Player grades, Games 61-70: Edmonton Oilers heating up at the right time, especially on the attack

Article content

The race for the playoffs in the NHL’s Western Conference is heating up by the week. Thankfully for fans of the Edmonton Oilers, their squad has also gotten hot, to the tune of 10-2-1 in their last 13 games.

Article content

At that, it’s proving to be damn difficult to create much space in the standings let alone anything resembling a comfort zone. Pacific Division rivals like Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights have also been piling up the wins, as have potential Wild Card contestants from the Central.

Without a lot of help from the out-of-town scoreboard (until Monday night when the Flames beat the Kings), the Oilers have had to take care of their own business to stay relevant. By and large, they’ve succeeded.

On the bright side, they have answered the bell on two specific issues that had threatened to derail them:

Article content

The squad did have their difficulties on the road, winning just 1 of 4 games. They also struggled to hold their own against fellow playoff contenders, against whom they officially posted a 2-2-1 record, even as the regulation mark was an underwhelming 0-2-3. But they pulled out the last pair of those games with thrilling wins over the Kings and Blues in gimmick time, one where Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid both converted in the shootout, the other where Drai fed McD for the overtime winner. I guess that’s why they’re paid the big bucks.

Article content

The segment featured a veritable flurry of goals with 48. That’s the highest we’ve ever seen in this regular review, for or against. (Indeed, if we include Game #60 the Oilers have scored 55 goals in their last 11 games, a remarkable 5 per game.)

Mixed results on the defensive side of the puck with 33 GA, including 9 in a single outing at Calgary, and blown leads in several games. But that’s still a net differential of +15 goals, and a snazzy 7-2-1 record to go with it.

By our own accounts here at the Cult of Hockey the Oilers earned that lofty record on merit, producing 165 Grade A shots while allowing just 125. The margin was closer in 5-alarm shots at 76-67 but still solidly in Edmonton’s favour.

Goal

Surprise! mike smith led the Oilers across the board in this segment, starting 5 games in which the team posted a 4-0-1 record, and getting saddled with his only loss when he came on in relief midway through the 9-5 debacle in Calgary. Smith’s 2.85 GAA and .913 Sv% were more than respectable, even as chaos never seemed far away.

Article content

mikko koskinen had a couple of shaky outings after a long stretch of fairly consistent play, but managed to secure 3 wins, including another perfect shootout (where he maintains a 1,000 save percentage dating back to the 2019-20 season).

Defense

Biggest detail here is health. Five defenders played all 10 games, while the sixth position saw a transfer of playing time from veteran Chris Russell to newcomer Brett Kulackacquired at the trade deadline and already productive with 4 points and +7 through 6 games.

Plenty of offense as a whole from Edmonton’s back end, which now sports a trio of 30-point scorers for the first time since way back in 2008-09 (when there were FOUR). With his latest surge of 9 points in 10 games Tyson Barry have caught up with Evan Bouchard for the team lead with 35, while Darnell Nurse has surpassed the 30-point mark for a fourth straight season with 31. A fast-charging cody ceci is up to 25 on the year after a highly productive segment of his own, including 7 assists to lead the d corps.

Article content

For his part Bouchard continues to lead the club with 9 goals, even as he has been stuck at that total for a frustrating 30-game drought. He even led the group with 30 shots on net in this recent segment, but not one of them rippled the twine.

forwards

Splendid production numbers here, as might be expected from a team with 48 goals during the period under review. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl continue to ride tandem atop the NHL’s scoring parade, with McDavid scoring the most points in the league during the period under review and Draisaitl the most goals. They also ranked 1-2 in the league in shots on goal with 46 and 47 respectively over the 10 games, terrific totals for both players.

The average ice time for both superstars was reduced by about 10% in this segment, one positive outcome from the series of blowout wins which allowed Jay Woodcroft to share the wealth. Not that the lightened load appeared to affect their production in any meaningful way, at least not in a negative sense.

Article content

The leading men were ably supported by two wingers in the double digits in Evander Kane and Kailer Yamamoto, and three more forwards with at least 6 points. That’s pretty decent production from all seven forwards in Edmonton’s “Core 12” players, which includes the first two lines plus the 3C (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who returned from injury to post 6 points in 6 games).

One number that jumps right off the table is Jesse Puljujarvi‘s remarkable +13 over the 10 games. During the decade-plus I’ve been doing this feature I can’t recall ever seeing double digits in this column over a 10-game set. Certainly nothing as lofty as +13. That figure was fully bought and paid for at 5v5 where JP was on the ice for 14 Edmonton goals and just 1 by the opposition during the period under review. A 93% GF% is unsustainable of course, that said Puljujarvi’s underlying numbers were nothing shot of phenomenal (61% Corsi, 74% high danger chances, 69% expected goals). All this while playing on three different lines over the course of the 10 games — 4 GP with Draisaitl, 2 with RNH, 4 with McDavid.

Article content

player grades

We close in our usual fashion by reviewing the set of 10 games through the lens of our own subjective ratings here at the Cult of Hockey. Regular readers will know that we grade on a scale of 1 to 10, the performance of every Edmonton Oilers player in every game the team plays, based on a combination of observation and interpretation of statistical output. Here are average grades for Games 61-70 along with our customary thumbnail comment summarizing each player’s contribution over that span:

Recently at the Cult of Hockey

STAPLES: Player grades from 6-1 win at Anaheim

LEAVINS: The keys to possible playoff success — 9 Things

LEAVINS: Player grades from Oilers 6-5 OT win over St. Louis

McCURDY: Why re-signing Puljujarvi is a priority

McCURDY: Player grades from Oilers’ shootout win over Kings

STAPLES: Holland’s most underrated move