The Western Conference playoff race, with roughly 15 games to go, is simply remarkable (at the left is the 5th to 10th place teams, and # of games behind the Wings).

The glass-half-empty perspective for fans of the Oilers, or any of these 6 teams, is that there's really no room for a slump. (To wit: Vancouver was in an OK spot after beating the Flames the 1st game out of the break; they're 2-6-1 since and are outside looking in).

The glass-half-full perspective is that 4 of 6 teams will qualify, and it's statistically likely that one of them will play very poorly down the stretch and take themselves out of it. That means, probably, that your team only has to be better than one more team.

If I had to guess, I'd pick Anaheim for the 5-spot: they've been consistently good for 40+ games now. I'd also pick L.A. for 10th; they had a few good games bookending the Olympic break, but they've basically been mediocre to weak for 40-ish games (since Game 20, they have 52 points in 49 games).

Clearly the Canucks look terrible right now, but I'm not ready to count them out. San Jose's 9-2-2 stretch has put them in a great position, although their back-to-back losses to CGY and EDM last weekend still gives me pause as to just how good they are. Colorado picked up an Alex Tanguay knee-sprain last night, to go with Svatos' broken shoulder: they could easily be worse than Vancouver over the remainder of the schedule (and let's not forget that their new #1 goalie is still hurt; may not be any good anyway; and their acting #1 let in 6 last night and was apparently dismal).

All in all, there's still cause for optimism up in the 'Chuk. I don't care what ups and downs we've seen in the past two weeks -- Roloson is an upgrade in goal, and that's probably all they needed to assure themselves of a playoff spot.

Does that mean a 6-seed is in the cards for the Oil, c/w a 1st-round Battle of Alberta playoff? Good God, let's hope so. Neither Sacamano nor I have made much mention of this, but this site is most likely a one-and-done effort. He's moving off the continent in the summer, and I never want it to feel like work, so there's a decent chance we're going dark at season's end. A head-to-head playoff series seems like a great way for it to end (for the Oilers, with 6 weeks of Flames-only content to follow). Get 'er done, Mac-T.