Today a new report has been released showing a statistic that proves the odds were not in the favor of the Edmonton Oilers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs is one of the toughest and most difficult grinds of any playoff format in sports.

The Edmonton Oilers dealt with major injuries to stars like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl throughout the playoffs. On top of injuries they faced an unseen disadvantage that was recently revealed to be one of the most severe in the history of the NHL.

Edmonton Oilers faced a severe disadvantage in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are set up for the best teams in the regular season to get an easier matchup in the first few rounds. Unfortunately for the Edmonton Oilers they struggled at the beginning of the season so badly that their head coach Jay Woodcroft.

The Edmonton Oilers have fired head coach Jay Woodcroft following a 3-9-1 start to the season

Despite struggling out of the gate the Edmonton Oilers turned things around and snuck back into the playoff race. This led to them being a lower seed than expected. As a result, it turns out that the Oilers faced the 4th toughest path to the Stanley Cup Finals in NHL history.

They come in just behind the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2022 and their Stanley Cup Finals rival the Florida Panthers who are on the list twice in 2023 and 1996.

According to @HockeyStathead the Edmonton Oilers this year had one of the hardest paths to the Stanley Cup in NHL history.

This now makes it understandable how the Edmonton Oilers just seemed to run out of gas in the Stanley Cup Finals. They were fighting all season to get into the playoffs and then had to fight harder than anyone else once they got there.

With the offseason having come now the team can hit the reset button and hopefully set themselves up better in the regular season to succeed in the postseason. Who knows maybe they can even repeat what the Florida Panthers did and follow up a tough loss with a Stanley Cup win.