Gagner is the poster child for teams that go on long runs; well, his younger teammates call him Papa Clutch since he’s 34; the Edmonton Oilers are getting ready for the Nashville Predators on Saturday afternoon. He is the only player in NHL history to have been a part of both the current 16-game run in Columbus in 2016–2017 and the current Oilers streak of at least 15 games. With Ron Francis, Jaromir Jagr, and Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh is ranked #1 in 1992–93.
In actuality, the Blue Jackets defeated the Oilers in Columbus on January 3, 2017, to take a 16-game lead, but the Washington Capitals shut them out 5-0 to break the run.
“Yeah, I remember that last game, 3-1 for Columbus… we actually beat the Oilers twice in the streak,” Gagner remarked. Given that Corey Perry will be playing in his first game and Connor Brown will be playing fourth line right wing instead of third against the Predators, Gagner is unlikely to play against them.
Oscar Klefbom scored the lone goal for the Todd McLellan-coached Oilers that night, while Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno, and William Karlsson scored for the Jackets. McLellan praised the Jackets’ tenacity, noting that other clubs are following suit with the current Oilers.
After a decision that was a blowout in every way save for the outcome, McLellan stated, “We didn’t even come close to their pace, their tenacity, or their relentlessness.” “We weren’t even close to it.”
During their current winning run, the Oilers have seen three games stretch over 60 minutes: a shootout triumph in Los Angeles on December 30 and two overtime victories on January 11 against the Red Wings and January 13 against Montreal. The Jackets won one game in overtime and two in shootouts. Both shootout victory were made possible in part by Gagner.
“I believe I made two goals, one against Mike Smith during his time in Arizona and the other against (Peter) Budaj during his time in Los Angeles,” Gagner remarked.
We were a club in Columbus that relied heavily on goaltending and depth. Sergei Bobrovsky, aka Bob, had an amazing year. All six Ds were played while we were rolling four lines. At the time, our PK was excellent, and our PP was outstanding. It’s not too different from what’s happening here during the streak, in my opinion. Everyone is contributing to our cause. It hasn’t been heated by scoring, according to Gagner.
You can only defeat the teams on your playlist, despite some detractors criticising the level of some of the clubs the Oilers have defeated during their run.
As a previous follower of Twitter,
Vancouver is the best club in the league and has the greatest winning run in the league this season at five games, to put the Oilers’ 15-game winning streak in context. Boston and Colorado have only had six players. Eight wins in a row is the fourth-longest streak in 2023–24 for Winnipeg, one of the NHL’s hottest teams. Florida and the Seattle Kraken each won nine in a row. At the beginning of Kris Knoblauch’s coaching career, the Oilers are also riding an eight-game winning streak.
If they defeat the Predators, who will be extremely difficult to win because to their wild-card position in the Western Conference, then the Oilers will face Vegas on February 6 at No. 17. “To tell the truth, until you told me, I had no idea that (17) was the record,” Knoblauch remarked.
“All I know is that we’re aiming to win before the break in our final game. Everyone would, I’m sure, feel quite proud of themselves for what they’ve accomplished in the past two months, the past month, and for putting themselves in the situation they are in. We had the entire week off to unwind.
We’re winning matches. Really, I adore it. December 19 is a long time ago, and we haven’t
Of course, the fact that the Oilers haven’t allowed more than two goals in 13 straight games is even more astounding. They don’t actually win 7–4.
