Playoffs?

It was November 25, 2001 when the Indianapolis Colts lost to the San Fransisco 49ers dropping the team to 4-6 on the season. The Colts made five offensive turnovers, one of which resulted in a touchdown while three others set up field position for touchdown-scoring drives.

Following the game, then head coach Jim Mora took to the podium for what was one of the best soundbites in sports history.

“Playoffs? Don’t talk about—playoffs?! You kidding me? Playoffs?! I just hope we can win a game! Another game!” ranted Mora when asked by WRTV reporter Tim Bragg if the team had a chance to make the playoffs.

This leads me to present day where the Oilers face a similar position Mora and his team faced. The playoffs is something that became all too real last year for the Oilers when they went on to have one of the best seasons the franchise has seen in decades.

However this season, the Edmonton Oilers may leave fans disappointed as they look to fall back to earth in what could be a playoff-less season.

Injuries and a flu bug that decimated Connor McDavid and co. did not do the team any favours.

For the purpose of the exercise to follow, I am going to use Micah Blake McCurdy’s hockeyviz point projections (see right) entering Dec. 18 as I am writing this after last night’s win. The projections say that in order to make the playoffs, you need to have 90 points – which would be down from the 94 points needed to make the playoffs last year.

As it stands following last night’s win against the San Jose Sharks, the Oilers sit six points back of the final Wild Card/Pacific Division spot in the West. The team currently has 32 points in 34 games – a 77 point pace. However the team is 6-4 in their last ten (12 points in 10 games) and appearing to surge now that they have a healthy lineup.

If the team continues at a 12 point pace (6-4 or so) every 10 games over the rest of the season, they should end up with 89 points.

If they play at a 13 point pace every ten (6-3-1 or so), they wind up with 94 points which still could leave them short by seasons end.

If the Oilers have any hope of making the playoffs, they are essentially going to have to secure at least 12.5 standing points every 10 games. Last season, the Oilers did exactly that and every 10 games, the team had themselves 12.56 standing points.

It’s not impossible because the Oilers played at this pace last year. To be frank, the playoff cutoff could rise by the season so the 12.5 point pace might even be a little bit low.

The plus side is that Andrej Sekera is close to returning and while he isn’t a big time needle pusher he is certainly better than some other options the team has rolled out this season. On top of that, the Oilers have done very well in their own division winning five of six games and outscoring them 28-13.

Continuing to do this against Pacific teams will be very important moving forward.

Cam Talbot was in net last night for his fifth-straight win while Strome, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins and Maroon all had multi-point nights while McDavid was help off the scoresheet.

While the Indianapolis Colts never were able to make the playoffs during that 2001 season, hopefully the Oilers can this year.

Find Zach on twitter: @zjlaing.