What comes next for the Edmonton Oilers is still anyone’s guess

Stuart Skinner #74, Edmonton Oilers (Photo by Codie McLachlan/Getty Images)
Stuart Skinner #74, Edmonton Oilers (Photo by Codie McLachlan/Getty Images)

The Edmonton Oilers have had four games postponed until a later date at this time. The NHL has seen their league get hit with a lot of COVID-related illnesses and now their season is on pause. What was supposed to be an extended Christmas pause for the holidays has gotten a little longer with a few more postponements yesterday and today, chances are those types of announcements will get more frequent.

The Oilers are in a different boat than a lot of teams. As a Canadian team, crossing the border to play a good chunk of the schedule is not as easy as it was a month ago. Whether or not the schedule is going to get played completely is still anyone’s guess.

The fact that the league is no longer going to the Olympics does give them some time to make things up, but that comes at the price of missing out on another chance at watching Connor McDavid win gold with Canada.

The Edmonton Oilers roster has seen some players miss time with COVID this season and that happened again on Sunday.

COVID is going to affect the roster for a while, as the team announced yesterday that Zack Kassian was placed on COVID protocol while Philip Broberg and Dmitri Samorukov have both been recalled from the Condors.

The NHL is bringing back the Taxi Squad now through the All-Star break, as a helping tool for teams to have enough players to ice a full lineup every night. This squad is not supposed to be used to move salary in and out of the lineup but we will see if any teams try and take advantage of the new situation.

Right no the Oilers’ next game is scheduled for December 29th against the St. Louis Blues in St. Louis. Whether or not that game is going to get played is anyone’s guess. Hopefully, the team will be back in action considering they haven’t played since December 18th.