NFL
By: Greg Rector
The Edmonton Oilers need to win two more games, and then they will set the new NHL record for consecutive wins. After dismissing the Nashville Predators 4-1. The Oilers sit at 16 straight wins. Unfortunately, the Edmonton Oilers have to wait until after the NHL All-Star game is played. As a lifelong fan of the Edmonton Oilers, I never saw Wayne Gretzky nor Mark Messier lead the Oilers to this many consecutive wins.
Connor McDavid has been the leader of the Edmonton Oilers with Ryan Nugent Hopkins and Zach Hyman, the top line for the Oilers’ has been on fire since this winning streak started. It’s been a pleasant surprise to see the days when Leon Draisatl is no longer needed to play alongside McDavid.
Edmonton Oilers Recovery
The Edmonton Oilers started this season off to such a horrific start (3 wins 9 losses 1 tie) that they fired their head coach Jay Woodcroft, and replaced him with Kris Knoblauch. Since Knobaluch took over the Edmonton Oilers have been playing at an incredible pace going 26-6 since he took over behind the bench.
The biggest difference for me has been the play of the overall defense and the solid goaltending from Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard who have both been simply magnificent in between the pipes for the Oilers.
As I said earlier in this article I have been an Edmonton Oilers fan since they first started playing hockey in the WHA and I remember when Grant Fuhr won 10 consecutive starts as the goaltender back in 1986. Stuart Skinner has won 12 games in a row while Calvin Pickard has added the other four wins.
Edmonton Oilers Defense
The fact that both goaltenders are playing very well has plenty to do with the defensemen playing in front of Skinner and Pickard. This has been the biggest bane of existence for me and the Edmonton Oilers’ lack of achievement come playoff hockey. In 14 of the games in this 16-game winning streak, the Oilers have either shut out their opponents or given up just one goal.
This type of defense is unheard of in today’s NHL and it brings a smile to this old hockey fan as I remember the great Montreal Canadiens teams in the 1970s who were this good defensively as well as having Guy Lafleur Steve Shutt Jacques Lemaire scoring goals while they may have had the six best defensemen playing together to have ever laced up the skates on the same team.
Now can Evan Bouchard Cody Ceci Vincent Desharnais Mattias Ekholm Darnell Nurse and Brett Kulak continue to play at this level? Highly unlikely, however, since the Oilers face a slumping Las Vegas Golden Knights and then the even worse Anaheim Ducks after the All-Star game this group should be just fine to set the new NHL record for wins.
So I look forward to the night of February 9th and seeing my Edmonton Oilers set the new consecutive games winning streak in NHL history.
Lord Stanley Returns Home?
I can only hope and pray that this season a Canadian team can bring home Lord Stanley’s Cup back to a Canadian city after the last time it was won by a team playing in Canada (1993 Montreal Canadiens) and I am certainly hoping it’s the Edmonton Oilers and not the Vancouver Canucks or the Winnipeg Jets who are both slightly ahead of the Oilers in the standings but the Edmonton Oilers have only played 45 games whereas both Vancouver (49) and Winnipeg (47) games. Of course neither one of those two cities has ever won the Stanley Cup and since the Edmonton Oilers won the Cup the last time in 1990 I need to see another Stanley Cup Parade down Jasper Avenue and ending up at Commonwealth Stadium. I need to cheer for a sixth Stanley Cup for the Oilers since as you all know my beloved Dallas Cowboys are incapable of winning a sixth Super Bowl.
GO OILERS GO!!!
