Unless the Oilers go in the toilet over the next 2-3 weeks.
They're not the Cup favorite at this point IMHO.
In the betting odds, they are now barely above Dallas, Rangers, Toronto, Florida. Barely above Carolina, Avs and Devils.
They should have never been the favorites. They lost too much speed, size, confidence of youth and forechecking ability over the summer of 2024. The offer sheets were quite damaging (lets be honest about that now), losing a good 3C for nothing of help
this season was damaging. Losing Foegele was damaging, his play-style is ready made for the playoffs. They lost a big defender that killed penalties. They lost a middle pair vet RHD that killed penalties. Add them all up and they lost a lot of what makes a playoff team hard to play against in the playoffs.
The Oilers never got better this summer. They got worse and that should be quite apparent at this point.
They've also had a long run of luck with injuries that seems to have finally run out. Kane and now McDavid. They'll suffer others as this season goes along. It's really hard to win the Cup. Really hard. And to get that close and not close the deal was a blow. A motivational blow to go from the cusp all the way back to square one. Based on the standings today, the oilers are behind 24 other teams in the standings. They'll have the 8th overall pick in 2025. Humans are humans. It's not easy to put a major disappoint behind you and easily move on.