With the NHL taking American Thanksgiving, the Hockey Hot Stove staff would like to wish American readers a happy day off.
To the Canadians, well, take care of each other.
As of November 27, the Ottawa Senators are the only Canadian team in a playoff position. Five of those teams are locked and loaded with developed top ten picks and should be contending. Unfortunately, if shoulds and coulds were candies and nuts then we would probably have seen Canada win a Stanley Cup in the last 32 years, but here we are.
If you can’t succeed, you may as well enjoy the failure of your peers. Let’s do a quick rundown of situations to be thankful for just North of the border; even if it’s simply enjoying the misery of your arch rivals.
Hey Screw Edmonton
Losing four of their last five and suffering an 8-3 blowout on Tuesday at the hand of the Dallas Stars, the Edmonton Oilers aren’t in a great place. The team sits at a perfect .500 points percentage with a 10-10-5 record.
Stuart Skinner is .878 through 16 starts. Calvin Pickard isn’t better with a .847 save percentage in nine appearances. It would be easy to put the blame on goaltending, but the team is having genuine issues defending. The Oilers currently hold title to the second worst defence in the NHL at 3.72 goals against per game.
Is it the systems? Is it the goaltending? Is head coach Kris Knoblauch on the hot seat? And what of Darnell Nurse?
The real answer is that they’re likely going to correct course. Poor starts are part of the core identity of this era of Oilers hockey.
Through the Years – Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 27
2025-26: 10-10-5 – 25 points
2024-25: 11-9-2 – 24 points
2023-24: 7-12-1 – 15 points
2022-23: 11-10-0 – 22 points
The good thing is that most Oilers fans aren’t interested in a real answer.This start may be par for the course, but they’re watching Oilers games and the product sucks. They may have endured far worse starts and have made the playoffs since 2020–hell, they’ve even been to two straight Cup Finals, but don’t tell their fans.
That would ruin the fun.
Hey Screw Toronto
Both the Oilers and Leafs are .500 on the season. The Leafs are 10-10-3, the Oilers are 10-10-5.
While that would have been good enough for a playoff ticket in pre-shootout NHL; 23 points in 23 games puts them in 27th place this season.
They’re almost as bad at keeping the puck out of their net as the Oilers are. 83 goals against in 23 games has them fourth-last in goals against per game at 3.61.
Auston Matthews is out with injury. So is Matthew Knies and Nic Roy. As are defencemen Chris Tanev, Brandon Carlo, and starter Anthony Stolarz.
The forwards are close to returning, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the Toronto sitting in 27th place. Go ahead. It’s a great time.
Hey Screw Vancouver
If you told them in September, Vancouver fans would be thrilled to find out that they would be tied for wins with Edmonton and Toronto by American Thanksgiving.
Well, they aren’t.
There is something about a 10-12-2 record and sitting in 29th place that seems to take the fun out of the Hughes-Pettersson Era.
Thatcher Demko is on injured reserve and Kevin Lankinen is day-to-day, so they’re currently running a goaltending tandem of Jiri Patera and Nikita Tolopilo—household names in Vancouver.
The Canucks currently post the worst defence in the league at 3.75 goals against per game. Quinn Hughes seems to be all but gone after next year. Elias Pettersson is almost untradeable with his current salary ($11,600,000 until 2032) and a No Movement Clause in his contract.
David Kampf has been brought in to be their second line center. This is getting really grim. Lukas Reichel is done about it and his representation is seeking a landing spot.
Yeah, they probably shouldn’t have traded Bo Horvat, who has 25 points in 24 games, or JT Miller, who hit a cold streak, but is emerging from it with four points in his last three. His 13 points in 23 games aren’t great, but would be a welcome contribution to a 16th-place offence (3.08 goals per game) that can’t keep pace with their underperforming defence.
Or Both. Why did the Canucks trade two quality top six centers at the start of their contention window?
The answers to those questions are complicated, but you can probably make your point if you keep interrupting with “29th place.”
Hey Screw Calgary
Finally getting the basement season that the team needs and so many fans clamoured for: no one is happy in Calgary.
Don Maloney is under fire for saying that he doesn’t want the team to give up. Dustin Wolf ranks 54th among all goaltenders with -6.3 goals saved below expected (Moneypuck’s model) after being overworked to start the season. The offence is soundly in last place at 2.32 goals per game.
Management, coaches and players are unhappy about their .380 points percentage. The fans are unhappy about the team not publicly committing to that points percentage. It’s not a good look in Southern Alberta.
All while the the team is putting out a decent product. The Flames are losing a lot (8-14-3), but most of those are one-goal losses. They’re chippy enough to lead the league in penalty minutes at 319, but they’re not exactly a punishing group to play. They’re fun to watch if you don’t care about the result—or if you are an Oilers fan.
When it comes to enjoying casual schadenfreude, it’s better to browse social media for Flames-based outrage than to actually find it by watching a Flames game.
Hey Screw Montreal
The Habs should pull into a playoff spot once they catch up in games played. They have a 12-7-3 record and a .614 points percentage. Eric Francis even wrote a piece on how great Montreal’s rebuild is and how their approach should be emulated by the Flames.
Surely, Canadiens fans are happy with that, right?
Don’t be so sure. A 4-4-3 November including some devastating losses has led to some blunt team meetings. The only groups defending worse than Montreal’s 4.00 goals against per game this month have been the.. (checks notes) Vancouver Canucks (4.50) and Edmonton Oilers (4.23).
The Canadiens have been running a youth movement since 2018 when they drafted third overall and traded Max Paccioretty for current captain Nick Suzuki. After a fiery 8-3-0 October, they’re once again stumbling. Don’t let the record fool you.
Hey Screw Winnipeg
If you told Jets fans during the preseason that they would be two wins ahead of Edmonton and Toronto by American Thanksgiving, they surely would be happy with that.
They aren’t.
12-10-0 is a perfectly respectable record for most teams in the NHL, but the Jets were 18-5-0 on American Thanksgiving last season. That is a precipitous drop for reigning President’s Trophy winners.
It’s not just the points percentage starting with “0.5”, they’re slow.
Here is how they ranked in +18mph speed bursts as of the quarter mark of the season.
For those unwilling to zoom in, that’s Winnipeg at the bottom. More on that here, but they were middle of the pack in terms of speed last season. Here is where they ranked in speed bursts by the Four Nations break last February:
Middle of the pack? Sure, but now they’re slow.
Same situation as Vancouver. If you’re talking to a Jets fan this American Thanksgiving, ask them what’s going wrong and keep interrupting with, “But they’re slow now.”
Hey Screw Ottawa
It’s hard to enjoy the misery of Senators fans at this point.
First, what did they do to you? Sens fans are humble despite having more playoff success in the last 20 years than Calgary, Toronto, and Winnipeg. They deserve a bit of contention after their rebuild has been in a holding pattern for so many seasons. We’ve seen so many stars depart from Ottawa. How could you dunk on them after all that has happened.
The Sens are 12-7-4 this year. All without Brady Tkachuk. It’s hard not to be happy with their results.
The only real problem is the uncertainty.
If you check the Appendices, Galadriel was actually talking about Travis Green’s shelf life.
Consistency is the issue with the Senators. They were the third-worst defence in the NHL in October (3.92 GA/GP) and now they’re seventh-best in November (2.45 GA/GP). What will they be in December? How about the stretch drive?
That’s the thing about building from draft out. There are growing pains. Sometimes persistent growing pains until you commit to another rebuild. Finding consistency takes a long time and sometimes never gets found. They might look good currently, but Senators fans have seen things fall apart far too often to talk smack in late November.
Or that’s at least what you tell any Senators fan that is getting too high on their horse.
Stats courtesy of Money Puck, Cap Wages, NHL Edge and the National Hockey League.
KEEP READING:
Bob Wilkie’s “Sideways” Debuts Powerful Journey
Who Are The NHL’s Fastest And Slowest Teams?
Analysis: What Are the Flames Getting in John Beecher?
Connor Zary Benched: Examining Line Fixes to Ignite a Spark
Follow on X: @Trevor_Neufeld
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