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The Oilers are playing like they hate the regular season
Edmonton Oilers Philadelphia Flyers Calvin Pickard Bobby Brink
Photo credit: Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images
Michael Menzies
Jan 24, 2026, 09:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 23, 2026, 20:41 EST
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With how the Edmonton Oilers are playing, they believe the regular season is too long. 
It’s tedious. Annoying. Although silent, I’m sure there’s some contempt. 
“We have to play 82 of these damn games?” someone might have said in the dressing room. 
Yes, fellas – 82 of them. Largely, I agree. Regular seasons are loooooong. 
I went to Seinfeld trivia at an Edmonton bar on Thursday night with the Penguins game set to PVR for a little break from the action. My fast-forward button took some abuse afterwards. 
Unfortunately, for this team that has the last and most important step yet to make before reaching hockey glory, the league won’t simulate the games like in NHL 26. There are no shortcuts to ‘Go’ to collect $200. 
Yes, sixty minutes of work is required 82 times before you can sprint for the Stanley Cup. And yes, that’s their ultimate goal. And yes, this regular-season exercise (as privileged a hockey phrase you could muster) is annoying, but it must be done. 
“There are 30 games left. We’re coming down the home stretch here,” said Connor McDavid after the Penguins’ drubbing. “There are no February games this year, so it’s like we’re at the end of February. The sense of urgency’s got to go up. Our group’s playoff race is real tight, and we gotta find a way to get points here, especially at home.”
Even though the Oilers are capable, playing well when it matters is hard to turn on when it’s consistently switched off. 
The roster isn’t as good as previous years, and the ability to coast is not an option – if it ever was one, that is. 
Which makes it even harder to decide: Is this the same old Oilers problem? Or are their flaws greater than in years past?

There isn’t a more beneficial stretch

After all the rigorous travel of October and November, the schedule gives back this eight-game homestand during the clear and definitive time of the year the Edmonton Oilers need to dominate and bank points. 
Last I checked, they don’t have an automatic bye to the playoffs. Instead, we can laugh at how fortuitous it is to play in the lousy Pacific Division. 
Despite going 6-6-2 since the Christmas break, the Oilers are just two points back of the Vegas Golden Knights for first in the division. The Golden Knights have three games in hand and are playing against Toronto as we speak in the vaunted Return Home of Mitch Marner, so that can become four quickly.  
It’s worth noting Edmonton would not be in a playoff spot if they played in the Eastern Conference with a record of 25-19-8. 
That’s what makes this schedule stretch of home games against the mushy middle of the league important. 
It’s downright hilarious that they have tried nine times to win three in a row and haven’t. You have to find the humour, otherwise the sheer frustration would make you batty. 

Meeting the minimum threshold

There are also degrees of losing. There are games the Oilers play well, are the better team on the ice, and lose. Take the game against the Islanders eight days ago. The Oilers dominated and couldn’t score. 
But there’s a batch of games, on home ice, which you can file in the “no-show” category. We haven’t seen a full no-show in a while — the blowout losses to Colorado and Dallas come to mind — as Edmonton has put together at least one good period in recent losses, like the Devils game. 
Looking for an easy game, a night of just a few battles and little hitting, and their patented ring-around-the-rosie with the puck, at least 33 per cent of the time, is a good strategy to never win three in a row.  
It’s not that surprising when the Oilers identity is McDavid and Draisaitl scoring equals a win (half the time), while anything else is a loss, isn’t working wonders from October to January. 
Too many nights this season for a contending team, families have paid $200 and upwards for single tickets, to watch an effort that, if it were happening in your backyard, you’d close the blinds. 
That’s what has made having two of the world’s five best players shockingly frustrating over the years. During our harsh Alberta winters, we don’t see an “elite” team.
They’ve gotten there in our sunny springtime. Along the way, she’s a bumpy road. 

Zig-zag

To edit a phrase from Oilers play-by-play voice Jack Michaels: “The worm turns quickly.” 
Last weekend, the Oilers won a pair of games 11-0, and there were open questions about whether this is one of the greatest goaltending duos the franchise has ever had. Then two games later, the team looks like they’ve never met before in a dumbfounding performance against Pittsburgh. 
They’ve taken “off nights” to a new level.
So let’s be honest, they’re a silly hockey team and have been throughout the decade. The Oilers will zig, then zag their way into the Olympic break, and likely afterwards. 
And because they’re silly, they’ll likely come out like gangbusters against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night. 
Right?…
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.

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