Jun 6, 2022; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Edmonton Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft reacts during the third period against the Colorado Avalanche in game four of the Western Conference Final of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Walter Tychnowicz-USA TODAY Sports
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Darryl Sutter may be an outdated dinosaur of a head coach but he’s right about one thing – and I quote – “Regular season doesn’t mean screw all to me.”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.
Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports /
Campbell finished off the regular season strong with a pair of wins against the bottom-dwelling Ducks, allowing but a single goal against in those two games picking up his only shutout of the season in the process.
Campbell was the one player struggling at the end of the season so it’s great to see him exorcising his demons, albeit against one of the weakest teams in the league. I have to believe that this doesn’t change the Oiler’s plans for the playoffs, Skinner will still be the starter as he’s proved he’ll perform better against stronger competition, but it’s great to have Campbell have his confidence back as you just never know when the Oilers will need him in the playoffs.
In the modern NHL you need two strong options in net, especially come playoff time. I believe the Oilers have that now despite the fact that Skinner has no previous playoff experience. Rookies can come in and you never know what they will do – in fact, there was an article in the Journal about this very fact just yesterday.
I’ve given Campbell crap when he was struggling, so it’s only right to acknowledge when he’s doing well.
Still, I have to think his maddening inconsistency has given Holland and Woodcroft some fits this season. I have to wonder whether Holland explores trading Campbell to one of two rebuilding teams, to St. Louis for bad boy Jordan Binnington or to Nashville for Jusse Saros where his talents are currently being wasted. Before poo-pooing the former suggestion, remember that Evander Kane came to the Oilers with a bad boy reputation, and look at how he’s done as an Oiler.
Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports /
Remember this guy? He was traded to the Oilers in the Chris Pronger trade in the 2006 offseason and was a stay-at-home defenceman for the Oilers for eight seasons before being part of a rare trade between the Oilers and Flames for Roman Horak and Laurent Broissoit. The funny thing about that one is that was right around the time when Smid’s injury problems intensified and he only played 109 games over three seasons for the Flames, which adds an element of comic relief about the trade to me because the Flames essentially bought him right when he became a broken toy. It’s almost like the GM of the day Craig Mactavish planted a trojan horse on the roster of our rivals to the south.
After injuries caught up to Smid, he went back home to Czechia to play in the Czech pro leagues before retiring in 2021-22.
I also recently listened to this podcast where Smid revealed that in retirement he is in fact an Oilers fan and not a Flames fan (good man) and routinely chirps his Flames fan friends on Twitter (more applause for this man).
I always find it interesting to see what ex-NHL players are doing in retirement as this is the greatest challenge for most of them after NHL time is done – seeing as how you might be 40 years old when your career is done, you’ve still got at least 10 good years at absolutely minimum left before your body starts to shut down, so the question then becomes what do you do in the meantime? You need something to do so you don’t go stir crazy, and some guys still get involved in hockey somehow, others maybe not so much.
Ex-Oiler Theo Peckham founded a hockey school and became a firefighter in Ontario, as one example. Some guys like Derek Boogaard see unfortunate ends. However, his premature death was one of many examples that started the NHL on the path to fewer concussions and brain injuries for the modern player by taking the more extreme violence out of the game.
Grant Fuhr is a goaltending coach for the Phoenix Coyotes, and Bill Ranford holds the same position with the LA Kings. Ranford already has his name on the Cup as a player and coach, as he has held this position with the Kings since 2006, so he was the goalie coach for LA when they won their Cups in 2012 and 2014. He was previously Fuhr’s backup in ’88 and the starter in 1990 when the Oilers won their last two Cups (with maybe one more this season?).
