different, as Declan, Liam and me are joined by Donovan Paulson who brings a completely different view on all things great and small. I hope you can tune in.

I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio, Radioplayer Canada, it’s available post-show on apple and spotify, and we tweet it out on X.