With their victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, the Edmonton Oilers extended their winning streak to a franchise-high 11 games. They are playing quite well right now.
The squad has been 19-3-0 since November 24. Prior to a brief three-game losing run, the team had won eight straight games. The Oilers are 21-6-0 since Kris Knoblauch took over as head coach in place of Jay Woodcroft, moving them up from the basement of the NHL rankings into the Western Conference playoff picture.
Following Tuesday’s victory, Knoblauch stated of the run, “We’re enjoying it, absolutely,” according to NHL.com. We wouldn’t be wise to claim that it’s not something we think about or are happy about. However, I believe that what matters more is that, based on the standings, we can see that, even though we currently hold a wild-card [place] and are in the postseason picture, if we miss a few games, we will no longer be in the picture.
However, we also have teams above us in our sights; we can catch up to and surpass those players. While the streak is good, the standings are more crucial.
The Oilers might finish in second place in the Pacific Division in the upcoming weeks and possibly put some pressure on the Vancouver Canucks for first place down the line, despite their 3-9-1 start under Woodcroft making it appear improbable.
With 49 points after 40 games, the Oilers are presently occupying the top wild-card slot in the Western Conference. Edmonton has four games remaining against the second-place Vegas Golden Knights (55 points) and one against the Los Angeles Kings (50 points), who are third in the Pacific.
Despite having played four more games than the Oilers, the Canucks, who are tied for the NHL lead with 62 points, still have a lead over them.
Of course, in order to maintain pressure on the teams ahead of them, the Oilers need to win those games.
Forward Leon Draisaitl continued, “It feels great, winning always feels great, but we’ve worked extremely hard to put ourselves back into it.” We must always remember that we are not in a situation where we can ease off the gas. We performed a fantastic job doing it tonight, and there is still a ton of hockey to be played—we’re not even halfway through the season.
Throughout the winning run, the Oilers have not let up more than three goals in any game. Stuart Skinner, the goalie, who has started eight of the eleven games, gave the lineup depth credit for the team’s success.
With a brilliant.951 save % in January, Skinner, who is 5-0-0 overall, stated, “We have four solid lines that have been working.” “Yes, we have some elite players, but the guys on the third and fourth lines deserve a lot of the credit as well.” They play strong defense, keep the puck out of the net, get the puck in deep, and are clearly enjoying themselves, which is huge for any team.
