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The next one is the big one.
Tuesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks the Edmonton Oilers will have an opportunity to equal a team record losing streak of 11 consecutive games set in October and November of 1993.
After snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory last night by giving up a goal with 23 second left to lose 4-3 to the Dallas Stars, the Oilers made it 10 consecutive losses.
"Am I surprised we're close to setting the team record for most consecutive losses?" Shawn Horcoff repeated the question.
"I'm surprised we haven't done it already!
"No, it doesn't surprise me!"
SAT IN ON HISTORY
If they just hadn't defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs during the holiday season, you would have sat in on history Friday night.
The Oilers would have broken the league record for losing streaks!
If the Oilers had lost to the Leafs, they would have now lost their last 18 instead of 17 of their last 18.
The longest losing streak -- 17 games -- was set by the Washington Capitals of 1974-75.
If you want to get picky about it and count today's lost-point overtime and shootout losses as ties, the NHL's longest winless streak was 30 games put into the books by the 1980-81 Winnipeg Jets.
The Oilers couldn't even beat a team which came here on a 10-game losing streak on the road.
The Stars added their name to a now-lengthy list of teams which came in here and registered a win despite playing the night before in Vancouver.
The thing that was different about this one than most of the others is that most fans left Rexall Place with a little compassion for the way they played, especially for goaltender Devan Dubnyk who is still looking for his first career NHL win.
Does it seem like he's never going to win a game?
"A little bit," said the goalie who watched his team take eight straight minutes of penalties and watched Dallas outshoot the Oilers 17-2 at one point of the first period. He stopped 15 of them and then gave them a chance to win.
"I'm trying not to think that way. I haven't been looking at it that way so far," said the netminder who is now 0-5-1 with a 3.99 goals against record and an .868 save percentage but has been much better than the statistics would indicate.
"I don't know what to say the way that game ended," he said of the winning goal ending up on the stick of James Neal for a shot he almost made a sensational save on to give the Oilers a chance in overtime.
"It's more frustrating to lose the way we did the last two nights," he said of the OT loss to the Canucks Wednesday.
"It's going to come," said Sam Gagner, who scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season. "When you're losing, it seems like big mistakes keep happening to keep you losing. But it's going to come."
The Oilers are now only one point out of last place overall and 11 points out of 14th place in the 15-team Western Conference.
You have to wonder if Pat Quinn would have taken this job if he saw this coming.
Quinn and Tom Renney managed to get this team off to a 6-2-1 record out of the gate.
"This started 13 or 14 games into the season," said Quinn after the Oilers found another exceptionally creative way to lose a game.
This is the same Pat Quinn who coached the Philadelphia Flyers to an NHL record longest undefeated streak of 35 games.
CONSECUTIVE LOSSES
Now he's got a shot at records for consecutive losses.
"I hate it. I can't stand it," said the 66-year-old coach of loss after loss after loss.
"The way we give points up ...
"It was such a bad way to finish. It's pretty disappointing. That last goal ... I don't know what to say.
"Tonight should have been better. The way that game ended made me sick.
"We're finding ways not to win. It's like a foregone conclusion," he said of the idea that they'll find a way to lose.
"These guys battled their bag off tonight.
"I knew when we scored that goal late that we were going to win that hockey game," he said of Gagner's second goal at 18:58.
"Instead it grabbed my guts."
TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA