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Oilers home performances need to improve for legitimate playoff push
Edmonton Oilers Mattias Ekholm
Photo credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
Michael Menzies
Mar 27, 2026, 20:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 27, 2026, 20:05 EDT
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Keeping in mind the quality of opponent, quality of play, and the context of the game, what do you think is the best Edmonton Oilers home win of the season? 
Take a minute to think about it. 
It’s easy to figure out the big home-ice disappointments. It’s not so easy to figure out the big wins, is it? 
The Oilers have a pedestrian home record of 18-13-4, slightly below average across the league, and well below their team totals of the past four seasons. It mirrors their overall positional record in the league as of Friday at 17th overall. Wins for the Oilers, in general, are down.  
Home records: 
  • 2024-25: 25-13-3
  • 2023-24: 28-9-4 
  • 2022-23: 23-12-6
  • 2021-22: 28-12-1 
With six of their remaining nine games at Rogers Place, the Oilers’ home performances must improve for the team to gain confidence as a legitimate threat in the playoffs. 
Since January 1, the Oilers are 8-9-1 at home. They are getting behind early in games or squandering leads. The path to victory at home is largely marked by heroic and, many times, thrilling comebacks.
Only once in their last 13 home games have they never trailed at home, the victory against Nashville on March 15 where Leon Draisaitl was lost to injury. 
In the 18 home games in 2026, the Oilers have never trailed just twice. In comparison, in the 17 home games in the 2025 side of the season, the Oilers never trailed in eight of those contests, including five times in the month of December alone.  
That’s what being a dominant home team is all about. Get the lead, never give it up. 

There is a path

To the Oilers’ credit, since the Olympic break, slowly but surely, they’re trending toward a lower-event, structured defensive game they can lean upon – ignoring the games they were emotionally detached or flat. 
The March road wins in Vegas, the shot-blocking clinic in Utah, a sludgy point in St. Louis. The Oilers have only lost once in regulation is six road games this month, beating the league’s best team in Colorado, who’ve only been beaten six times in regulation in their barn.  
Home vs road splits are flipped with the calendar year. The season began with lacklustre road games. Many of us have tried to blot out October and November. 
Now, they’ve gone 8-4-2 in 2026 away from Rogers Place, with signature wins along the way. 
Edmonton can play a structured game. However, the over-passing, lacking urgency version of the team shows up more often at home than on the road.
The Oilers are 3-3 at home in March, but are averaging 3.83 goals against per game, half a goal more than their spotty season-long average of 3.37, which is 28th in the league. 

Divisional record exceptional

Don’t get me wrong, Edmonton has a handful of fun and important wins at home. 
They beat the snot out of Seattle back on December 4 in a 9-4 throttling. They shutout the Blues 5-0 on January 18. A couple of solid and thorough wins against Nashville. Comebacks and theatrics in victories over Columbus, Washington, San Jose, and Ottawa. 
Edmonton has excelled at home in the most crucial of categories to keep the season afloat: against the Pacific Division. They are 7-0-2 against divisional opponents at home.
That’s massive. 
With a four-game homestand beginning Saturday that features three Pacific enemies, especially Anaheim on deck Saturday afternoon, this is a trend that needs to hold to ensure home ice in at least one round. 
Eight different games were mentioned in response to the question of the best Oilers’ home win. The one I had in mind wasn’t any of those eight. 
January 26 vs the Anaheim Ducks, a 7-4 back-and-forth game with Mattias Ekholm and Mikael Granlund duelling hat-tricks, is the Oilers’ best home win of the season. 
Or it’s not top ten. That’s just the type of season it’s been. 
Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and has been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, he also collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.

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