Oilers lose again but maintain spot in weak Pacific Division

EDMONTON — Welcome to the Pathetic Division.

Out here, losses grow on trees, and playoff berths fall from the sky.

Out here, it’s Oprah country: You get a first-round series! And you get a first-round series!

“It’s a bit of a pillow fight right now,” admitted Oilers captain Connor McDavid, on a night where six Pacific teams played and six Pacific teams lost in regulation.

“We’re fortunate to play in this division. A lot of teams are fortunate to play in this division,” McDavid said. “We’re thankful not to have lost any ground. That being said we have to find a way to win some games here on the road. We have to make up some ground.”

As the Oilers fell to a Florida team for the second straight game on home ice, this time a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, they looked at the standings to see that they hadn’t lost any ground to anybody on another Softball Saturday night in the Pacific.

The same thing happened two nights before, if you can believe it.

“We’re very fortunate. The teams that we’re battling with are losing,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “These last two nights in a row that we’ve lost, everyone else we’re battling with are not gaining any ground on us.

“We’ve got a lot of games against those teams, so we’re going to need to win those games. But, it’s nice that we lost a game on our schedule and we didn’t lose any ground. Certainly, it was a good opportunity for us to win and really move ahead.”

Every Pacific team that played Saturday lost in regulation: Vegas lost 4-1 in Nashville, L.A. lost 4-1 at home to Buffalo, San Jose lost by the same score at home to Philadelphia, Seattle dropped a 5-2 decision in Columbus and Vancouver lost 3-1 at home to St. Louis.

Then Edmonton got bested by the Lightning, yet held tight to second place in the Division despite a two-game losing streak.

Six Pacific teams played games on Thursday. Three of them were shut out that night, while the six teams combined for six goals — three by the Kings and two by the NHL’s last place team, the Vancouver Canucks. Together, they earned one measly loser point out of a possible 12.

It is a cyclical phenomenon, and while the Pacific is rightly targeted for being “a pillow fight” this year, other Divisions take their turn.

The Atlantic Division has been home to four separate rebuilds among its eight teams over the past decade, though their top teams — Florida, Tampa and Boston — have all helped to prop up the division.

The Metropolitan’s Carolina Hurricanes have been a great regular-season team, but they play in a division that houses a wholly average group in recent years. Neither very good nor very bad, the best teams in the Atlantic have held sway in the East for some time.

Few, however, have been as bad a collection as the Pacific in 2025-26, where the first-place Anaheim Ducks’ 80 points would have them four points and three teams removed from a wild-card spot out East.

Edmonton, it seems, just doesn’t beat many of the NHL’s top teams anymore. On Saturday against Tampa, their top unit got caved in by the Lightning’s top group in a mismatch that decided the game.

Edmonton’s top unit of McDavid, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm combined to go minus-14. Edmonton’s top line had a 26 per cent shot share on a night where Nikita Kucherov danced his way to another four points.

“They have a great system, they’re perfectly coached. They all know what they’re doing all over the ice. They’re a great team,” complimented McDavid, whose team hung in there but just couldn’t handle the Lightning.

McDavid’s praise for his Olympic coach Jon Cooper was effusive.

“They’re extremely well coached, they’re extremely well organized,” he said. “They’re very rehearsed in everything they do. It’s very impressive. And when you do break them down they have a heck of a goalie to backstop them.”

With 11 games to play, Edmonton is fine as far as a playoff berth goes.

Their game, however, is still a work in progress.