I love researching historical and current statistics and records, whether it is 100-point seasons, 50-goals season, most wins, most losses, best Sv%, most shots. It doesn’t matter. I enjoy it, and with the Edmonton Oilers on a six-game winning streak I thought about their overall lack of lengthy winning streaks.

The Oilers longest winning streak was nine games in the 2000-2001 season. Arizona, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles and Winnipeg are the other franchises that have never had a 10-game winning streak.

Arizona, Detroit, LA, Edmonton have each won nine in a row, while Dallas and Winnipeg have won seven. The Stars set their franchise record earlier this season.

Edmonton is the only NHL franchise to not have a seven-game winning streak in the last 20 years. Every team, other than Dallas and Winnipeg, has won at least eight consecutive games and 22 teams have had streaks of 10 games or more over the past two decades.

Here is a chart of all 32 teams. “WS” is the longest winning streak they’ve had, “(#)” is the number of eight-game winning streaks they’ve had since 2001, and “YEAR” is the most recent year they’ve won eight in a row. Keep in mind Dallas and Winnipeg never have, hence the zero, but they have won at least seven in a row, which Edmonton hasn’t done since 2001.

Seattle has had winning streaks of seven and eight games this season and they’re only in their second year as an NHL team. For any Kraken fans who want to stoke the rivalry, Vancouver only has two winning streaks of 7+ games in franchise history. The Oilers and Maple Leafs are due for a lengthy winning streak, especially considering they are easier to achieve in the shootout era. There are no more ties. Neither organization has had a seven-game winning streak since the shootout arrived in 2006.

The Oilers have won six consecutive games five times since 2002:
March 14th-26th, 2002. Streak ended with a 3-2 loss v. LA.
October 22nd to November 3rd, 2011. Lost seventh game 4-2 to Phoenix.
December 2nd to December 15th, 2015. Streak ended on 4-2 loss to New York Rangers.
March 28th to April 7th, 2022. Streak ended with a SO loss to Colorado.
January 11th to present.

Edmonton might never have a better opportunity to go on a lengthy winning streak than right now. They’ve won six in a row and their next seven games are against Columbus (32nd in league), Chicago (30th) Detroit (24th), Philadelphia (23rd), Ottawa (25th), Montreal (26th) and Detroit (24th).

Edmonton is 8-2 v. bottom 10 teams in the league this season. Edmonton and Seattle have played the fewest games v. bottom 10 teams thus far, and they have the most favourable remaining schedule among the current 16 playoff teams. They next three weeks present a massive opportunity for the Oilers to continue climbing up the NHL standings, but also to go on a lengthy winning streak that has eluded them for the past 20 seasons.

There is always lots of talk about which division is the best. Most of the playoff teams have a .750P% or higher v. bottom-10 teams, but their records against the other 21 teams are much closer.

Here’s a quick look at East v. West v. bottom-10 teams (BT) and then the rest of the league.

Seattle has struggled the most v. BT teams winning only five of 10 games, but they have 22 wins v. the rest of the NHL. Minnesota has dominated bad teams, but only won 11 of 28 games v. more competitive teams.

Calgary is in ninth place in the west, but they’ve only played 11 games v. BT (6-2-3). The Flames are 16-14-6 v. the rest of the league, and with a softer remaining schedule than Minnesota, the Wild will need to significantly improve v. the rest of the league if they hope to stay in a playoff spot.

The Oilers have been very good since Christmas. They have the third most points, third best P%, are first in goals for/GP at 4.00 and fourth in goals against/GP at 2.62. They are second in 5×5 goals and seventh in 5×5 goals against.  Combine their recent play with an upcoming softer schedule and the Oilers might finally find that lengthy winning streak that has eluded them for two decades.