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The lights haven’t quite gone out on the Edmonton Oilers’ season yet. The club sits six points back of both second and third in the suddenly competitive Pacific, and eight points and nine points back of Colorado and Minnesota respectively in the race for a wild card spot.

It’s unlikely that the Oilers can make up that much ground, and if they are to manage it they’ll need a lot to go their way. High on the list of items to nail down is goaltending, which of late has been solid when Cam Talbot (last 8 games: 4-3-1, 0.946 SV%) plays and a disaster when Anders Nilsson (last 8 games: 2-4-1, 0.860 SV%) starts.

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This is a pretty interesting point from @OilChemist, one which came up as part of a discussion generated by colleague Staples’ Wednesday article on Nilsson and Laurent Brossoit. The loss in Tampa Bay on Tuesday finished Edmonton’s sixth set of back-to-back games, leaving just three more. The remaining schedule breaks down like this: