Breaking just now:Colorado Avalanche just recieved a big hit with disheartening news

When the Edmonton Oilers played the Colorado Avalanche in the 2022 Western Conference Final, the measuring stick felt more like a two-by-four after the Avs smacked the Oilers upside the head, winning the series in four, en route to their Stanley Cup win

Now, as the two teams meet for the first time this season, Game 65 for the Oilers, with the two best players in the world on the Saturday playbill in Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, the home team’s belief system is a lot sturdier than it was two years ago.

In part because Leon Draisaitl was playing on a leg and a prayer with a high ankle sprain then and Darnell Nurse was skating with a torn hip flexor, along with the fact Colorado was on a playoff mission with MacKinnon, Cale Makar and their captain Gabe Landeskog leading the charge.

Now, the Oilers are stronger, deeper. So…

That series was the beginning of the foundation of confidence and faith,” said Oilers centre Derek Ryan, who might be watching Saturday’s game at Rogers Place with newcomer Sam Carrick getting the nod on the fourth line.

We’ve won so many games here over the past two seasons and our faith is bigger now.

No argument from Nurse.

We went into that series with lots of hope (after knocking off Calgary in five) and came out of it saying we had a lot of work to do as a team, to get to a point where we could compete with teams like that on a nightly basis,” said Nurse.

I thought we were very confident going into the series but it didn’t go the way we wanted it to…but you look around the room now and all the highs and lows (3-9-1 start when Knoblauch took over for Jay Woodcroft),” said Nurse.