What is Up With the Edmonton Oilers?

(Warning: Some of this data was written a couple days before it was published, hence why there is parentheses in some of the data.)

Source: nhl.com

On December 1st, 2021, the Edmonton Oilers would win a solid 5-2 game over the Pittsburgh Penguins. If only they, and many other fans knew, that it would be their last win for over 2 weeks.

Heading into the 2021-22 NHL season, the Edmonton Oilers had high hopes. They had the 14th best odds to win the cup, and the second best in the Pacific. The Oilers would start off strong, winning their first 5 games, winning by an average 2.4 goals a game. Throughout the first two months of the season, the Oilers were fighting for 1st in the Pacific with the Calgary Flames.

Heading into their December 3rd game vs the Seattle Kraken, the Oilers were sitting in second, 1 point behind the Flames (32 to 33). And at that moment, the Kraken were sitting in dead last in the Pacific, only having 18 points. Earlier in the season, the Oilers would get a 5-2 win. On the 3rd, the Oilers would end up losing 3-4. 2 days later the Oilers would play the Kings who were 10 points behind the Oilers. This time, the Oilers would lose 1-5, with the Kings holding McDavid pointless for only the third time this season. During the game, McDavid would get a game misconduct for boarding and checking from behind, although, he would avoid suspension. Causing him to get an assist in the 1-4 loss to the Wild.

With the loss, the Oilers would officially be passed by the Ducks in the Pacific. 2 days later, the Oilers would lose once again, but this time to the Boston Bruins. Edmonton’s only 2 goals were powerplay goals scored by Leon Draisaitl and assisted by Connor McDavid and Tyson Barrie in the 2-3 loss. 2 more days later the Oilers would lose 1-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes. The day before the Oilers would play the Toronto Maple Leafs, they would be passed by the Vegas Golden Knights for 3rd in the Pacific and pushed down to the 2nd Wild Card spot.

The Oilers would then use 1-5 to the Maple Leafs, leaving McDavid pointless for the second straight game, the first time to happen that season. Finally, the Oilers would get a win against the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-2, 2 days later. With McDavid getting 2 assists. The Oilers would get a win against the Seattle Kraken 5-3, once again, 2 days later: the team that started their 6-game losing skid.

On December 20th, it was announced that the Oilers would be shutdown until after Christmas, postponing 4 of their games that would eventually be made up. Heading into the Christmas Break, the Oilers would be in the 2nd Wild Card spot. Because of this shutdown, this would cause the Oilers to not play until December 29th against the St. Louis Blues.

But then, the Oilers suffered another losing streak. But this time, it would be 7 games. Throughout this losing streak, the Oilers’ opponents would do a great job of stopping Connor McDavid, only allowing 4 points in the 6 games he played. McDavid would be put in NHL COVID protocols on January 5th, forcing him to sit out in their game against the Maple Leafs.

By the final game of the losing streak (0-6 loss to the Florida Panthers), the Oilers would be in second-to-last in the Pacific Division. Throughout their two losing streaks, Draisaitl would only reach multiple points in a game twice. But he would still get points. The two losing streaks for the Oilers hurt both McDavid’s stats and my fantasy team.

But since their 7-game losing streak, the Oilers are 9-2-1 (now 10-4-1). They have been able to crawl up and bring themselves back into the top 3 (now 4th) in the Pacific Division.

Let’s look at some stats:

	Goals For	Goals Against	Goal Differential	Pts from McD And Leon (PPG)
Everything Else (38)	146 (3.8 GPG)	109 (2.9 GAPG)	+37 (+1.02 GDPG)	25-39—64, 30-35—65 (1.68, 1.71)
Losing Streak 1 (6)	9 (1.5 GPG)	24 (4 GAPG)	-18 (-3 GDPG)	1-4—5, 3-1—4 (0.83, 0.66)
Losing Streak 2 (7)	16 (2.3 GPG)	33 (4.7 GAPG)	-17 (-2.4 GDPG)	2-2—4, 2-2—4 (0.57, 0.57)

*PPG: Points Per Game

GPG: Goals Per Game GAPG: Goals Against Per Game GDPG: Goal Differential Per Game

The Oilers did end up firing their coach, and since then, they have been 4-0-0 (at the time of me writing that sentence, since then, he is 1-2-0).

The Oilers also can’t find a solid goalie. They have Mikko Koskinen (.899 SV%, 3.13 GAA) who is 17-8-2, Stuart Skinner (.891 SV%, 3.65 GAA) who is 6-6-0, and then Mike Smith (.913 SV%, 2.62 GAA) who is 5-6-1.

They also have only had 1 shutout the entire season, while Skinner was in net on February 14th against San Jose.

Here’s some more stats:

	Koskinen (GAA, SV%)	Smith (GAA, SV%)	Skinner (GAA, SV%)
Losing Streak 1 (6)	17 GA/4 GP, 105 SV/122 SA 3.79 GAA, .861 SV%		7 GA/2 GP, 57 SV/64 SA 3.65 GAA, .891 SV%
Losing Streak 2 (7)	13 GA/3 GP, 72 SV/85 SA 4.24 GAA, .847 SV%	13 GA/3 GP, 93 SV/106 SA 3.55 GAA, .877 SV%	5 GA/1 GP, 20 SV/25 SA 5.08 GAA, .800 SV%

*GAA: Goals Against Average SV%: Save Percentage GA: Goals Against GP: Games Played SV: Saves SA: Shots Against

I do think that the Oilers don’t have enough depth. They have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and that’s pretty much it. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman have also been doing pretty well this year, as has Jesse Puljujarvi, but he is injured so that puts him out of the equation. They also picked up Evander Kane after his mess with the Sharks. He has been providing and has 9 points in 12 games with the Oilers and is already 16th /29 eligible players on the team in points.

I do think that the Oilers can make a playoff run, but they need to be able to get multiple wins in a row and avoid a lot of losses in a row.

Stats from: hockey-reference.com, Wikipedia.org