The Edmonton Oilers made the playoffs over the last three seasons, and going into the 2022-23 campaign there’s no reason to expect they will deviate from that trend.
After retaining most of their roster from the previous campaign, they continue to be one of the league’s top contenders, and one that is likely to attract attention from fans of NHL betting this year.
While there have been some frustrations early this year, 20 games in, team captain Connor McDavid was leading the team in points with 16 goals and 19 assists. Leon Draisaitl wasn’t far behind with 11 goals and 20 assists. The Oilers are also getting steady contributions from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, and Evander Kane.
Edmonton also have dependable defensemen in Darnell Nurse, Evan Bouchard, and Tyson Barrie. Ryan McLeod, Derek Ryan, and Warren Foegele have scored multiple goals for Edmonton. Cody Ceci has the highest plus/minus at seven. In terms of goaltending, Stuart Skinner has been a revelation with a 92.1 save percentage and 2.78 goals against per game average in ten games.
The Oilers reached the 2021-22 Western Conference Finals but lost via a sweep to eventual Stanley Cup Champions the Colorado Avalanche. It was a disappointing end to a season with 49 wins and their third consecutive season finishing second in the division.
The team has made the playoffs for the last three seasons, and will be looking to make it four in a row this year. However, Edmonton didn’t start 2022-23 with quite the same vigor that they displayed in the previous year, sitting at 10-10-0 after the first 25 games.
Still, the past few seasons have been better for the Oilers than recent history when the team failed to make the playoffs ten years in a row from 2007 after losing the Stanley Cup Final in 2006.
The Oilers franchise was founded in 1971 as the Alberta Oilers. They joined the World Hockey Association a year later and moved to Edmonton in 1973. They entered the NHL in 1979 and won five Stanley Cups from 1983 to 1990.
Since then, they’ve only been to the championship round once but lost Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals to the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Oilers also have seven conference championships, two Presidents’ Trophies, and seven division championships.
The team plays their home games at Rogers Place, which was opened in September 2016. It can accommodate up to 18,500 people for a hockey game, and they share the venue with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League. A mixed-use sports and entertainment area called Iced District was built around it.
Rogers Place is also one of the two hubs chosen during the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Oilers fans are proud of their squad. That’s why they pack the seats in every home game, making it a loud place that often works to their team’s advantage.
The Oilers have rivalries with other Canada-based teams like the Vancouver Canucks and the Winnipeg Jets. They also had a feud with the Los Angeles Kings, as proven by their 180 hockey fights.
But the Calgary Flames are their most bitter rivals, with faceoffs between the teams dubbed the “Battle of Alberta”. The rivalry peaked in the middle to late 1980s, wherein the Oilers won five Stanley Cups while the Flames had one.
The Oilers hold a 23-12 edge in their postseason matchups, while the Flames lead the all-time series, 140–127–18–6. While the rivalry isn’t as marquee as before, the Oilers and the Flames continue to have heated battles in recent years.
