LOS ANGELES — There’s only one place where it matters how you were playing in the first half of any National Hockey League season. That is the standings, that emotionless grid that never forgets.
But when you show up to draft your playoff pool, does anybody else care how a team was playing back in October, November, December or January?
Put it this way: Are you drafting any Winnipeg Jets? Or would you prefer a few guys of the Minnesota Wild roster?
The measure of whether a team is ready to win — home-ice advantage be damned — is found in February, March and April, when the league is at its best and busiest. That window — when the hockey is at its fastest, most physical and most playoff-like — is the best replica of what 16 teams will face beginning April 17, when professional sports’ most gruelling tournament begins.
Put that theory to test on an Edmonton Oilers team that has done nothing but win — yet enters Tuesday’s crucial tilt in Los Angeles in third place in the Pacific, two back of Vegas and one behind the Kings — and here’s what you’ll find:
Since Jan. 10 the Oilers have been the best team in the National Hockey League, with a winning percentage of .771. Yep, even better than the mighty Boston Bruins (.770), if only by a tiny, tiny fraction. (And we get it — the Bruins are bored.)
You know who else is right up there? Colorado (.716), Los Angeles (.697), Carolina and the Rangers ( both at .694)…
The point is, Boston is the gold standard where Stanley Cup aspirations are concerned in 2022-23, and the Oilers have been every bit as good in the months that matter. In the back half of the season, where they split a pair of gritty 3-2 games with Boston, Edmonton has been as good or better than any team in the league.
“I don’t think I can pinpoint a moment,” said 50-goal, 120-point man Leon Draisaitl, when asked where it all turned in the right direction for his Oilers. “We’ve all just built our game to where we all know which way we have to – and we want to – play.”
How do you know that Edmonton is figuring some things out?
Well, back-to-back shutouts are a place to start.
When the league’s most potent offensive machine decides to dump-and-chase all night against the Kings, and beats them 2-0, you know you’ve got something.
“We can play any way you want to play,” Draisaitl warned. “If you want to play a fast game, we’ve got lots of great skaters, lots of great puck-movers. If you want to be physical, we’ve got lots of guys who like that part of the game too.
“I don’t think there’s a game that we can’t play.”
Once can be fluke. So we’ll watch closely on Tuesday in their rematch against the Kings.
In a delicious twist, it is in a place called Crypto.com Arena where the Oilers will prove if they are genuine, or if last Thursday was just a scam.
You know which way the Oilers are leaning: “When we need to, we can score,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “And when we need to shut things down and play solid defence, we’re confident in our ability to handle that too.”
Role identification is high in Edmonton.
We are through those months where players are battling for roles, for spots on lines or places on the special team. Now those jobs have been assigned, and for those responsibilities that didn’t look like they would be filled, players like Mattias Ekholm and Nick Bjugstad were acquired.
With five games left — and a huge one Tuesday in L.A. — you couldn’t ask for a team with more chops on the season.
Will Edmonton win as many playoff rounds as they’d like? That’s going to have to play out.
But could they possibly be more confident and prepared than they are at the moment? We can’t imagine how they could.
“These last couple of months,” began head coach Jay Woodcroft, “the race in the Pacific Division makes you better. It’s like competition within a team for ice time. When you have multiple people playing well it pushes you to have your team where it needs to be.
“In the end … we’ll be prepared for a playoff series against any team we play. We’re humble and respectful of all the teams in the National Hockey League, and when the number of teams goes down for 32 to 16, your level of preparation has to go up.”
