Oilers await todays result next opponent

[Sylvanfan]

After stunning the CPHL's top two regular season teams the Edmonton Oilers have been able to enjoy a couple of off days waiting for their next opponent. The Oilers are not the first 8th place team to knock off the top two teams in their conference to get to the third round of the CPHL's playoffs. In fact last year the San Jose Sharks won the CPHL title from the #8 seed. But the Sharks had to beat the CPHL's #4 & 5 overall teams before they met up with the 6 seed Red Wings who were the CPHL's 11th best team during the regular season. This years Oilers have so far eliminated the CPHL's #1 and 2 overall teams and could possibly face the Blackhawks who tied with the Thrashers for #4 overall. The other possibility is the Ducks who were the 5th place Howe team and #8 overall in the CPHL standings. So no matter who the Oilers play they'll have to make the most historic run in CPHL history to get past the next round. Strangely enough the last #1 seed from the Howe Conference to win their first playoff round was the 05-06 Oilers and in the 7 season history of the league the 03-04 Blackhawks were the only other top seed to do so. Tell me that isn't a bit odd!

The Hawks are a team who always seem to have good Sim chemistry. Perrenial underachiever Vincent Lecavalier is producing very well for them so far in the playoffs. P.J.Axelsson is their only other point per game producer with 11 points in 10 games thus far but there is a group of 9 other players with 6 to 8 points so far in the playoffs so it's a balanced attack. The Hawks also have two goaltenders who they can confidently put in the nets and expect to play well with Rick DiPietro and CPHL veteran Olaf Kolzig. I'd say the Hawks are a bit like the Wild where they maybe don't have the sheer number of Star type players the Ducks do, but they have guys who slot into their roles very well in the SIM.

The Ducks rely on their top 5 group of Heatley, Richards, Tanguay, Lidstrom, and Keith to make them run. That top group all have 12 or more points in 10 games, after them only Alice Hemsky and Jeff Halpern have more than 5 points. The Ducks have relied on another CPHL playoff veteran Evgeny Nabokov to pretty much carry the load in nets and there is a drop off from him to Brent Johnson. Despite being the lower seed the Ducks are a lot like the San Jose Sharks with players who are on the high end of the ratings for all their lineup slots throughout their top 12 forwards and 6 defenceman.

Either way the Oilers have been a big under dog who have surprised everyone including their GM. So the next round isn't that much different as we'll be up against a superior team from the season and in terms of personell based on how they slot into the depth chart. But we have the trump card in goal and will need Luongo to last one more round if we hope to be palying into the next round. It will be fun though and the other team is probably loving the fact that they get to play us as opposed to the Sharks.