Oilers' lengthy break comes at an extremely inopportune time

With their 3-1 come-from-behind victory against the Winnipeg Jets last night, the Edmonton Oilers are now riding a four-game winning streak.

It is clear that this Oilers team has a ton of confidence right now, as it’s far from the deflated group it was just a few short weeks ago. Given how well they are feeling about themselves, it would be great to get right back into game action. Unfortunately, that won’t be happening any time soon.

The Oilers are set to have the next five days off, with their next outing not coming until December 6 versus the Carolina Hurricanes. It is an extremely long break, and couldn’t come at a worse time for a team that was finally starting to put it all together.

In one sense, these breaks can be good, as they give players time to get away from the rink and recover from any possible ailments they are dealing with. As Oilers fans are well aware, however, it appears as though Connor McDavid is finally past a lingering injury he suffered early in the season, one that forced him to miss multiple games in late October and hindered his performance for some time afterward. The 26-year-old has 13 points over his past four games and is back to looking like his dominant self.

Though the break does come at an unfortunate time, Oilers players and fans would both undoubtedly rather head into it on this current high rather than the low they had been in to begin the 2023-24 campaign. Even with their current winning streak, they still find themselves 26th in the league standings, something no one had on their bingo card prior to the season getting underway.

While the Oilers still have plenty of ground to make up, they appear to be well on their way to doing so. They will have a difficult task in their first game back from their break against a dangerous Hurricanes team, but they face a struggling Minnesota Wild club just two nights later. If they are able to pick back up where they left off, they should be in for a successful month of December.

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