A Franchise of Futility?
Feeling pretty bummed about this season so far, as most Oilers fans. The silver lining? Perhaps the “dive for five”, the “fall for 
hall”, ect. Yeah, yeah sure. I’m in agreement that it’s time once and for all for a true rebuild. But we’ve got the rest of the season to dwell on that. For now, I wanted to point some statistics I’ve been digging up about our Oilers and how bad it’s been for way to long now.
5th longest current playoff drought in the NHL: Only the Panthers (8), Kings (6), Coyotes (6), and Leafs (4) have longer streaks that the Oilers (3). And after this season, there is a good chance the Yotes and Kings will end their streaks, maybe even the Panthers. The Oilers have not played a playoff game since the Ryan Smyth trade. Missing the playoffs in the 09/10 season would also tie the franchise record (1993,1994,1995,1996) of 4 straight season missing the playoffs.
21 seasons since we last won our division: We can take some comfort in the fact that we have won 2 Stanley cups (1988, 1990) since our last division win (1986-87) and made it to the finals (2006) once more. However the Oilers have never won their division without Wayne Gretzky. Since the Oilers last won their division the Canucks have won it 5 times, the Flames 6 times, the Avalanche 8 (since 1995-1996), and even the Wild have won it once (since 2000-2001).
9 post season since the last cup: Since their last cup in 1989-1990 (18 seasons) the Oilers have made the post season only 9 times. During the same span the Canucks have made the post season 12 times, the Avalanche 11 times (since 1995-1996), and the Flames also only 9 times.
9 playoff series wins since last cup: A stat that isn’t all that bad in comparison to the rest of the division but still pretty grim. Over the past 18 seasons the Oilers have won a total of 9 playoff rounds. The Canucks have also won 9, while the Avalanche have 17 (since 1995-1996). Looking at the Flames lack of Playoff success does make me smile, they have only won 3 rounds, all in the same year.
Well, now that I feel like death, maybe we can start looking towards the future. What to do with the rest of the season, the trading deadline, the draft, ect. Lots to ponder, and another long summer to look forward to. Go Hawks!