In just a few days we American hockey fans will be eating our body weight in turkey, pie, and assorted side dishes as we celebrate our Thanksgiving. You Canadians had to go all different on us and have yours in October. Seriously, why October? Did the pilgrims reach Canada in October? Were there even pilgrims in Canada? We always thought Canada was discovered by some stray polar bears that raised a French Canadian baby they found in the snow.
We’ll sort out our Canadian history lessons for a different time. Don’t let that distract you from the fact American Thanksgiving is the unofficial quarter mark in the NHL season. This is where we can separate the contenders from the pretenders. Teams that hold a playoff spot on the day Macy’s holds their parade and the Lions lose at home (sorry, Detroit fans) usually have somewhere between a 2/3 and ¾ chance of making the playoffs at the end of the season. Let’s take a look at what team were in a playoff picture last season at this point, but fell out and were replaced by the end of the year.
For the record, we looked at the NHL standings at the end of the play on Wednesday November 27, 2024. The NHL held no games on Thanksgiving Day. Some years a stray Thanksgiving Day game ends up on the schedule, so we looked at the Wednesday before.
The Eastern Conference only had one team fall out of playoff contention post-Thanksgiving. That was the New York Rangers who infamously had an up and down year last season. On Thanksgiving the Rangers held the East’s top Wild card spot. All the drama and dismay around uneven play, Drury’s letter, and assorted drama lead them falling out by season’s end.
They were replaced by the Ottawa Senators. The Senators were three points out of a playoff spot and under NHL .500 on Thanksgiving, but that didn’t matter to the team from Canada’s capital. They would rally for their first postseason appearance since their run to the Eastern Conference final during the 2016-2017 season.
The Western Conference would have two teams fall out. The Calgary Flames had a surprisingly strong season and found themselves second in the Pacific Division on Thanksgiving. Calgary would continue their better than expected play but end up just outside the playoff picture. Their 95 points were actually more than some Eastern Conference playoff teams last season. This year at the turkey day mark they’re firmly in “seller” territory. Maybe next season, Dustin Wolf and company.
You can probably guess who the next team is. That would be the Vancouver Canucks. The past few seasons have seen the Canucks be in “will they or won’t they” territory for the playoffs. They’re never good or bad enough to give us a definite answer. Their only playoff appearance in the post 2020 era was in 2023-2024 when they advanced to the second round.
Out of the two teams that replaced Thanksgiving playoff spot holders one was a surprise and one wasn’t a surprise at all. Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: “Edmonton Oilers rebound from bad start and make the playoffs”. That’s literally been the same story for the past three years, although this year is yet to be determined if the two time reigning conference champions finish strong for the playoffs.
The other team is the St. Louis Blues. At the Thanksgiving marker St. Louis was less than a week into hiring Jim Montgomery as their new coach, but entered Thanksgiving on a two game win streak. They would eventually sneak into the playoffs and had a valiant showing in their first round exit. Overall 13 of the 16 playoff teams were in a playoff spot at Thanksgiving 2024, good for an 81.25% success rate.