It is official! With a season that has been filled with many highs and many lows, and a mess down the stretch, the Edmonton Oilers have now clinched their sixth straight berth into the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Edmonton just so happens to be the third team in the Pacific Division to punch a ticket to the playoffs after the Vegas Golden Knights and L.A. Kings clinched theirs on April one and five respectively.
The Oilers clinching scenario couldn’t have been more simple: get at least one point against the San Jose Sharks (who are bound to finish as the 32 and worst team in the NHL this season) or if the Calgary Flames lost to the Minnesota Wild in any fashion.
A 50/50 start to a new Oilers season
We all remember what happened last year, and what the Edmonton Oilers were “almost” able to accomplish in their post season run. The team started the first month of their season with a 5–5–1 record. That was then improved to an 8–4–1 record in the month of November.
The Oilers were able to turn that slow start around very quickly by having a stellar midseason, going 19–6–2 in 27 games with a points percentage of .741, winning seemed to be very frequent for the Oilers in this stretch of games.
To start off February, the Oilers were pretty slow and only posted a 2–2 record. It was then time for the yearly season break, and the fans got to see another All-star weekend right?
The NHL’S first, 4 Nations Face-off
The NHL decided to change things up this season, by providing some players with the opportunity to represent their country’s colours. Canada, U.S.A, Sweden, and Finland were very well put together, having a lot of the top NHL players on each team.
We ended up getting way more than we expected or asked for in this best-on-best tournament. To jump to conclusions, Connor McDavid followed in the footsteps of Crosby in 2010, by scoring the “Golden Goal” for Canada in OT against the United States.
The Oilers season, thanks to Leon Draisaitl
Us here at the Oil Rig and all around the league, have been talking about the rise of Leon Draisaitl all season, and what no one player should have had to do for his own team.
In simple terms, the team wouldn’t be where they are today if Draisaitl didn’t single handedly carry the team on his back, by producing points and goals that led to wins on the season.
Having only played 71 (72) games so far this season, Draisaitl has torched the league by producing 52 goals and 54 assists for 106 points.
Cup or Bust again?
There is definitely plenty more that I could have talked about in regards to this Oilers season, but I didn’t want to keep you reading forever and kept it short and sweet.
Right now, the team is nowhere near being as strong, skilled, fast or competitive as they were last year. It has been said all throughout the season, that Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg should have never left and had their offer sheets accepted, and in return the Oilers ended up getting older and slower. This is not typically a recipe for success, for teams that are trying to make a deep run in the post season like the Oilers have tried to do in the last few years.
The Oilers are not the Cup favourites this season, and I fully understand why. It’s starting to look more and more likely, that Edmonton is not even going to get home ice advantage against their rivals in the L.A. Kings. If they can find that gear and get back to the way that they played in the playoffs last year, the Oilers will definitely be a team to watch out for.
We’ll see what’s in store for Oil Country this year.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
