The Edmonton Oilers have played the most road games in the NHL through 40 games, with 16 at home and 24 on the road. That is the largest split differential in the NHL, but that will change starting tonight.

Edmonton plays 12 of their next 16 games at home, and by the end of January, they will have played 28 at home and 28 on the road. The next 32 days present a fabulous opportunity for the Oilers to extend their lead atop the Pacific Division.

Before we look ahead, here is a look at the road-home splits of all the 32 teams for their first 40 games. Some teams have yet to play 40 games, but I simply included their upcoming games to reach the totals.

It is interesting to note the difference between Edmonton and Utah compared to Toronto and Florida. I’d argue the heavy road schedule will benefit the Oilers and Mammoth in the second half, while Toronto and Florida have a much tougher second half of the season as they battle for playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. Starting January 4th, the Panthers enter a stretch where they play 14 consecutive games in 14 different cities. They start in Florida, then have six road games, home for one, on the road for three, home for one, in St. Louis and then back home.

Meanwhile, the Oilers don’t have another road game in the Eastern Conference this season. Edmonton plays five road games in the Central time zone, four in Mountain and eight in the Pacific. They also have 25 home games, which means they are only out of their time zone for 13 of their remaining 42 games. Not only do they play significantly more home games in over their next 16 games, but they also face three teams currently ahead of them in the standings. They host Philadelphia this Saturday, the New York Islanders on January 15th and the Minnesota Wild on the 31st.

The Oilers currently have 46 points, Philly has 47, the Islanders have 48 and the Wild have 54. The Oilers other 13 opponents are below them in the standings and eight of them are currently not in a playoff position. Granted, many of them are within two-four points of the second Wildcard spot, but the Oilers don’t face many top teams in the next 16 games.

An abundance of home games combined with average to below average opponents present a wonderful opportunity for the Oilers to create some space between them and Anaheim, Vegas and Los Angeles in the Pacific Division. From today to the end of January the Ducks have five home games and 10 on the road and 10 of their games are against teams in a playoff spot. Meanwhile the Kings play 16 games, split evenly at eight at home and eight on the road, but they play 11 games v. playoff teams. Vegas has a heavy schedule with 17 games, but only five are against playoff teams with eight at home and nine on the road.

With a victory tonight the Oilers can finish off the 2025 calendar on a 10-4-1 run. And the schedule and quality of opponent suggest they could have a very similar record in January.

— Connor McDavid has already set a new career high with 33 points in one month, which ties him with Steven Stamkos for the most in the 2000s. Mario Lemieux had 34 points in December of 1995. If McDavid scores two points tonight and reaches 35 points in a month, he’ll become only the 7th player to do it.

Wayne Gretzky did it 20 times, Mario Lemieux nine while Pat Lafontaine, Jari Kurri, Bryan Trottier and Bobby Clarke did it once.

— Zach Hyman has 11 goals and 19 points in his last 15 games. His empty net goal in Winnipeg was his 155th as an Oiler and tied him with Craig MacTavish for 15th most in franchise history. He needs 11 more goals this season to pass Doug Weight (157), Shawn Horcoff (162) and Jordan Eberle (165) and that would mean the current Oilers would have four of the top 12 goal scorers in franchise history. Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (8th with 282), McDavid (6th with 385) and Draisaitl (3rd at 417).

— Boston’s Morgan Geekie and Nathan MacKinnon are the only players with 50 goals in the 2025 calendar year. Jason Robertson has 49, while Draisaitl and David Pastrnak have 45. Geekie has quietly emerged as one of the best goal scorers in the NHL recently. It will be interesting to see what pace he holds in 2026.

— McDavid (115 in 73 games), Pastrnak (110 in 78 GP) and Draisaitl (106 in 74 GP) are three of the five players with 100+ points.

— Calvin Pickard stopped 41 of 42 shots during Monday’s win in Winnipeg. It was the 10th time in his career he made 40+ saves in a game, but only the third time he won. He stopped 41 of 41 against the Penguins in March 2024 with the Oilers and stopped 41 of 43 against Minnesota in November of 2016 as a member of the Avalanche. Pickard needed a big game, and he came through. It will be interesting to see what the Oilers do with their goalies when Tristan Jarry returns. Connor Ingram needs to play 10 games and be on the roster for 24 days before he requires waivers. He’s been on the roster for 12 days, and he’s played in three games. Ideally, the Oilers would like to keep all three in the organization in case of injury. If they had to choose, I’d assume they’d expose Pickard to waivers before Ingram, but if Ingram has only played eight or nine games, when Jarry returns, would they opt to send Ingram down just to save him from being claimed, but also keep him playing in the AHL, while the NHL takes three weeks off for the Olympics? Some interesting strategies could occur.

— The Oilers are 17-1-3 when scoring first. They have the 5th best winning% (.810). They’ve won 11 in a row when scoring first.

— Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, as many like to overreact to decisions, but it was amazing to see how many claimed the Oilers losing Noah Philp on waivers was horrible asset management. Philp has played 30 NHL games. This season, he had the worst GF% among any forward and the worst expected GF%. He is 27 and has yet to find a consistent role in the NHL, yet some acted like he was a proven NHLer who was a huge loss. I hope for Philp’s sake that he becomes a regular in the NHL, but at this point, that is big if.

— Some have asked why the Oilers haven’t honoured Leon Draisaitl’s 1000th point yet. They wanted to wait and do it when Leon’s parents, Sandra and Peter, and his sister, Kim and her family could attend. It will occur on Saturday, January 10th, against the L.A. Kings and Leon’s family will be there to celebrate with him. It is important for his family to be there, and if you missed it, I did speak to his family about Leon’s journey from Germany to becoming an NHL superstar. You can read it here.

GAME DAY PREDICTION: Oilers continue their strong play at home in December and improve to 6-0-1 in their last seven games with a 5-2 victory.

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: McDavid extends his point streak to 14 games and has another multi-point game.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Hyman produces his second multi-goal game of the season.