Arguably the most important stretch for any team in the playoff picture is the few weeks leading up to the trade deadline. It’s those few weeks that often determine whether a team will buy or whether they’re destined to be sellers. It’s those few weeks where crucial points can either be made up or dropped, never to be recovered. And it’s those few weeks when teams can either fall completely apart or become galvanized before making that all-important push into the post-season.
So, suffice to say that given we’re three weeks out from the deadline, there could not have possibly been a worse moment for the Edmonton Oilers to learn that they’ll be without Connor McDavid, the most game-changing offensive force in the entire NHL, for that very stretch.