Edmonton has won 3 straight and owns the Pacific still. The California clubs remain just a hair behind the Oilers in the race and San Jose has a game in hand. What’s most important to the Oilers is finding consistency. If they can keep from self-destructing for several games in a row then this is a team that has shown very real improvement.
The Oilers are a top 10 team in categories that they have not been in at any time during their rebuild. It’s time to start believing that this Oilers team is different than the ones in the past. We are at the Quarter mark of the season, there can be a lot of heartache between now and the end of the year. Still, this trending in a better direction than ever.
Just for comparison to last year, I’m going to include their 2015-2016 rank as well as the 2016-2017 rank for 5v5 play.
Corsi For % 2015-2016: 48.8% (19th) 2016-2017: 51.5% (10th)
Fenwick For % 2015-2016: 48.3% (23rd) 2016-2017: 52.0% (8th)
Shots For % 2015-2016: 48.5% (23rd) 2016-2017: 51.9% (9th)
Goals For per 60 minutes 2015-2016: 2.04 (22nd) 2016-2017: 2.55 (5th)
Goals Against per 60 minutes 2015-2016: 2.56 (30th) 2016-2017: 2.19 (15th)
In every major category the Oilers are better than they were a year ago. There’s no question that the Oilers arent just enjoying a better record, but are indeed a better team. The club has been healthy and the young players are getting better. That’s the bulk of the change. Oscar Klefbom is doing Oscar Klefbom things and McDavid is ascending to the heavens on the back of an eagle as we speak.
McDavid might be lightyears better than every other Oiler (and player not named Crosby) and dragging the team forward, but the rest of the Oilers arent exactly dogging it, either. It’s a strange time to be an Oiler. We are finally seeing the team turn the corner.
In many ways, I think we had indications that the corner would have been turned last year, but critical injuries derailed the year and by the end there was very little to show for it. Klefbom was having a great year. McDavid was having a great year. Nugent-Hopkins wasn’t having as bad a year as it will be remembered for. But all of them had massive time missed.
Now it’s like we skipped the corner-turn and the Oilers went straight to being a decent club. I’ll take it any day of the week. They look decent by eye and by number. Good times.
LINEUP
The team keeps winning, but Pouliot and Letestu are getting a chance to re-insert back into the lineup. Caggiula is moving to the and Letestu resumes his role on the 4th line. It looks like a strong group if Pouliot can get back into the swing of things.
Lucic McDavid Puljujarvi Maroon RNH Eberle Pouliot Draisaitl Caggiula Kassian Letestu Pitlick
Klefbom Larsson Sekera Russell Nurse Benning
Talbot Gustavsson
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Taking Over Games. The Oiler offense was incredibly overrated for a long time. They were thought of as this “skill… team that could score goals, but in reality it was just Taylor Hall’s line and if that was shut down then so was the rest of the team. Last year the Oilers were 26th in total goals for per game. Right now the Oilers are 7th in total goals for per game and number 1 in the West. Edmonton finally has built a team that can overwhelm the opposition with its offense. That starts with McDavid but the lineup on paper tonight looks like 4 strong lines. The Oilers have been applying pressure very well in the last couple weeks. If they’ve unlocked the offense then watch out.
2) 30th. The Coyotes are not the plucky young team on the rise that some were predicting before the season started. 20ish games in and this is a club that is currently 30th in the NHL it doesn’t look like it’s a bad luck streak. This team is performing quite poorly. They’ve sent back Strome (probably a good thing) and it appears they are digging in for a cold winter (metaphorically). Last year this team beat the Oilers 4 of 5 contests and Dave Tippett has had his way with the Oil forever. This season the Oilers finally look like they should be able to exact some revenge.
3) Max and Radim. The 2 most dangerous Coyotes are Max Domi and Radim Vrbata. With 13 and 12 points respectively, they are still on the low end for top scorers, but you have to work with what you’ve got. Domi, Ryan Kesler’s best friend and confidant, is shooting a super low 4.9%. He’s bound to break out and score a couple goals soon. Vrbata leads the Yotes in scoring with 6 goals. If the Oilers can negate these two from scoring then that takes away the best playmaker and best goal scorer on the opposition. Life becomes a lot easier for the Oilers if this happens.
Puck drops tonight at 7PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet Oilers. Game On! Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy