It's another doubleheader on Wednesday this week and it begins with the Edmonton Oilers (28-19-3) playing the Tampa Bay Lightning (32-11-6) at Amalie Arena (7:30 p.m. ET; TNT, SNO, SNW, SNP, TVAS, NHL LIVE).
Then, the Los Angeles Kings (26-17-7) play the Arizona Coyotes (13-33-4) at Gila River Arena (10 p.m. ET; TNT, SN, SN360, SN1, TVAS, NHL LIVE).
Here is my breakdown of the games.
Edmonton Oilers
Pluses: They have played much better under coach Jay Woodcroft, going 5-1-0 since he replaced Dave Tippett on Feb. 10. Prior to a 7-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday, they had outscored opponents 22-8 in five games. It's been more than just Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl scoring; Warren Foegele and Kailer Yamamoto and some other depth players are getting on the board. A healthy Ryan Nugent-Hopkins helps them also.
Minuses: They'll be without forward Jesse Puljujarvi for a month because of a lower-body injury. Other than that, the question is what moves are they going to make prior to the NHL Trade Deadline on March 21? You know they'll have to do something to show they can contend this season.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Pluses: Everybody is humming along for them; Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy. And let's not forget Steven Stamkos, who has been rejuvenated and has scored 55 points (23 goals, 32 assists) in 48 games. He could break his NHL career high of 98 points (45 goals, 53 assists) in 2018-19. The Lightning also rank in the top 10 in goals for (tied for seventh, 3.41) and goals against (ninth, 2.36) per game and are 16-4-4 at home.
Minuses:They've played more games than any team the past three seasons and it hasn't affected them at all, as they are once again near the top of the NHL standings. The only thing they could improve on is special teams, where they rank 19th on the power play (19.2 percent) and tied for 12th on the penalty kill (80.9 percent).
Los Angeles Kings
Pluses: The goalie tandem of Jonathan Quick and Cal Petersen has put up better numbers than last season. Adrian Kempe has probably been their best player; the forward leads them with 23 goals, including four in his past two games, and is second in points (33) behind Anze Kopitar (47). Defenseman Drew Doughty has scored 29 points (seven goals, 22 assists) in 31 games and hasn't missed a step after missing 16 games because of a knee injury. The Kings have put themselves into contention in the playoff race this season and not many thought they would.
Minuses:I'd like to see them get more secondary scoring and improve on special teams; they are 25th in the NHL on the power play (17.0 percent) and 29th on the penalty kill (74.6 percent).
Arizona Coyotes
Pluses:The bright spots are that they've defeated some good teams recently, like the Dallas Stars on Sunday (3-1) and the Colorado Avalanche on Feb. 1 (3-2 in a shootout). They have some good pieces in forwards Clayton Keller, Lawson Crouse and Nick Schmaltz and defenseman Jakob Chychrun, but any or all of them could be on the move in the next few weeks. It's all about the future and draft picks for the Coyotes, who already have traded goalie
Carter Hutton
(Monday), and forward Ryan Dzingel and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin (Saturday). The Coyotes had a lot of turnover during the offseason but haven't been as competitive as they would have liked.
Minuses:It's tough to see where they are now after making the Stanley Cup Playoffs two seasons ago. The Coyotes are in the bottom five in goals per game (31st, 2.26), goals against per game (tied for 30th, 3,64), power play (32nd, 12.1 percent), penalty kill (31st, 72.9 percent), shots on goal per game (32nd, 25.9) and shots on goal against per game (29th, 34.3), so it hasn't just been one part of their game that's been lacking. There are needs for improvement in just about every aspect.
