The Edmonton Oilers have an all-time winning percentage of .583 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which is second highest among all franchises in NHL history.
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Pick just about any stat criteria, and the Oilers have a winning record in the postseason: They’re even above .500 on the road (84-79) and in overtime (30-29).
Edmonton has also been consistently successful throughout individual series, going 39-24 in Game 2, 37-26 in Game 3, 32-24 in Game 4, 27-18 in Game 5, 19-9 in Game 6, and 8-5 in Game 7. Game 1, however, is the lone outlier to all of this.
The Oilers are 31-32 in series openers, dropping below .500 when they lost Game 1 of the Western Conference first round series to the Los Angeles Kings by a score of 6-5 on April 21.
Fortunately for Edmonton, the Oilers were able to rally and eliminate Los Angeles in six games to advance to Round 2, where they will again try to solve the puzzle that is Game 1 when they open their best-of-seven series against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena tonight (May 6).
Edmonton’s Game 1 struggles are baffling, particularly given that the Oilers stumble out of the gate time after time and don’t seem to learn their lessons.
It wasn’t always like this. Edmonton actually won 23 of its first 32 series-openers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. During the 1980s, the Oilers had one stretch of seven consecutive Game 1 wins, and another of six straight victories.
But everything seemed to go sideways when Edmonton got clobbered 8-2 by the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening game of the 1992 Campbell Conference Final. The six-goal loss tied the record at the time for the most lopsided defeat in Oilers’ playoff history, and set the stage for what would be the second time Edmonton got swept in a best-of-seven series.
Including that 1992 loss to Chicago, Edmonton is 6-21 in its last 27 series-opening contests. At one point, the Oilers went a stretch of 25 years with only three victories in Game 1.
No one has experienced Game 1 misery as an Oiler more than Edmonton’s current core of captain Connor McDavid and alternate captains Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse. The foursome has been part of every series-opening tilt for Edmonton since 2017, in which the Oilers have gone 3-11.
That dubious record includes a stretch of seven consecutive Game 1 defeats, which began with a 6-4 loss to Chicago in the 2020 qualifying round. Edmonton finally ended its streak of losing the first game of a series when it defeated Los Angeles 7-4 in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It’s almost as if there is a Game 1 curse hanging over this team. How else to explain what happened against the Vancouver Canucks in Round 2 last year, when the Oilers jumped out to a 4-1 lead in Game 1, only to lose by a score of 5-4 after giving up three goals in a span of 4:48 during the third period?
That was one of the craziest Game 1 losses in Oilers history, until the series-opener against Los Angeles two weeks ago, when Edmonton stormed back from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game at 5-5 with less than two minutes remaining, only to watch Kings forward Phillip Danault score the winning goal at 19:18 of the third period.
This is the second time the Oilers and Golden Knights will square off in the postseason, following their first meeting two years ago, also in Round 2. Vegas won Game 1 of that series by a score of 6-4 at T-Mobile Arena, overcoming an incredible four-goal performance from Draisaitl, and went on to eliminate the Oilers in six games.
The Golden Knights, who just happen to be the only franchise with a better all-time winning percentage in the Stanley Cup Playoffs than Edmonton, have been pretty good in the first game of a series since their postseason debut in 2018. Vegas is 11-6 in Game 1s, including 10-3 at home and 3-1 in Round 2.
All Game 1 data aside, Vegas is a formidable opponent, period. The Golden Knights finished atop the Pacific Division standings in 2024-25, when they went 29-9-3 at T-Mobile Arena. Vegas is coming off a first round win in six games against the Minnesota Wild.
So, the Oilers have a lot going against them heading into Game 1. But Edmonton is feeling confident coming off four straight wins to eliminate the Kings and will look to ride that momentum to victory in Las Vegas tonight.
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