Oilers scheduling leads to another critical factor that could hinder the team

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Noel Drolet
July 22, 2024 (9:23)

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Edmonton Oilers have to travel a lot in their next season, which could play a factor in the amount of games won.

The Oilers' season schedule has been released, and most fans are already aware of how terrible it looks. The Oilers have many back-to-back games, with lots of travel. TJStats has released a list of how many miles each team has to travel across the season, and the Oilers schedule continues to look worse and worse.

The Oilers have the fourth most travel of any team in the entire league this year, which is an automatic setback. The Oilers have to travel exactly 50,000 miles this season, only 6,700 behind the leading traveller Dallas Stars.

The upside of this is that the whole Pacific division places 14th or under on the travel list, with only 7,500 miles separating the Oilers and the last team in the Pacific division. This makes it somewhat easier for the Oilers, as their closest competition for playoff spots also have to travel a lot.

In fact, the last 10 teams in the league are all Eastern conference teams. The Western conference teams all have to travel much longer even for their inter divisional games, which is a much better sign for the Oilers.

The Oilers are very familiar with long travel, as this was a huge factor in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Oilers have to travel far to go to many of the Eastern conference teams, making it a much bigger challenge to have time to rest and prepare for games.

Even though it won't be a factor in them losing many games, it is still an annoyance that the team has to deal with. Hockey is a game of so many factors, and this is just another one that stands in the Oilers way heading into next season.