The Edmonton Oilers sit outside of a playoff spot a day past American Thanksgiving, though it may not be much of a concern.
As many hockey fans know, American Thanksgiving serves as a gauge for which teams will make the playoffs and which will miss. Generally, it tends to be quite accurate.
Last season, only three teams that sat in a playoff spot at American Thanksgiving missed the playoffs: the Detroit Red Wings, the St. Louis Blues, and the Seattle Kraken.
Those odds suggest that the Oilers’ chances of making the playoffs this season aren’t great.
NHL.com
The image above is a look at the current NHL standings. The Oilers sit one point shy of the Vancouver Canucks for a wild-card position and three points shy of the LA Kings for third in the Pacific Division.
With 60 games remaining, they are not even close to being out of the race, though some may find it concerning that they are on the outside looking in at American Thanksgiving.
That said, this isn’t unfamiliar territory to this team.
NHL.com
Last year, they appeared to be dead in the water, sitting 10 points out of a playoff spot by American Thanksgiving. With a record of just 5-12-1, many had written them off and even began questioning the organization’s future.
The Oilers ended up pulling off what appeared to be a near impossibility, however, and finished the season second in the Pacific with 104 points. A big part of that was due to some lengthy winning streaks, including a stretch that saw them rifle off 16 in a row from December 21 to January 27.
While expecting that long of a winning streak once again in 2024-25 may be wishful thinking, it goes to show that, for whatever reason, this team tends to get off to rather slow starts.
With the talent the Oilers roster possesses, they should be able to prove the Thanksgiving marker wrong once again, though they’ll need to start putting up wins on a more consistent basis right away. They’ll attempt to begin doing just that tonight, as, after a five-day break, they are set to take on the Utah Hockey Club at 7 pm MT.
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