Edmonton Oilers facing major disadvantage with playoff path this season
The Edmonton Oilers are an elite all around team and currently sit on top of the Pacific Division this season, but they still could face an exceptionally tough path back to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Oilers are graded as the most likely team to win the Stanley Cup by most NHL analysts, including one top analytics figure giving them incredible chances of 18% earlier this year - that's now increased to 21%.
NHL analyst highlights Oilers tough projected path through playoffs
Despite leading the Pacific division at the time of the 4 Nations Faceoff break, if the season ended now, the Oilers would have an incredibly difficult path through the playoffs.
Their first round opponent would be the Colorado Avalanche, followed by the winner of the Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings.
That's an incredibly difficult first two rounds, and it may be followed up by playing the NHL's top team in the Winnipeg Jets in the conference final. Then, the Cup Final would be even harder after being worn down through three hard rounds.
Oilers could face brutal playoff path, but still have reason to believe
The Oilers could go through an absolute gauntlet of some of the league's best teams just in the first three rounds of the playoffs, if they could even get by the Avalanche in round one.
Stuart Skinner has struggled mightily against top 10 teams this season, very much so in the team's last game against Colorado. Facing so many elite teams through their playoff path could be hard on Skinner.
Keeping their playoff path in mind though, analytics experts are still assigning the Oilers the best odds to win the Cup this year. They dealt with a similar struggle last year, as their playoff path was ranked the 4th hardest in NHL history.
If any team is skilled and motivated enough to pull off back to back final appearances, it may be this year's Edmonton Oilers.
