First things first: supporters of the Edmonton Oilers shouldn’t be startled that their team has fallen from the remarkable heights of a 16-game winning streak, which is the second-longest in the 107-year history of the National Hockey League. The team has been in the middle of the pack in February after taking a nine-day midseason break at the end of January. As close as may be obtained in such a sample to “Bettman.500” (currently.553) is their record of 4-3-1 =.563. Break even: 32 goals for, 32 against.
Along the way, the team has joined some elite company: it is one of only three teams to play a whole calendar month without dropping a single point (10 games minimum) and one of just five NHL teams to win at least 15 straight. While the latter is final; there will be no more games in January once it concluded with an 11-0-0 record, the former is still very much a live streak.
The Oilers carried quite a lot of the hard lifting in the longer string in late December. They won their final five games of 2023, two of which they won back-to-back. They also did so on the road. The New York Rangers, who were ranked top in the NHL at the time with a.750 points percentage, were one of their victims. It was the Los Angeles Kings a week later, dominating the Western Conference and ranking third overall with a points percentage of.688 (they haven’t been the same since).
Putting that prologue aside, the remainder of this piece will focus on what makes January the “perfect” month. Eleven matches, eleven triumphs.
It goes without saying that the haters and detractors have been out in full force, mocking how soft
Its regularity is what instantly pops out of the page. There are no games on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays—only the usual Tuesday–Thursday–Saturday schedule, with the exception of Thursday, January 4. For the majority of the games, the Oilers were more rested than their opponent because they had taken at least one day off before the game. Because of the games’ intervals, Edmonton was able to start Stu Skinner, their top goalie, in all but two of them, when backup Calvin Pickard thoroughly outperformed him.
