Division title? Oilers don’t need no stinkin’ division title.
By Phil Gretzky
The Oilers fought until the bitter end but in the end, Seattle didn’t beat Vegas in the last game of the regular season so the Oilers didn’t snatch the division title away from Vegas.
But the million-dollar question to that is this:
Who cares?
Some inept Flames fan the other day on Facebook posted the fact that during Brad Treliving’s reign as GM, the Flames and Vegas have alternated winning the Pacific division title…..and yet neither team has gone on to win the Stanley Cup so without winning the last game of the season, what difference does it make? Are players and fans of the team going to look back with nostalgia at those seasons 10 or 20 years from now and say “Remember that year we won the division title?” No, but they would do that if the team won the Cup.
Darryl Sutter may be an outdated dinosaur of a head coach but he’s right about one thing – and I quote – “Regular season doesn’t mean screw all to me.” Nor to me either, Darryl. Nor to me, either.
The Oilers have finished second in the division and will once again face LA in the first round. This wasn’t the preferred opponent – I think we all would’ve rather faced the weaker Seattle franchise in the first round or a chance to get revenge against Winnipeg, but it is what it is so we’ll have to get past LA again. They’re looking even stronger going into the playoffs having traded away Quick and acquiring Gavrikov and Korposalo, but so do the Oilers after trading for Ekholm and Bjugstad.
But I digress.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand – why doesn’t the division title matter? Simply put, it’s not an indication of playoff performance whatsoever.
We don’t have to look further than our own team to see that. Let’s take a look at regular seasons throughout NHL history and look at the facts:
1983 – The Oilers win the division but go on to lose the Cup final to the New York Islanders.
1984 – The Oilers win the President’s trophy, the division, and their first Cup.
1985 – The Oilers win the division and the Cup.
1986 – The Oilers win the division but get knocked out of the playoffs in the second round by the Flames who would go on to lose the Cup finals to the Patrick Roy-led Montreal Canadiens.
1987 – The Oilers once again win the division and the Cup.
1988 – The Oilers lose the division title to Calgary and finish second in the division, but go on to win the Cup.
1989 – The Oilers finish third in the division (Calgary would take the division title) and are knocked out in the first round by LA in seven games. Calgary would go on to win their first Cup against the same Canadiens they lost to in ’86.
1990 – The Oilers finish second in the division and once again Calgary would take the division title, but the Oilers would win their fifth cup in seven years.
1991 – The Oilers finish third in the division as LA goes on to win the division title. Calgary finishes second and would have home-ice advantage but the Oilers beat Calgary in the first round and get knocked out by LA in the second round. Pittsburgh wins their first of two straight Cups in the Lemieux-Jagr era.
But those were the dynasty years, you say, where most of the league made the playoffs, and that would never happen in the modern era? OK, challenge accepted. Let’s look at the past six years of playoffs.
2017 – Pittsburgh wins the Cup while finishing second in the Metro division. Washington wins the division but Pittsburgh would defeat them in the second round.
2018 – Washington wins the Metro division and wins their one and only Cup in the Ovechkin era.
2019 – St. Louis goes on to win their one and only cup while finishing third in the division. Nashville wins the division but they get knocked out in the first round by Dallas.
2020 – Tampa Bay finishes second in the Atlantic division and goes on to win the Cup. Boston wins the division but TB knocks them out in the second round.
2021 – Tampa Bay finishes third in the temporarily rejigged covid-era divisions but go on to win their second straight Cup. Carolina wins the “Discover Central” division but Tampa beats them in the second round.
2022 – Colorado wins the Central division and the Cup.
So you see, Darryl Sutter is right, the regular season really does mean screw all. The 80s dynasty Oilers won the division and the Cup in 1984, 1985, and 1987. But they also won the division but not the Cup in 1983 and 1986. They won the Cup but not the division in 1988 and 1990. Even in the modern era only twice has the team that won their division won the Cup, and in some cases, the team that finishes third in the division wins the Cup.
Going into these playoffs the Oilers will have home-ice advantage in the first round and that’s what’s important. Losing the division title is completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Just because you have success in the regular season doesn’t mean you’ll have success in the playoffs.