The first 21 games for the Edmonton Oilers were a disaster and likely cost them a post-season berth. The Oilers are going to miss the playoffs for an eight season in a row, but not all is lost. The team can take strides towards next season and take strides towards building the winning, finished product we are all hoping for.
The team struggled mightily in every aspect during the first cluster of games. The goaltending cost them multiple games, the defensive breakdowns killed them, and the offense dried up. The Oilers best players simply were not performing and the team was in a dire spot. I won’t lie, to me it looked like this thing was going to have to be nuked, there didn’t look to be another option.
The last 11 games, well things have changed. The Oilers are 7-3-1, and are starting to look like the hockey club people expected to see from the first game of the season. Why the difference? Well there are a number of reasons, let’s take a look.
Schedule:
This isn’t the biggest reason why the Oilers are improved, but I’d be foolish to ignore it. The Oilers last eleven games have been quite easy compared to the first 21 and the upcoming slate of games. The Oilers, in those eleven games, played ten teams that did not make the playoffs last year. The one playoff team they faced? They lost 5-1 to the Blackhawks.
The Oilers have feasted on teams like Florida, Nashville, Columbus, and Carolina. While this wasn’t a tough portion, I’ll give Edmonton credit for knocking off Colorado and Dallas, two pretty good teams.
These last eleven games, schedule wise, will be as easy as it gets for the Oilers. It gets much tougher very quickly with Boston, Vancouver, Anaheim, LA and St. Louis coming up in the next ten days.
Goaltending:
Outside of a few occasions, the Oilers goaltending has been much improved the last eleven contests. Even in blow-out losses to the Hawks and Yotes, it was tough to blame the goaltending. Ilya Bryzgalov has been a breath of fresh air for the team, while Devan Dubnyk has done a total 360 from the last cluster. These two have given the Oilers a chance to win games, and that’s all you can ask for.
Edmonton has this level of goaltending in the first 21 games and this season is still quite alive. It’s been improved, and is a reason for the turnaround.
Top Dogs Are, Well Top Dogs:
Finally, Edmonton’s top dog players have started playing like top dog players. Taylor Hall has been on an absolute tear recently, and has picked up 15 points in these eleven games. Jordan Eberle? He has 12 points in this stretch, and both these players have played improved defensive games.
RNH has eleven points in ten games as well and has been a +1, playing much better defensively. David Perron has been really good too, adding seven goals in the last ten contests, while Ales Hemsky has seven points in ten games and is a +2.
Edmonton’s top players are playing like it right now, and are creating offense at high levels. For the most part, they are starting to come around defensively too. Sure, they have a lot of work to do, but it’s an improvement.
Now, if Eakins could ever get Yakupov and Gagner going this team would be a real threat offensively.
The Advanced Stats:
I know not everyone is an advanced stats person, so I won’t spend a ton of time on this, but it is worth mentioning. The advanced stats say some pretty good things about where this team is right now. The Oilers have, according to Tyler Dellow, been a 55.3% Corsi close team recently, which is really good. We haven’t seen a stretch of hockey like this from these guys since 2006 to be honest.
The Oilers overall Corsi numbers have been much better in this stretch and the team has improved in almost every area of the AS spectrum these last eleven games. Good corsi numbers usually relate to a winning team, so it’s nice to see Edmonton improving in this area. 55.3% close is really good, and is showing some real improvement.
Sooooo:
The playoff dream is dead, but there is still a way to make this a successful and good season. The Oilers need to keep winning hockey games, and shoot to finish somewhere in the 17-20 range. It’s asking a lot, but it needs to happen. Start laying the foundation for future seasons. Start winning now, and starting putting others on notice. Forget the first 21 games, just play like the chance of the playoffs is still alive.
The Oilers have a tough stretch coming up. Boston, Vancouver, Anaheim and LA within a week. By this time next week, we will see if this team has really improved and see where the Oil stand. It’ll be interesting.
[adsanity id=1808 align=alignnone /]Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
