Oilers Can Still Win Pacific Division Despite Recent Slump

Hockey can be a crazy game sometimes. Take, for instance, the NHL’s Pacific Division. As of March 1, the Edmonton Oilers are still clinging to second place despite being on a season-high five-game losing streak. Yes, the Vegas Golden Knights have moved four points up on the Oilers both with 59 games played, and the Los Angeles Kings are just two points back of the Oilers with two games in hand, but you have to believe when the Oilers finally shake this losing streak, they’ll start to climb the standings again, and have a very good chance of winning the Pacific Division crown.

NHL Schedule Maker Didn’t Do the Oilers Any Favours

The Oilers were playing well coming into February, but you could tell they were a tired team when they lost their final game before the 4 Nations Face-Off to the Colorado Avalanche 5-4 on Feb. 7. Fast-forward 15 days later, when they were set to begin a tough five-game road swing against the Philadelphia Flyers on Feb. 22 and expectations were high that they would be well rested, and Connor McDavid, fresh off his 4 Nations Face-Off heroics, would continue their winning ways like they did in the month of January. Well…the Oilers have fallen as flat as a pancake at a Rodeo breakfast, thanks in part to a tough schedule.

The Oilers came out of the break having to play two matinée games back-to-back against the Flyers and Washington Capitals. They were blown out in both games, losing 6-3 to the Flyers and 7-3 to the Capitals. The losing continued in the State of Florida as the Oilers lost 4-1 to the surging Tampa Lightning on Feb. 25 and 4-3 to the Florida Panthers on Feb. 27. Now with the month of March officially here, the Oilers are looking to turn things around tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes in the final game of this disastrous eastern road swing.

Related: Oilers’ 6 Biggest Remaining Games in the Regular Season

The good news for the Oilers is they return home for a quick three-game homestand against the Anaheim Ducks on March 4, the Montreal Canadiens on March 6 and the Dallas Stars on March 8. After that, they hit the road again for another four-game eastern time zone road trip. Back-to-back road trips in the span of three weeks doesn’t seem fair, especially to a team located as far west as Edmonton, but those are the breaks. And it doesn’t seem like the Oilers received a break from the schedule maker this season.

Oilers Can Still Win the Pacific Division Despite the Odds

Despite all the recent losses, a schedule that’s stacked against them, and the venom of fans and some pundits on social media, the Oilers still find themselves in second place in the Pacific on March 1. They have a legitimate shot at winning the division when all is said and done at the end of the regular season on April 16. In fact, I wouldn’t bet against them. Right now, they’re playing their worst hockey of the season, even worse than the 0-3-0 start to the 2024-25 season. However, they started to show signs of life in their 4-3 loss to the Panthers on Feb. 27 and with tweaks to the roster, including changes that will surely be coming by the March 7 NHL Trade Deadline, you can bet they’ll find their winning ways again.

This roster is just too good. If you’re an Oilers fan, you have to be somewhat optimistic, even during their recent string of losses in late February. It’s better to have a losing streak now than when the games really matter in the playoffs. Oftentimes, when the playoffs begin, it isn’t necessarily the team at the top of the standings that wins it all; instead, it’s usually the team that gets hot just before or as the playoffs start. With a team led by McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, I wouldn’t bet against the Oilers winning the Pacific Division and getting into peak form right as the postseason starts. It seems like that has been on their minds since losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last June.