Well as of today, we aren't even in the playoffs. So if not now, then when?
There is good news though. We all knew that the first 35 or so games of the season were going to be very tough. I made a thread before the season began basically laying out this exact argument and telling people not to panic if we are out of the playoffs by mid-December. Check out these rankings as well for more on this:
NHL Strength of Schedule Rankings. Basically we have played the 3rd hardest schedule in the league so far, and have the 2nd easiest schedule the rest of the way. Here is another site that uses pure win% for its rankings (
NHL Western Conference Strength of Schedule) we have the 4 hardest so far in western conference, and the 4th easiest the rest of the way. Just showing the same thing, but using a different metric.
This really is true. Just look at the aggregate record of our opponents so far: 191-133-35, for a .581 winning % and a 95 point season pace. To make this even easier, we have played 19 games. Of those 19 we have played teams in the top 10 7 times and teams in the bottom 10 only 4 times. We have, by far, the worst division as well. With San Jose, Vancouver and Anaheim all in the bottom 10. We have played those 3 teams in our own division a grand total of 1 time so far this year. Things don't really start getting better from the schedule until early December either (3 of next 4 against top 20 teams).
We need to tread water for the next 4-5 games here, and then hopefully can go on a bit more of a run for the remainder of the season. We play a lot of teams that are expected to be out of the playoffs after trade deadline, so they will likely be selling off players and be even weaker. I expect the Oilers to have a very good last 25-30 games this year. 9 of our last 20 games are against teams that should be well out of the playoffs by that point, and 5 of the remaining 11 are against teams that are likely bubble teams.
TL/DR: Our schedule has SUCKED so far, but it will suck a lot less later in the year, and that is where we need to make hay if we want to make the playoffs.