Former NHLer makes a stunning prediction about the Oilers for upcoming season

The standings say they were two points away already last season.

Demers made the prediction this week, and it spread quickly through Oilers circles.

Edmonton finished 41-30-11 for 93 points, second behind the Vegas Golden Knights at 39-26-17 and 95 points.

Read those records again.

Edmonton won more games than Vegas, 41 to 39, and won more of them in regulation, 32 to 30.

Edmonton also scored 282 goals, sixth-most in the NHL per Hockey-Reference. This was not a team held back by a lack of firepower.

Vegas collected 17 overtime and shootout losses. Edmonton collected 11.

That six-point cushion of loser points is the entire margin, and then some.

The Anaheim Ducks make it clearer. Anaheim led the division with 43 wins and finished third at 92 points, undone by just six overtime losses.

The Pacific Division title went to the team that was best at losing slowly.

Babcock was hired June 23 to replace Kris Knoblauch, who was fired after the first-round exit against Anaheim.

His mandate is playoff hockey, and general manager Stan Bowman has said publicly the club is not treating Connor McDavid's timeline as a countdown.

But the division banner is a different problem than the playoff one.

Edmonton's drought reaches back to 1986-87, the longest active division drought in the four major North American leagues.

Breaking it may not require a better team. It may require a team that plays more three-point games.

That is an uncomfortable thing to coach toward, and nobody in Edmonton is going to say it out loud.

Demers may end up right for a reason he never mentioned.

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