In June, the Edmonton Oilers entered a club that teams must be really good to be part of, but nobody wants to join: Teams reaching the final stage of their sport’s playoffs in consecutive seasons but losing both times.
A total of 49 teams from have lost their league championship two years in a row in the history of the NHL, NBA, MLB and NFL. BetCanada.com, your source for Canada sports betting promo codes, analyzes how the 48 previous teams did the season after their second consecutive loss in the Stanley Cup finals, NBA Finals, World Series or Super Bowl:
Finish | Number | Percentage |
Won championship | 7 | 14.6% |
Lost championship | 10 | 20.8% |
Reached semifinals | 7 | 14.6% |
Playoffs, lost before semis | 11 | 22.9% |
Winning season but no playoffs | 7 | 14.6% |
Below .500 | 6 | 12.5% |
This data is provided by BetCanada.com, where we cover topics of interest to Canada sportsbooks customers.
The Oilers are still recovering from a rough-and-tumble Stanley Cup final series, which they lost to the Florida Panthers in six games. It was the second year in a row that Edmonton won the Western Conference but were denied a lap with Lord Stanley’s hardware by Florida.
In our research, we found that seven teams shook off consecutive stumbles at the final hurdle to win an elusive championship the following season. Among NBA, NHL, MLB and NFL teams, the most recent franchise to pull off this feat was the 1985 Los Angeles Lakers.
The fact that no team in the traditional “Big Four” North American sports has performed such a turnaround in 40 years might give pause for those weighing Edmonton Oilers odds for the 2025-26 season.
And this Oilers team is breaking up already. On June 25, Edmonton dealt forward Evander Kane, who missed the regular season with an injury but returned for the playoffs, to the Vancouver Canucks for a fourth-round pick in this week’s NHL Entry Draft. And will the league's best player stick around in northern Alberta? Check out our Connor McDavid next team odds to see what his future might hold.
Those ’85 Lakers are the only basketball team ever that lost back-to-back NBA Finals, then recovered to win it all the following year.
The feat has also been accomplished once each in the NFL and Major League Baseball. Well before the Super Bowl era, the Cleveland Browns lost three straight NFL Championship Games in 1951-53, then won it in 1954, so they’re in both the “won championship” and “lost championship” categories in our chart. The New York Yankees launched their dynasty by winning the 1923 World Series, defeating a New York Giants team that had topped the Yanks in the Fall Classic the previous two years.
In the NHL? It has happened four times. But we need a little history lesson to gain perspective on why anybody betting on Stanley Cup odds for next season might not be encouraged about Edmonton’s chances.
Of the seven teams that won major sports championships right after two straight final losses, four of them happened in the NHL. The Detroit Red Wings achieved the feat on either side of World War II, in 1943 and in 1950. Then the Montreal Canadiens exhibited a new model for consistency in the 1950s. The Habs reached the Cup final in 10 consecutive years, from 1951 to 1960. They are also on our list twice – Montreal lost the final in 1951 and ’52, won it in ’53, lost it in 1954 and ’55, then captured the trophy in 1956 to begin a run of five consecutive titles. That run has not been matched since in NHL annals.
But (you knew there as a “but” incoming for NHL betting trends) that was a way different era. In the “Original Six” days, four of the NHL’s six teams reached the playoffs. Teams only had to win one postseason series to reach the Cup final. Now they must win three, and only half the teams in the league (16 out of 32) make the postseason.
Put it this way: The Toronto Maple Leafs have the longest current postseason streak, at nine years in a row. That’s just making the playoffs, never mind reaching the Cup final. Montreal’s run of 10 straight Cup finals seems impossible to conceive nowadays – with free agency, the salary cap, the draft and many other factors making it so much harder to build a consistent contender, much less an NHL dynasty.
Since the end of the “Original Six” era in 1967, only one team has lost consecutive Cup finals and made it back for a third straight year. That was the 1970 St. Louis Blues, who were swept by the Boston Bruins for their third straight defeat in the Cup final.
The last team that even had an opportunity at a third straight Cup final after losing two in a row was the 1979 Boston Bruins, who were ousted in the league semifinals.
So, does this mean Edmonton Oilers betting is a bad idea in 2025-26? Not necessarily. After all, both the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers have had streaks of three consecutive conference titles in the 2020s (one of those two teams has represented the East each of the past six years). The difference, of course, is that they won two Cups each and Edmonton has won none.
Based on history, we’re hesitant to suggest that the Oilers will buck the trend.
USA Today photo by Jim Rassol
Author
Jim Tomlin is an editor and writer for BetCanada.com specializing in sports, gambling, and the intersection of those industries. He has 30+ years of journalism experience and his work has appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, FanRag, Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition.
