Game 48: Edmonton Oilers at Colorado Avalanche - Denver's Pepsi Center - 7:00 PM - PPV

The Colorado Avalanche (27-15-6) host the Edmonton Oilers (16-26-5) at the Pepsi Center today in Denver. It's the fourth match-up between these two teams this season. In terms of the season series, the Oilers are a surprising 2-1 so far. For whatever reason, the Colorado Avalanche are the only decent team that the Oilers have been able to beat this year. Perhaps, it's a reflection of the Avs being a young team and playing down to the Oilers. In game 12, the Oilers were shutout and lost 3-0. However, the Oilers won game 17 by a margin of 5-3 as well as game 22 with a dramatic comeback (6-4).

Earlier this season, I did a blog Q&A with Sean Payton from the Colorado Avalanche blog called Anyone but Detroit. Speaking of Colorado Avalanche blogs, the Opposing team blogs for this GDT are Anyone But Detroit and Jibblescribbits.

Following the jump for my pre-game rant, stats comparison, money line, and the projected lineups.

Denver's Pepsi Center

Dave Hodge from TSN has recently created some controversy with the following comments:

My thumb is down to the Taylor Hall sweepstakes, which do exist in spite of the fact that Toronto isn't involved. Usually, we're accused of paying too much attention to the issue of "tanking" to get a number one draft pick, because it's a Toronto issue, but now, it's an Edmonton issue where Hall is concerned, and they are following it in Edmonton. It's easy to find a so-called Oilers fan who was happy with Saturday's loss in San Jose because it kept the Oilers only two points ahead of last-place Carolina. I say this every year - the NHL should pick the draft order out of a hat containing the names of all 14 non-playoff teams - no advantage to finishing last, no need to wonder how hard the 30th-place team is trying to avoid 29th place.

Maybe it's not so much that he's critical of the draft lottery, but that he's a Leaf's fan who's critical of the draft lottery system. It's no secret that the Leafs traded their top-two picks for 2010 along with a first rounder pick for 2011 in the Phil Kessel trade. I'm not a huge fan of the draft lottery system and others have proposed a system similar to what's used in the KHL. Yet, the system is what it is and I'm looking forward to a top 3 pick provided the Oilers management doesn't screw it up.

Marc Pouliot has been recalled from his conditioning stint in the AHL by the Edmonton Oilers today. Marc Pouliot played 4 games down in Springfield in which he scored one goal and netted 5 assists for a total of 6 points. As well, he was +4 which seems to be an impressive stat playing for the Falcons even if it was only four games. During the preseason, he was sidelined with what Pat Quinn referred to as a "Pubis thing."

Pre-game stats:

The Colorado Avalanche like the Oilers are poor at winning faceoffs (46.9%) yet have an even worse shot differential (-6.2 shots per game). Further, their power play is a dismal 17.3%. However, the Avs have an 81% penalty kill efficiency along with a positive goal differential. More importantly, Craig Anderson has a .919 SV% and a 2.62 goals against average.

Daily Line: The Avs are favored to win (-200/+170) which should be a surprise to no one.