No one will deny the Edmonton Oilers are one of the very best teams in the NHL. Led by the best player in the game and another in the top 5-10, the list of achievements is impressive and continues to grow.
Think back to the 2022-23 season, when the Oilers led the league in scoring and also set a new NHL record for power play efficiency. Then this past season, they went on a 16-game winning streak which fell just short of the all-time record of 17 straight by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
This success extends to individual achievements, with Connor McDavid of course leading the way. In 2022-23 he had what was called 'the season of the century', as he took home four trophies, and this past season saw he set a playoff record with 34 assists in a single postseason.
Unfortunately for McDavid, his success does include one individual accolade he would have rather avoided. This past season saw he become just the second non-goaltender (and sixth player overall), to win the Conn Smythe Trophy while also losing the Stanley Cup Final.
Oilers on the verge of unwanted history
The reason we bring this up, is because the Oilers as a whole will want to avoid setting one piece of NHL history this coming season. Giving due credit to Bill Tran of The Oil Rig, it's a record which the teams and fans alike truly want no part of.
When the Oilers lost to the Florida Panthers in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last season, it marked three consecutive years they'd been knocked out by the eventual champions. They lost 4-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2022-23 and a year earlier were swept 4-0 by the Colorado Avalanche.
Fortunately for the Oilers and their fans, as things stand they're not alone. As per Tran, five other NHL teams have lost three consecutive years to the eventual Stanley Cup champions.
Joining in with the misery
Those five teams are the New York Rangers (1981-83), Boston Bruins (1990-92), St. Louis Blues (1997-99), Philadelphia Flyers (2009-11) and Vancouver Canucks (2010-12). The Blues and Bruins are especially unlucky, having lost five out of six seasons and four out of five seasons respectively, to the eventual champions.
However, none have gone four consecutive seasons of losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champions ... yet. This is the potential fate awaiting the Oilers, if things go terribly wrong for them in 2024-25.
Of course there is one simple way for the Oilers to avoid this unwanted piece of history - go out and win the whole damn thing! Certainly it's more than achievable, as proven by the Panthers themselves, who won it all one year after losing 4-1 to the Golden Knights, albeit at the expense of the Oilers.
No one is saying it's going to be easy of course, but the Oilers have the talent now combined with the relevant experience, to finally bring the Stanley Cup back home. Not that it's needed, but just in case, they can always use the potential piece of unwanted history as extra motivation.