October 28, 2025 by Dash in the Park

If you’ve been watching the Edmonton Oilers long enough, you know the drill. They start seasons slow. They’re slow after breaks. They look half asleep for chunks of games. They rarely play a full sixty. They need a slap in the face before they start playing like the team people expected in preseason. 

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October has been one of those months again. It has been better than the previous two season starts were, but it certainly hasn’t been great. NOW, November is staring at them, and it is not friendly as they play fourteen games in twenty-nine days. That pace is hard enough. Then consider that ten of those fourteen are on the road. That will make November even harder. If they don’t sort themselves out, this upcoming month could potentially run them ragged to a point of no return.

This roster’s core is oozing top-end talent, no doubt. But talent without consistency is just potential sitting on the bench. Right now, the team once again looks like it’s still waking up. The coach can run the line blender, the systems can be tweaked, but the truth is this schedule will expose every weak habit this roster has in a raw and unforgiving way.

November will be the grinder. It might also be the judge, jury, and executioner for this entire season. Between November 1- 29, the Oilers play ten road games. Seven of them are two time zones away. There’s a stretch of seven games in eleven days that sends the team from the U.S. East Coast down to Florida and back again. The team will be logging almost 20,000 kilometers in November. That’s insane when you consider the team usually averages between 80,000 and 85,000 kilometers in an entire season.

Edmonton leads the entire NHL in total travel distance this year. The second place team, the Seattle Kraken, are set to travel about 71,000 kilometers according to the latest breakdown. By contrast, the team travelling the least in the Western Conference is the Nashville Predators with around 64,000 kilometers projected this season. In the Eastern Conference, the New York Rangers will cover around 62,000 kilometers, and the Toronto Maple Leafs will cover roughly 51,000 kilometers.

The travel coming up isn’t just hard. It messes with the body and mind. Sleep patterns get wrecked, recovery time shrinks, and even pre-game meals can become a puzzle of timing and fatigue. Over time, that kind of chaos bleeds into chemistry. When you’re tired, you grip your stick tighter. You miss passes by inches. You default to old habits instead of systems. And when lines start rotating due to fatigue or nagging injuries, chemistry becomes the first casualty. A line that was clicking on home ice can suddenly look disjointed a week later after bouncing through four different time zones. It’s not a lack of effort… it’s exhaustion. 

Injuries are already a concern. Trent Frederic doesn’t look one hundred percent yet. Kapanen is sidelined after a nasty collision. Zach Hyman is still a question mark while he works through a wrist issue. Jake Walman coming back helps the defense, but depth is depth for a reason. When the schedule goes nuclear, even small absences matter. 

By comparison, December and January are basically a vacation. Each month has eight road games and most of them are in Canada or in nearby time zones. November is the outlier. It’s not just a tough month; November will be the hockey equivalent of running a marathon on skates, in full gear, across North America and four time zones.

If the Oilers don’t get their act together, November could bury them, and history doesn’t do them any favors. In the NHL, teams outside of a playoff position by U.S. Thanksgiving make the postseason less than fifteen percent of the time. It’s not that Edmonton can’t dig out of a slow start — they’ve done it before — but this time, the math is uglier. 

The back half of the season doesn’t exactly roll out the red carpet. March and April pack in several divisional matchups, including two against Vegas and three against Vancouver and Calgary. Those aren’t easy points, especially if the team’s already playing catch-up. The Oilers don’t want to be in a spot where they need a perfect March just to squeak into the final wild-card slot. That’s why November matters more than any stretch they’ve faced early in a season. It’s not about just surviving. It’s about establishing habits that carry through when the schedule lightens up. Tighten up the defensive details. Get the goaltending settled. Manage ice time so the stars don’t burn out before the All-Star break. Protect the core.

For all the chaos November brings, it’s also a chance. A long road trip can build character, unify a locker room, and force accountability. Maybe this group needs exactly that! If they have shown us anything through the slow starts, it’s that the team picks it up when it matters and when their collective backs are against the wall. So, with that said, perhaps a road gauntlet that makes them dig deep and find out who they actually are is exactly what they need. 

If the Oilers can get through November with even a modest winning record, the rest of the schedule looks manageable. If they stumble again though, it’s going to take something close to a miracle down the stretch. Fatigue, injuries, and lost opportunities can add up fast. But if they can respond with urgency and conviction, this could be the month that transforms a sloppy start into a rallying point.

For now though, fans should be nervous and watchful. Will the 2025-‘26 season be yet another challenge that this historic team faces head-on and conquers with a third consecutive berth to the Stanley Cup Finals? Or will another slow start create a hole that is simply too deep to dig out of?