If you’re into Seinfeld like I am then you know that December 23rd is Festivus, a day where we’re all encouraged to air our grievances and celebrate feats of strength from the past year. And since we’re Oilers fans in the midst of a global pandemic, I’m sure that we can all use this opportunity to get a few things off our chests.

Before we dive into our 2020 Festivus festivities, I want to take a moment to remind everyone that airing your grievances doesn’t make you any less of an Oilers fan. In fact, as I do every year, I’d go so far as to suggest that providing constructive criticisms to the Universe about the team you love and spend so much of your life watching is the ultimate form of fandom. It’s our unwavering dedication to the Oilers that gives us this right, and the grievances listed below are only my way of trying to help the team get better. With that out of the way, let’s get to it.

While everyone’s grievance list will look different, here are five things that I’d like to have corrected in 2021 provided that the pandemic allows us to have a season. Is it realistic that all of my demands be met? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t use the platform available to me to make sure they get heard. Got it? Great. Let’s move on.

Listen, if there’s one thing that I think we can all agree on it’s that COVID-19 has been a complete disaster when it comes to almost every facet of life. I don’t think I’m talking out of school when I say that this virus has been the most annoying thing to happen to any of us, and the fact that we’re working our way towards the anniversary of this thing with no immediate end in sight is just another reminder of how badly we can all use a break.

As far as annoyances go, I don’t think I’ll ever get over the Oilers’ play-in loss against Chicago and how poorly they played over that four-game series. Now, more than four months later, we’ve yet to watch our boys compete in games again so the after-taste of that deplorable series still lingers like a fart in an elevator. Can you taste it? I think I can taste it.

According to our friends at PuckPedia, the Oilers will have $4.583 million dollars in dead cap space this season as a result of the buyouts (Sekera and Pouliot) and the retained salary on the Lucic trade. Even with Eric Gryba coming off the books, the team still has $1.3 million in dead cap space on their books dedicated to a guy that hasn’t played here in three years? Next season, this number drops to $2.250 million which is obviously better but still an irritation, to say the least. Every time I check on the Oilers’ cap situation, I see this dead space waiting to slap me across the face.

If there’s one thing that annoys me about Oilers fans is how easily we can, at times, get lured into rooms full of bear traps that come around on social media. Whether it’s Leafs or Canucks fans saying that Matthews/Pettersson/whoever is better than McDavid or that he’s only a few losses away from demanding a trade, we Oilers fans have a real problem with ignoring the nonsense and letting things slide. I don’t know what we need to do to improve this general weakness we have, but I hope this is something we can work on in the new year.

I know the Oilers’ playoff run was short, but where was the playoff mo, Dave? I can’t help but feel like things may have been different if you had given us the TipStache!

Since no Festivus celebration is complete without highlighting some feats of strength, I looked back at the last 12 months and come up with a list of the best things that have happened with our beloved Oilers. Here are a few feats of strength that come to mind when I look back at 2020, and I’d love to see your lists down in the comments section:

I’m going to start off my feats of strength where I always do and thank the sweet Hockey Gords for every single moment that @Connor McDavid is an Edmonton Oiler. Can we all take a minute to put these thanks out into the universe? Okay, everybody quiet. *moment of silence* Nice. As you all know, Connor McDavid is, on a nightly basis, enough of a reason to watch Oilers games and it’s been a blessing to have him on this team.

@Leon Draisaitl finished the 2019-20 season with 43 goals and 67 assists for 110 points in only 71 games, and that is the kind of warlord-like pace that deserves a hat tip in this year’s feats of strength. From the way he protects the puck to the way he seems to find the back of the net from almost anywhere, Leon Draisaitl has emerged as one of the league’s best players and I can’t wait to see just hot good this guy can be.

Probably my favourite story from the past year has been the emergence of @Ethan Bear on the blue line. I remember thinking at the start of the 2019-20 season that it was Caleb Jones that would have a job locked in, but it was Bear that ended up grabbing the spot and never looking back. Now, as we wait for him to sign a new contract, I think back at how important of a player he’s turned into for this franchise in what feels like record time and I’m very grateful for all the work he put in to get here. In 71 games place, Bear put up six goals and 16 assists for 21 points to go along with a -4 rating, 21:58 in average TOI, and a 49% CF%.

In 2019-20, the Oilers had the best powerplay in the NHL by a decent margin and it was an absolute treat to watch. Torching teams at an incredible 29.5% clip, Edmonton was lethal with the man advantage and I’m fascinated to see whether or not they’ll have anywhere close to the same success when the new season kicks off next month.

Feel free to leave me your strengths and grievances in the comments section because I know there are things that I’ve missed, but that’s one good thing about us all being on this weird ride together.

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