Why Winning Is Important

Since the end of January, the Edmonton Oilers have been one of the best teams in the NHL in regards to picking up points, right there with Chicago, St. Louis, Boston and Colorado. That’s an honor for the young Oilers, and one that would suggest that the team is heading in the right direction. Now, goaltending is arguably the biggest reason why the team has seen these wins come, but it is still important to see the wins go up.

The Pros:

I know people will say that this is unsustainable, and it likely is, but the Toronto Maple Leafs have literally rode scoring forwards and great goaltending play for a year and a half, and are on their way to their second straight post-season berth, and they nearly knocked off the Boston Bruins last season. It’s not ideal, but if the wins are coming, who really cares….

Winning is a major positive for many reasons. This is a young team that has not seen many wins in their short NHL careers, and a good stretch like this is so important. It gives teams a boost of confidence in their abilities and allows the team to play their game with a little more authority. Edmonton hasn’t played with confidence in what seems like years, and it could be huge if they gain some here.

Feeling good going into the off-season seems so cliche, but it’s honestly the case with this team. Like I’ve said, the Oilers haven’t had much to feel good about in years, but a solid final 30 games of the season would be huge for them. It would prove that the tough start to the season was worth something, and would give the team something to build off of going into training camp in September.

It would be huge for prospective free agents and trade targets as well to see this team starting to win games. I’m not sure if this is the turning point for this hockey club, but some players might take a gamble that it is this summer. The Oilers have fixed goaltending and have some darn good options up front.

A few decent two-way players and defenders could improve this team very quickly, and I’m sure people around the NHL know that. A guy like Matt Niskanen, Andrei Markov or Brooks Orpik might see a solid stretch and be willing to sign on in July. Remember the Hawks had a solid run at the end of 2007-08 season, and it helped them nab some big time free agents that summer.

The Cons:

There are really only two that I can think of. One is that this is all a mirage, and that the Oilers will continue to get out-shot and play like they did against the Blues, Islanders and Kings, basically making this nice run all for nothing. It is possible, and this could all be a giant and brutal tease from the hockey gods. That worries me a little bit.

The other one, I couldn’t care less about it, is the draft. Oilers fans are starting to get worried that this winning is going to ruin the team’s chance for Ekblad. Personally, I do not care where the team picks. If they finish 29th and pick 2nd, then so be it, but I am not on board with tanking and hope this team wins as many games and passes as many teams as possible moving forward.

Sooooo:

Losing sucks, I shouldn’t have to explain that. The Oilers have been losing for far too long, and need to jump out of the basement of the NHL and prove to everyone that their rebuilding plan was the right one (You know my thoughts on that). The team is out of time, and has to get into the dance next season. One way to really help them moving forward is winning games at the end here, and feeling good about the final half season they put together.

Giving themselves something to build on heading to camp next season doesn’t guarantee anything, we know that, but it will certainly get this team feeling much better about themselves, and it certainly will not hurt. Some would rather tank for a pick, but it’s winning time, and winning is so, so important.