To say that the 2023–24 season has started off terribly for the Edmonton Oilers is an understatement. Unmitigated disaster is probably still not strong enough language, especially if you are an Oilers fan.
The team is in second last place, and lost to the last place team that may be in the running for worst team in NHL history. The supposed big price tag starting goalie you signed last year waived and sent to the minors. The supposed saviour goalie not faring any better. Connor McDavid being less than a point-per-game player. Defence in shambles.
It would be easy to just tune out for the rest of the season. After all, we’ve already gone through a whole “Decade of Darkness” and this seems oddly reminiscent of those days.
Frankly, barring a St. Louis Blues circa 2019 miracle turnaround, this season is likely to be considered one of the most disappointing seasons in NHL history.
But, if you are reading this, chances are you are a pretty big, if not die-hard, Oilers fan. Which means, despite the pain and torture they are doing to you, you are still more likely than not to watch the rest of the season play out.
So, instead of causing you consternation and dread, this article is going to provide some ways you can still enjoy your time watching this godforsaken season.
The Drama
A few years back, the NHL rolled out a “No soap operas, just hockey” campaign. Well, anyone who has followed the NHL knows this absolutely not the case.
Which isn’t a bad thing. After all, the NHL is in the entertainment business, and if there is one thing that is nothing but entertaining, it is drama. Why do you think soap operas and reality shows are so prevalent? Because everyone loves some good ol’ tea being spilled.
We are only a month into this season, and yet the drama around the Oilers is already at a high. Jay Woodcroft, the owner of the highest coaching winning percentage in franchise history, was just fired even after a 4–1 win against the Seattle Kraken. The fact that he is being replaced by Connor McDavid’s junior coach, Kris Knoblauch, just adds a further spice to the drama.
What is next? Will there be a big trade coming? Will we get more “pissy” Leon Draisaitl interviews?
Another indicator that this drama is providing top notch entertainment? How about the fact that a Thursday night, 8:30 pm Mountain/10:30 pm Eastern time game between the 31st and 32nd place teams became one of the most hyped matchups in the league. Literally all week my twitter X timeline was all about the anticipation of the “stoppable force vs movable object.”
If the season was playing out like everyone expected, the only reason non-Oilers and non-Sharks fans would have maybe tuned in would have been to see if the Oilers could top the 10 goals the Sharks had already let in twice this season.
So if you can compartmentalize your emotional attachment to the Oilers, then fire up the popcorn and enjoy your front row seat to what could probably qualify as an upcoming Netflix special.
The return of the spOilers
During the aforementioned Decade of Darkness, one thing fans could enjoy as the season approached its end was seeing the lousy Oilers team put potential daggers into rival teams’ playoff aspirations. Nothing feels quite as good as a team coming in with something on the line, expecting that particular game to be a guaranteed two points, and instead your downtrodden but plucky underdog group banding together to crush that hope.
Sure, this is a scenario that doesn’t really come to fruition until the last month or so of the season, meaning you will have to suffer through another four to five months of pain before getting this reward, but patience is a virtue, right?
Cheering for individual players
Borrowing again from the lessons of the Decade of Darkness, just because the team is in the doldrums doesn’t mean every player is. Cheering on Taylor Hall to his first 80-point season in the peak Dallas Eakins coaching reign was some fun. Same with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ Calder Trophy race in 2012 (that I still maintain should have been his). Ryan Smyth tying the Oilers franchise record for power play goals in 2014 was a nice feather in his cap upon his return to the team.
That last one is a bit eerie, as earlier this year Leon Draisaitl broke Smytty’s power play goal record, just shy of 10 years later.
So the point remains, even if the Oilers as a team can’t muster anything to cheer for, individual players still can. There’s individual milestones, as well as franchise ones.
Evan Bouchard just recorded his 100th NHL point, and is only 25 assists away from his 100th in that category as well.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is 38 games away from being the outright third in games played in an Oilers sweater, 15 assists from eighth in assists, 28 points from seventh in that category, three game winning goals from eighth, and two even strength goals from seventh.
Connor McDavid is *only* 140 points away from his 1000th, which if he hit would still be three less points than last year. Mind you, if McDavid his 150 points again, it is hard to see the Oilers not becoming competitive, if not making the playoffs, so maybe this one doesn’t count as much.
But he is also only nine game winning goals from being first in franchise history in that category, 15 assists from third most assists, 47 points from fourth, and four power play goals from seventh (18 from sixth).
Leon Draisaitl is 13 assists away from sixth, and another 30 from being fifth. He is also seven-game winning goals from being tied for third (eight to hold it outright).
Hell, even the much maligned Stuart Skinner is 19 wins away from being top 10 in the franchise in that category, and three shutouts away from being tied for 10th in that category. Although given the Oilers recent history with goaltending, that may be one that causes more pain than enjoyment.
Sure, some of the above are a bit meh and seem to be digging too hard, but that is kinda the whole point of this exercise no?
Sports betting
You may have heard recently that sports betting is becoming a pretty big industry. If you haven’t, that’s ok, it’s not like it has been promoted ad nauseum to the point that sports networks have whole segments on odds and that roughly 83% of commercials during a game are sports betting ads.
So, why not turn your team’s losses into your own winnings? You know the Oilers suck. Do the oddsmakers? Put money on them to lose and it’s a win-win regardless of the game’s outcome. Unless you put a lot on the line, which we don’t recommend, because as anyone knows, as soon as the Oilers are affiliated with high expectations, things crumble.
Cheap tickets
Tickets to Oilers games are expensive at face value, and as the team does better, those prices rise.
But when the team is bad? Well the prices tend to fall, and the worse the team does, the more the drop.
Now I know what you are thinking, why would I pay good money to see bad hockey?
Going to a game can be an enjoyable night out win or lose (see compartmentalizing note in the first section). Now that the arena is in downtown, there is lots of things to do before and after a game within walking distance. So take your usual date night and just add a game into it—think of it like dinner and show (a tragic comedy in this case).
Also, if you have little ones, lower ticket costs might make it more palatable to take the family out. Most kids don’t care if the team wins or loses, they love the experience and atmosphere all the same. When I think about the games I went to as a kid, I don’t remember the final score, but I remember the fun and some of the more memorable plays (like the time I called Matt Greene’s first NHL goal right before the face-off that led to it).
The ability to lord your true fandom
Most of the time, when someone says they are a fan of a championship contending team with the best player in the game and arguably the second best player, people will accuse them of being a bandwagon fan.
But if you stick with the Oilers this year, then can anyone really accuse you of that?
In fact, sticking with them this year, especially if they do fully bottom out, is a sign of even more loyalty than during the Decade of Darkness. That is because the expectations then were to lose for most of the time, so you really you knew what you were getting into.
Not this year. The chirps from other teams’ fans is already pretty merciless, and they are just going to get more and more ruthless if the season doesn’t turn around.
So unless you are a bona fide masochist, the one thing people can’t deny is that you bleed orange and blue. That, my friend, is something to be proud of.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
