Poor Edmonton, Nobody Loves Us

It's been a tough week for the Edmonton Oilers. A terrible offside call snuffed out any chance at a last second comeback against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night. Then on Tuesday, The Hockey News released a ranking of the playoff hopes of all seven Canadian teams heading into next season and the Oilers came in at number seven. This morning, with every Canadian team now officially eliminated from the playoffs, SB Nation did the same and they to ranked the Oilers seventh. And now I see that Edmonton is the least preferred destination in the NHL.

Why does nobody love us?

Look at what Matt Larkin had to say about the Oilers in his piece for The Hockey News. Of course every word of this is true, but still, it hurts.

On the bright side, the Oilers have a fairly major excuse for their struggles this season, at least up front: man games lost. McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle, among others, have missed significant time with injuries.

Still, even if all those forwards return and don’t miss a game in 2016-17, offense isn’t really the problem down the road. The additions of Patrick Maroon and Zack Kassian have added a long-missing physical element to the forward corps, too. The Oilers are simply miles behind their competition defensively. Griffin Reinhart has been overmatched when recalled, and Darnell Nurse remains raw. Until the Oilers overhaul their blueline, it’s tough to imagine them playing in the post-season by next year.

Honestly, I just don't get it. We've got a brand new arena opening next season, and the taxpayers spared no expense on that. What more does this league want? It's almost as if, after a decade of failure, that the rest of the league is waiting for the Oilers to actually show some progress, some signs of life, before showing the team some love, but that's crazy so there is no way that that could be true. I really can't figure it out.

Maybe the table below can help.