from Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun,

There might be 90% of the season left to play, but it doesn’t take much of a hole these days to seriously jeopardize a team’s chances.

Fall just a handful of points and a handful of teams behind the final playoff spot and before you know it, “It’s early” becomes “It’s too late.”

“You look at the teams that are gaining points on us, they’re really good teams,” said Oilers winger David Perron. “Sure, it’s early, but at the same time we can’t fall too far behind or it’s going to be too steep of a hill.”

Steeper than one would imagine this early in the year. As Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman recently pointed out, since 2005-06 (the year the NHL added shootout points) only three of 32 teams that were four or more points out of a playoff spot on Nov. 1 rebounded to make the playoffs.

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