Adam Henrique<\/a>, when asked about a team that found the light switch just in time. \u201cAs a group, we\u2019ve found (their game)\u2014\u00a0and there\u2019s no better time to do that than now.<\/p>\n\u201cWith the schedule you\u2019re playing every other day. It\u2019s a playoff mentality and we know what that takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the Anaheim Ducks idle on Thursday after coughing up two late goals to lose in regulation on Wednesday, the Oilers pulled even atop the Pacific with 87 points. The Ducks have seven games left, Edmonton six, but the Oilers have the edge in the first tie-breaker, with six more regulation wins.<\/p>\n
The Oilers haven\u2019t won a Division since 1987 \u2014\u00a0the longest drought in the NHL \u2014\u00a0but good luck finding anyone on this team willing to convince you that home-ice advantage really matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know if it’s absolutely necessary,\u201d said head coach Kris Knoblauch. \u201cIt would be nice to finish first and put a banner up next fall, but this team \u2014\u00a0whether at home or road \u2014 it responds well. If we get into a Game 7, maybe. But we’re just trying to play as well as possible.”<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll recall a year ago when the Oilers did not have home advantage in any of the first three rounds, and tore through the West with a 12-4 record. Then in the Final against Florida \u2014\u00a0a series that opened in Edmonton \u2014\u00a0they lost in six games.<\/p>\n
So you\u2019ll have to forgive the Oilers for not being fixated on first place. Honestly \u2014\u00a0and they\u2019d never say it out loud \u2014\u00a0if Edmonton continue to build their game from where it\u2019s at right now, they wouldn\u2019t be overly concerned about whomever they get in Round 1 or 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to give yourself the best opportunity and a lot of times that\u2019s finishing first,\u201d said Henrique, who banged home his first goal in 50 games on a breakaway, then breathed a huge sigh of relief. \u201cWe know in the past that it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0There are two things hockey players have always told us: You can\u2019t expect to just \u201cflick a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-579062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}