It’s Thanksgiving in the United States, and while they may be a Canadian team, the Edmonton Oilers have a lot to be thankful for these last 12 months.
In 2023, American Thanksgiving marked the turning point for captain Connor McDavid and the Oilers, as they began the most improbable run to the championship series in NHL history.
Edmonton had the best post-Thanksgiving record in the entire league, going 44-15-5 over its final 64 games, to climb from 30th place in the overall standings to second in the Pacific Division. From there, the Oilers won three playoff rounds to reach the Stanley Cup Final, before ultimately coming up just short, losing Game 7 to the Florida Panthers.
If this last year seems like a blur, that’s because it has been. Combining preseason, regular season and postseason games, Edmonton has played 119 games since American Thanksgiving in 2023, the most among all NHL teams over that span. Just 90 days separated Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final and Edmonton’s first preseason tilt.
Now is a rare quiet period for the Oilers, who are in the midst of a five-day break between games, providing an opportunity to reflect back on their incredible ride that started last Turkey Day.
Oilers Reach Breaking Point
On Nov. 22, 2023, Edmonton was throttled 6-3 by the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena to suffer a third straight loss and fall a whopping 10 points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Six weeks into the season, the Oilers had just five wins and had already made a coaching change. This felt like rock bottom.
At one point, TV cameras caught McDavid on the visitors’ bench, looking absolutely exasperated as he watched his struggling team on its way to yet another loss. Next to McDavid was Leon Draisaitl, who gave his teammate a supportive tap. The captain tapped Draisaitl back.
Never has such a simple gesture said so much: ride together, die together. It was the moment when the team’s two superstars decided, ‘enough is enough’.
Don’t Tell Edmonton the Odds
In the wake of their loss to Carolina, the situation looked bleak for the Oilers, who had a record of 5-12-1 for 11 points. No team with less than 12 points through its first 18 games had ever reached the Stanley Cup Final.
On top of that, American Thanksgiving serves as the NHL’s point of (almost) no return: Between the 2005-06 and 2022-23 seasons, only 23.3% of teams not in a playoff position on the fourth Thursday of November rallied to make the postseason.
Related: 6 Times Oilers Rallied From Being Outside Playoffs at Thanksgiving
But the events in Raleigh followed by a Thanksgiving Day of soul-searching must have lit a fire under the Oilers, because on Black Friday they had a new resolve. Playing like a team possessed, Edmonton crushed the host Washington Capitals 5-0 at Capital One Arena, with Draisaitl scoring twice and McDavid registering four assists.
That marked the beginning of an eight-game win streak for the Oilers. Then after a brief blip of three consecutive losses, Edmonton rattled off a franchise-record 16-game win streak.
In the 10 weeks following U.S. Thanksgiving, the Oilers went 24-3-0, one of the greatest stretches in NHL history. There was no looking back for the Oilers, who would ride that momentum all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, as Edmonton made history by becoming the first conference champion to have fewer than 12 points through 18 games.
Oilers in a Familiar Place on Thanksgiving
This year once again finds Edmonton sitting outside of the playoff picture at Thanksgiving, though the situation isn’t nearly as bleak this time: With 24 points from a record of 11-9-2, the Oilers are one point back of the Western Conference’s final wild card spot.
The Oilers have underperformed through the first quarter of their 2024-25 schedule, winning less than half of their games and allowing more goals than they’ve scored. Maybe it’s the hangover from coming so close to the championship, or the effects of all the hockey they’ve played the last 12 months, but only occasionally have the Oilers resembled the team that tore up the NHL last winter and spring.
Could U.S. Thanksgiving again be the start of something special for the Oilers? They have been off since Saturday (Nov. 23), when they had one of their best performances of the season, beating the New York Rangers 6-2 at Rogers Place.
Before last year, Edmonton had lost six straight games on the day after American Thanksgiving. The Oilers will try to make it two straight Black Friday victories when they return to action against the Utah Hockey Club in Salt Lake City tomorrow (Nov. 29).
