It's tough times these days for a lot of the Canadian NHL franchises.
A quick scan of the NHL standings today shows four of the six teams – including the Leafs and Oilers, who meet in Toronto tonight – are in the bottom eight in the league near the 25-game mark.
Only Montreal and Vancouver are having any success, meaning only two Canadian teams may make the postseason this year.
"I don't really have an answer for that," Leafs defenceman Luke Schenn said. "Obviously we need Canadian teams to win. Some of the biggest hockey markets are in Canada, so it's big for our fans.
"Everyone wants us to win and there is I guess a little extra pressure playing in a Canadian city. But that can also be a positive once you start winning they can get behind you a lot more. I don't know about the other teams, but we want to win badly in here."
Being in the league's basement isn't exactly new for these two teams. Toronto has finished 23rd, 24th and 29th the past three seasons while Edmonton has been 20th, 21st and 30th.
Neither team has made the playoffs since 2005-06, when the Oilers were eighth in the West and went on a run to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals. Currently they both have 20 points and are 25th and 28th in terms of points percentage, with whoever wins tonight's game set to jump ahead in the standings.
Nikolai Khabibulin is making his return to the lineup from a groin injury tonight while Jonas Gustavsson gets his seventh straight start. I'll have an item on Khabibulin posted at the top of the blog shortly.
Notebook
- Wilson said J-S Giguere has been told to be ready for Saturday against the Bruins. Giguere hasn't started since a win over the Predators more than two weeks ago when he suffered a groin injury and left the game prior to the third period.
- There won't be any callups from the minors to replace Mike Brown, who badly broke his finger against Tampa on Tuesday. Colby Armstrong is expected to be back for Saturday's game, so Toronto will again have an extra forward at that point. "If we needed somebody, we've got an extra defenceman we could use but we're all set for today," Leafs coach Ron Wilson said.
- Wilson on the Oilers: "They skate very well. They're going to be inconsistent at times because of their youth. If they have a really good game, even like last night, there's a tendency to have a let down in the next game. We want to take advantage of them because it's their third game in four nights and it's on the road.
"It's going to be a fast game and we know from watching them where we do have to jump on them is in their own end. A young team will struggle in their own end if we can provide pressure in the right way and win some battles down low. But we know it's going to be very fast and certainly respect all the skill of their young people up front."
- Wilson on Brett Lebda, who has really struggled this season and gets back into the lineup for another go: "He's trying too hard. If he has a game where he makes a mistake, then he thinks he's got to go out and make up for the mistake and he compound it by making a major blunder ... He's just got to let the game come to him."
- Oilers assistant coach Steve Smith's son Barron, a big defenceman with the Peterborough Petes, was drafted by the Leafs in the seventh round of the 2009 draft. Recovering from a shoulder injury, he will be on hand to watch tonight's game.
Leafs lineup
MacArthur - Kadri - Kessel Crabb - Grabovski - Kulemin Sjostrom - Bozak - Versteeg Orr - Brent - Mitchell
Beauchemin - Komisarek Kaberle - Schenn Lebda - Gunnarsson
Gustavsson
Oilers lineup (based on last night's game)
Eberle - Horcoff - Hall Paajarvi - Gagner - Hemsky Brule - Cogliano - Penner Jacques - Fraser - Jones
Gilbert - Whitney Peckham - Vandermeer Foster - Smid
Khabibulin