#SuckForTkachuk

As the NHL enters the highly controversial All-Star weekend the Edmonton Oilers find themselves in a sweet schedule position to heal up from their ridiculous string of injuries (featuring what seems like a regular rotation of guys too). Two of the key missing players -- Connor McDavid and Oscar Klefbom -- will be back after the break.

The lengthy span between their last game (Saturday's 4-1 home loss to Nashville) and their next game (a home game against Columbus) has also provided Edmonton's long-suffering fans an extra fringe benefit: a lengthy time period in which the team hasn't lost any games.

The psychological benefits to this cannot be understated. As a friend told me last year (she's lived in both Toronto and Vancouver) Edmonton residents rise and fall with the fate of their teams like no other NHL city in which she has resided. If the Canucks won last night there aren't really that many smiles around the boardrooms of Burrard and Georgia. A two-game Leafs losing streak won't mean the CBRE sales reps you meet with are extra ornery. But she reports that from the top of organizations to the bottom, Edmontonians feel the fate of their team and it's imperative that in her business dealings she keeps an eye on the sports page. Whether it's a high-level meeting with a CFO, a routine mid-level meeting, or interactions with front-line workers they are in one mood when the team won, another when the team lost.

Well the Oilers have not been winning very much this season. They're 19-26-5 (in other words, 19 wins and 31 losses) and sitting second-last in the entire league (and 3 of the 5 teams ahead have at least a game in-hand). Between mediocre Oilers performance and the economic ruin that comes from electing Liberal and NDP governments, there isn't much these days to be happy about in Edmonton.

Until the All-Star Break, that is. Here's the list of the longest Oilers lossless streaks so far in 2015-2016: that's periods of time where Oilers fans don't sit glued to their TVs and then shut them off in disgust three hours later.


Since the season opener (a loss) Oilers fans haven't had many days to enjoy the team's most recent win (or, in two cases in our chart, to recover from the previous loss). Also notice the sad number of streaks: of the 19 games the Oilers have won only nine of those games (and 2 streaks) have been 3 or more games in a row. Usually the Oilers win a game only to lose the next games. The schedule hole combined with the All-Star Break gives the Oilers a whopping nine days without a game, which means 9 days without a loss. Were it not for the six-game win streak in early December this would be the longest lossless streak of the season. [The Oilers have been so bad you wouldn't believe how many times Feynman and Coulter's Love Child typed "winless" in this post and I had to correct it... -ed]


Here's the lossless streaks expressed visually. Note too how the Oilers have to win their first four games post-All-Star to set a new season mark: there's a schedule cost to having this many days off.

So enjoy this All-Star weekend, Oilers fans. This might be the happiest (and at least second least saddest) time of the season.