However, seeing the record of 5-8 through November doesn’t seem quite as bad. The issue is, there are becoming so many OT and SO games, so everyone is getting points in the NHL (for reference, just look at the Eastern Conference).

As we know in Oilersnation, teams that did well last year have scuffled to begin 2025-26. Florida is languishing at the bottom of the east, too. The President’s Trophy winners a year ago at this time had an 18-8 record in 2024 — heading into tonight’s tilt it’s 14-12-1.

This week

When the Hart Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck is out, the guy who starts as many games in goal as anyone in the NHL, it’s a massive hole. He just had arthroscopic knee surgery on Nov. 22 and there’s no set timeline for his return yet. With Eric Comrie and Thomas Milic filling in, they’ve gone 3-5.

Head coach Scott Arniel seemed particularly frustrated by the team’s rush defence on Tuesday, a 5-1 blowout loss to Buffalo, with a lengthy team chat in the dressing room afterwards.

“It’s pretty disappointing, that effort,” he said.

Then Wednesday vs Montreal, better, a point, but a 3-2 loss in the shootout.

“That’s the blueprint that we need to look at, and if we do that, we’ll get wins,” Scheifele said. “Hopefully, we can build on that game.”

On Friday, they got another whack at Buffalo: This time victorious 4-1, setting up a back-to-back spot with Edmonton tonight.

“Some of the things that maybe I’ve talked about in the past that weren’t up to speed, I thought tonight as a whole we did a better job,” Arniel said.

Depth issues

The big boys are scoring like normal, but the depth is ice cold. That reversed in large part Friday, with fourth-liners Tanner Pearson and Cole Koepke lighting the lamp.

Cole Perfetti has struggled to find his game offensively after a late start to the season: 2-2–4 in his last 13 games played heading into Friday. He scored one and added an assist.

Newly acquired free agent Gustav Nyquist is goalless in 21 games. Adam Lowry has never scored more than 36 points in a season, but has three only right now.

It seems like WPG misses the top-six presence of Nikolaj Ehlers in terms of being a top-flight team.

Another element that most don’t want to say out loud: Jonathan Toews has struggled. He’s in an ugly rut of being scored against when he’s on the ice, sitting -12 on the year.

Winnipeg will be interesting to follow if they remain a bubble team.

Road stretch

Similar to Edmonton, the Jets have played length stretches on the road. A 6-game roadie in mid-November, then a grueling 5-gamer that wrapped up on Wednesday in Montreal.

This is just a one-and-done to Alberta for the Jets, who return to friendly confines for four in a row next week.

Notes

Mark Scheifele has seven points (three goals, four assists) during a six-game streak. Wednesday clinched his 30th career point streak of at least five games, passing Blake Wheeler for the most such streaks in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers franchise history. This year: 14-21–35 for the Jets team lead in scoring.
He also became the Jets/Thrashers all-time leader in games played in November, and franchise leader in points in October, surpassing Blake Wheeler.
Kyle Connor extended his goal streak to four games. On the year: 15-19–34. He signed a massive extension, 8-year, $96 million, in October.
Connor recorded his sixth career goal streak of at least four games to tie Scheifele for the second most in franchise history. Iyla Kovalchuk did that 17 times.
As you can gather, this is a top-heavy offensive group. Gabe Vilardi has been a wonderful addition, coming from the Kings in the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade. After a career high season of 61 points, he is nearly a point-per-game, 12-12–24 in 27GP this year.
Josh Morrissey will likely be the only player selected for Team Canada for Milan-Cortina. Here was teammate Dylan DeMelo in the Winnipeg Sun: “He is absolutely a lock…he is on that team, but he won’t say it…He is humble that way.”
The Jets wasted no time and flew to Edmonton right after the game.
“We were joking that the road trip is still going, type of thing. That’s the way you’ve got to look at it. Go to Edmonton and get the job done.” – Tanner Pearson.
The Oilers went 1-1-1 in the season-series vs the Jets last go-round, losing both home games, including last year’s home opener in a blowout.
The Oilers are 1-2-2 in their last five home games vs WPG.
Puck drop is set for 8 PM.

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