Sorry but this is a much worse world of pain than other bad starts for the Edmonton Oilers

I’m an Oilers optimist, a fan who believes the Oilers can win most games and who has had high hopes every year of the McDavid/Draisaitl era that Edmonton can win the Cup.

But this 2025-26 season is testing me.

We know the Oilers have had slow starts in recent years. Indeed, slow starts have cost two coaches, Dave Tippett and Jay Woodcroft, their jobs, Tippett in the early winter of 2022 after 44 games, and Woodcroft in the fall of 2024 after 13 games.

But at least in those previous seasons, as well as last fall when the Oilers also got off to a poor start, Edmonton had one critical thing in its favour, a positive Grade A shots differential. Unfortunately that key positive indicator no longer is in Edmonton’s favour.

In 2021-22

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