from Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun,

A .500 record in today’s loser point NHL and $1.90 will get you a cup of Tim Hortons. It won’t get you a playoff spot.

But for the Edmonton Oilers, who were 7-12-2 on Nov. 21, improving to 17-17-2 on Dec. 23 will buy you the belief that, despite the declarations of hundreds of so-called experts, they’ve dug themselves out of their huge hole.

And it buys them belief they can now come back from the Christmas break and salvage what was expected to be a special season when it all started back on Oct. 4.

The believing it and the doing it, of course, are two different things.

And the doing it still involves a major mountain to climb. If it takes 95 points to make the playoffs this season the Oilers, who are five games from hitting the halfway point of the season, would need to go 28-15-3.

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