The Edmonton Oilers’ quest to win three games in a row continues.

Edmonton, Nashville, St. Louis, and Seattle are the only teams in the NHL that’ve yet to win three games in a row. Buffalo exited that group last night with a win in Seattle. Edmonton, Nashville and Seattle all lost their most recent games, while the Blues won their last game. This is not a group you want to be part of, and you surely don’t want to be the last one out of the can-only-win-two-in-a-row club.

Last season, the Oilers won three games in a row seven times, four in a row twice and five in a row once for a total of 10 winning streaks of three of more games. If the Oilers want to close the gap on Vegas, Anaheim and Los Angeles in the standings, they will need to find more consistency in their play. Edmonton is 6-3-1 in its last 10 games, which would prorate to a 49-win season. They have played much better of late, but even during this 10-game stretch they’ve been unable to avoid the two steps forward, one step back routine.

They dominated Seattle and Winnipeg and outscored them 15-6 but then laid an egg against Buffalo. They rebounded with solid defensive performances against Detroit and Toronto by outscoring them 10-4, but then last night in Montreal, they gave up four breakaways, and their puck management was terrible. Montreal was also playing the second half of a back-to-back and travelled from New York to Montreal while the Oilers flew in from Toronto. Fatigue wasn’t a factor. The Oilers were just sloppy.

If you could maintain winning two out of three games, you’d be very happy as you’d finish with a .667 win percentage. That isn’t realistic. Right now, only three NHL teams have a win percentage above .600. Colorado at .718, Carolina at .656 and Dallas at .636. It is difficult to win six out of 10 games on a regular basis, and that’s why it can be dangerous when you continue to give games away. The Oilers have shown they can play solid defensively, but they’ve also shown they can moonlight as pastry chefs and create turnovers galore.

Last night, they attempted far too many blind, behind-the-back passes. They either resulted in breakaways or led directly to goals. Look away.

McDavid wasn’t the only culprit. Leon Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm, Evan Bouchard and Trent Frederic also had some ugly giveaways. It was a complete team effort in the giveaway department. There is no reason for them to play so loose or manage the puck that poorly. It isn’t systemic. It is a choice, and when they decide to manage the puck more consistently, their odds of winning three in a row will increase. Until then they will be stuck in their season-long dance of mediocrity.

Minnesota got the best player  in the Quinn Hughes trade with Vancouver this past Friday, but the Canucks did well landing Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren and a first rounder in 2026 for Hughes. Buium (12th in 2024), Ohgren (19th in 2022) and Rossi (ninth in 2020) were all first-round selections. They have different skill sets, but Buium has top pair potential, Rossi is a second line centre, Ohgren a middle six winger, and the Canucks need to make a good selection with the 2026 pick. I like the trade for both sides.

Wild GM Bill Guerin desperately wanted an offensive defenseman. The most points a Wild defender has produced in the salary cap era was 51 from Ryan Suter (2016 and 2018). The Wild have been searching for offence from their backend for a long time. In the last 20 seasons (cap era) the Wild have only had a D-man score 50+ points three times. Suter (2x) and Matt Dumba had 50. Compare that to other teams.

14x: NSH (96), PIT (68)

12x: COL (92), DET (80)

11x: TBL (85), WPG (76)

10x: SJS (101), WSH (75), TOR (72), MTL (66), BOS (59)

9x: OTT (82)

8x: CGY (74), DAL (73)

7x: LAK (67)

6x: VAN (92), CHI (69), UTA/ARI (59), STL (54)

5x:  EDM (82), NYR (74),  BUF (73), FLA (73), ANA (54)

4x: CBJ (82)

3x: NYI (70), PHI (65), VGK (57), MIN (51)

2x: NJD (74), CAR (62)

1x: SEA (64)

The Wild’s 51 points by a defender is the lowest of any franchise in the salary cap era. Hughes will be a massive addition.

Quinn Hutson ranks third in the American Hockey League with 16 goals and he was recalled today by the Oilers. He is expected to play tomorrow in Pittsburgh. The Oilers need more goals from their bottom six. Trent Frederic, Adam Henrique and Andrew Mangiapane have done very little offensively.

I don’t expect Hutson to score 16 goals in 24 games like he has in the AHL, but it won’t be difficult to chip in more than what the current three players have produced. Curtis Lazar, Mattias Janmark and David Tomasek aren’t doing much either.

Hutson should get at least five games to see how he fits in. Jack Roslovic and Kasperi Kapanen will help the scoring depth when they return, but there is no guarantee either will play before Christmas. Roslovic is skating and is recovering after taking a puck to the testicles. He couldn’t walk for a few days. But he’s on the road to recovery and is hopefully he could play before Christmas.

The Oilers always lose to rookie goalies, like they did in Montreal last night. Myth or Reality? It is a myth.

Since the start of 2020-2021 Edmonton is 29-14 against rookie goalies. In the 14 losses the goalie had a Sv% above .910 eight times. The most saves a rookie had against Edmonton was Lukas Dostal (46 of 49), Jesper Wallstedt (33 of 33) and Colten Ellis (31 of 32). The latter two games happened this season, so some people assume rookie goalies stoning the Oilers is the norm. It isn’t.

In fact, no team in the NHL has lost fewer times to rookie goalies than the Oilers since the start of 2020/2021 season. Here are the records of NHL teams v. rookie goalies in that time. (Some of the losses are OT/SO losses, but I just wanted to go wins v. losses. An OTL/SOL is still a loss in my books, plus it would take much longer to track. They are ranked in order of fewest to most losses by division.)

EDM: 29-14        COL: 33-15            CAR: 30-15            TBL: 42-17
VGK: 29-16         WPG: 24-16           NYR: 39-17            TOR: 32-19
VAN: 29-19         NSH: 36-22           NYI: 28-20            FLA: 31-20
SEA: 27-20         DAL: 31-23            PIT: 34-22             OTT: 16-21
CGY: 27-21         MIN: 26-24            NJD: 37-31            BOS: 41-23
LAK: 33-25         STL: 24-24            WSH: 32-31           MTL: 20-25
ANA: 26-35        CHI: 18-35             PHI: 29-32            DET: 20-31
SJS: 23-39          UTA: 27-36*          CBJ: 26-33            BUF: 26-46

* I used ARI and UTA for the Mammoth.

Tampa Bay has the best winning% against rookies at 71.2W%, while the Ranger are second at 69.6W%, while Colorado is third at 68.7W% and Edmonton is fourth at 67.4W%.

Tampa has played a rookie goalie 59 times, the Rangers 56 games, Colorado 48 times and the Oilers 43. Only Ottawa (37 GP) and Winnipeg (40) have faced a rookie goalie less often than Edmonton.

Buffalo has faced a rookie goalie a league-high 72 times followed by New Jersey (68), Boston (64), Washington (63) and UTA/ARI (63).

It is interesting to note Western Conference teams faced a rookie 886 times compared to West teams at 826 times.

Thank you to all who donated in the Pyramid of Giving on Friday. We ended up raising over $16,500 for The Christmas Bureau thanks to Booster Juice matching the $7500 pyramid.

DAY 11: Package #1: A luxury suite for the Oilers game on January 06th v. Nashville.

You can bid via text between 2-6 p.m. on Sports 1440 by texting 833.401.1440 (can call the same number) and include your name and donation amount. All money raised will go to The Christmas Bureau.