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30 goals better this season means five more wins, or 10 more points. That's enough for a tie for 13th, but assuming the distribution of the teams surrendering those 10 points aligns with conference standings, it should be enough for 12th. But is Ryan right? Is he too pessimistic? For that we turn to the wisdom of crowds.
Ceteris paribus, how will the Western Conference finish?
The results are in:
| Rank | Team |
| 1 | Chicago Blackhawks |
| 2 | St. Louis Blues |
| 3 | Los Angeles Kings |
| 4 | Anaheim Ducks |
| 5 | San Jose Sharks |
| 6 | Dallas Stars |
| 7 | Minnesota Wild |
| 8 | Colorado Avalanche |
| 9 | Edmonton Oilers |
| 10 | Vancouver Canucks |
| 11 | Arizona Coyotes |
| 12 | Nashville Predators |
| 13 | Winnipeg Jets |
| 14 | Calgary Flames |
462 responses later and the fans have the Oilers finishing 9th in the Western Conference. The jump from 14th in 2013-14 to 9th in 2014-15 is akin to a goal differential improvement of +66 and 11 additional wins.
The Oilers most common ranking was 10th, with 118 responses:
| Mode | Team | Count |
| 1 | Chicago Blackhawks | 192 |
| 1 | St. Louis Blues | 116 |
| 2 | Anaheim Ducks | 93 |
| 3 | Los Angeles Kings | 99 |
| 5 | San Jose Sharks | 116 |
| 6 | Dallas Stars | 132 |
| 7 | Minnesota Wild | 133 |
| 9 | Colorado Avalanche | 97 |
| 9 | Vancouver Canucks | 84 |
| 10 | Edmonton Oilers | 118 |
| 11 | Arizona Coyotes | 103 |
| 12 | Nashville Predators | 104 |
| 13 | Winnipeg Jets | 160 |
| 14 | Calgary Flames | 343 |
However, only Minnesota and Colorado received more 8th place votes than Edmonton. In fact, 56% of respondents ranked Edmonton either 8th, 9th, or 10th.
23% of responses placed the Oilers inside of the top 8.