Did the Edmonton Oilers peak back on Jan. 23 when they beat the Vancouver Canucks 6-2? That was the last time they truly dominated a team this season and since then the Oilers have been a classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde team. Case in point their last two games: the 5-4 victory over the third-best team in the NHL Dallas Stars on March 8 and the 3-2 loss to the third-worst team, the Buffalo Sabres on March 10.
Related: 4 Takeaways From Oilers’ 3-2 Loss to Sabres
These two games represent a bit of a microcosm of this team lately. They looked like world beaters in the first two periods against the Stars on Mar. 8 taking a 5-1 lead into the third period only to see them barely hang on for victory. And then against the Sabres, they carried all the bad habits from the third period of the Dallas game into Buffalo where they just didn’t seem to have it against a team that came in losers of six in a row. Maybe all the critics who came out after the 2025 Trade Deadline are right and the Oilers just don’t have what it takes to win the Stanley Cup this season.
Oilers Have Just Over One Month to Get Things Going
There’s definitely something amiss with the Oilers at the moment, and they’re a team that’s either going to go all the way and win the Stanley Cup or be an easy out in the first round of the playoffs. It’s hard to tell which team is going to show up. Having newly-acquired forward Trent Frederic in the lineup could help as he will supply more grit and speed, and a healthy and productive Evander Kane, who could be available once the playoffs start, would provide a big boost if he returns to the form he showed before his wrist injury in on Nov. 8, 2022. That’s a big IF at the moment.
The Oilers sorely need someone not named Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl to step up and start scoring on a regular basis. Hello Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Viktor Arvidsson. I would add Jeff Skinner to this list, but for some reason, he’s been healthy scratched by Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch too many games recently. In fact, the way Skinner played against Buffalo, I would consider taking another veteran like Mattias Janmark out of the lineup for a game or two.
Is There More to the Oilers’ Inconsistent Play Than Meets the Eye?
I’m not going to go down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole and put on a tinfoil hat to try to figure out what’s up with the Oilers lately. Even those media members closest to the team such as 880 CHED’s Bob Stauffer, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug, the Edmonton Journal’s Robert Tychkowski, or Sportsnet’s Mark Spector seem to have more questions than answers. Has the team tuned out Knobluach, or is this roster just old and slow now since all the roster moves from the past summer? Could the Oilers possibly be physically and emotionally on empty from last season’s spectacular but draining march to Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Final? It could be all of the above.
After playing five good periods of hockey in their previous two victories over the Montreal Canadiens on March 6 and Dallas on March 8 it’s almost unforgivable that they would go in and lose to the Sabres — the worst team in the Eastern Conference — on March 10. Performances like the one in Buffalo cause more questions from fans and the media, and the only ones who can make the naysayers go away are the Oilers themselves. They better figure things out sooner rather than later because if they treat this current four-game eastern U.S. road trip like their previous southeastern-U.S. road trip where they lost four of five, they’re going to be in a heap of trouble.
