The Edmonton Oilers are looking to make history with a familiar foe standing in their way
5 months ago
This might not be well-known knowledge, but the Edmonton Oilers are on a 16-game winning streak, which is one shy of matching the 1993-94 Pittsburgh Penguins for the longest streak in league history.
Standing between the Oilers and reaching 17 consecutive wins are the Vegas Golden Knights, the defending Stanley Cup Champions who edged out Edmonton in six games in the second round of the playoffs last spring.
For the Oilers, it’s a perfect opportunity for revenge, though a regular-season record won’t entirely make up for last year’s heartbreak. And for Vegas, it’s an excellent chance to remind the red-hot Oilers that they’re still the team to beat in the Pacific Division.
Talk about the stage being set!
Circling back to the winning streak, it’s interesting to see the Oilers now boast the second-longest winning streak in league history, considering how the team’s longest streak before this one was only nine games. Even during their dynasty days in the 1980s, they never had a double-digit heater.
During my first month at Oilersnation in January 2023, I wrote a Twitter thread about just how infrequently the Oilers went streaking, even during their dynasty days. As of that thread on January 20, 2023, the Oilers weren’t able to get over the six-game plateau. A day later, they beat the Vancouver Canucks for their sixth-straight win, before falling to the Columbus Blue Jackets in overtime. The Oilers held the lead with just over nine minutes left, which would’ve been their first seven-game win streak since 2000-01.
Thankfully, the Oilers had a second chance at conquering their lack of streaks in late March. They defeated the Arizona Coyotes and Vegas Golden Knights, before shutting out the Los Angeles Kings to end March with a three-game win streak. In fact, they didn’t lose again in the regular season, defeating the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks twice, the Kings once, and the Colorado Avalanche once.
This nine-game win streak matched their franchise record, the same streak that they had set in early 2001. The thing is, the Oilers nearly had a win streak similar to the one they’re on now. Starting on March 14, the Oilers went on a five-game win streak before losing to the Golden Knights in overtime. Had they won that game and proceeded to win their next nine, it would’ve been a 15 game win streak. Still, 14-0-1 isn’t bad to end the year.
While the end of the 2022-23 regular season wasn’t bad, the start of the 2023-24 season was horrendous. As you likely know, the Oilers started the season going 2-9-1 and were tied with the San Jose Sharks with five points at the bottom of the league. A pretty bad start to a “bust or cup” season.
After the embarrassing defeat to the Sharks, the Oilers won a game against the Kraken, former Oiler coach Jay Woodcroft was fired, and the Kris Knoblauch-led Oilers won their next two games. One word to describe the Knoblauch-led Oilers is “streaky”, as they proceeded to lose their next three games, two against Florida-based teams and additional game to the Carolina Hurricanes. And then, a streak.
On November 24, the Oilers obliterated the Washington Capitals, did the same to the Anaheim Ducks, and squeaked by the Vegas Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets to finish November 2023. They continued to streak in November, blowing out the Carolina Hurricanes, defeating the Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils and Chicago Blackhawks, before finally losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 14.
This started another three-game losing streak, before a 6-3 win against the Devils on December 21. They haven’t lost since, winning 16 straight games with a chance to match the National Hockey League record of 17 straight games. This was set by the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 1992-93 season, and Edmonton will have a chance to match that on February 6.
For a while there, it felt as if getting over the six-game plateau was impossible, but in the last calendar year alone, the Oilers have given us four eight-game win streaks if you segment the current streak in two.
Drink it in, Oilers fans. This has been a heck of a run, one we likely won’t see matched again. It’s all about the Stanley Cup, but this has certainly been a nice way to spend the long, dark, cold winter days of January. Let’s hope the Oilers can keep things rolling against Vegas so that they can have an opportunity at immortality come Friday in Anaheim.
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