If you were an Edmonton Oilers fan during the Decade of Darkness, you likely recall the tongue-in-cheek hashtag of #OilersPositives to outline what were essentially moral victories in seasons where actual victories were lacking.
This season has been a rollercoaster of emotions for Oilers fans, and for the better part the pitchforks have been out and the mood has been downtrodden.
However, there are some good things that have arisen so far, and as a change of pace perhaps we should focus on and appreciate those aspects for this season, especially given the Oilers are now on a four-game winning streak.
Bouchard’s offensive ability
Look, we all know Evan Bouchard is a divisive figure right now. The eye test in the defensive zone doesn’t seem to match up with the fancy stats, and fans have gone from anointing him as the future number 1 defenceman to the whipping boy who is nothing more than a power play specialist (which definitely no one ever saw coming).
But Bouchard has always been known as an offensive defenceman, scoring 43 points in his rookie season (only seven of which came on the power play) and a further nine in 16 in the playoffs, and took the next step to elite offensive status last year after taking the reins from Tyson Barrie on PP1, finishing with 40 points, 19 of which came in the final 21 games after the Barrie-Ekholm trade. He then had a monster playoffs, posting 17 points in only 12 games, which lead all defencemen in scoring in the entire playoffs.
He is doing more of the same this year, posting 22 points in 22 games, good for fifth in defencemen scoring.
Of course, there have been some defensive gaffes and that is getting most of the attention amongst fans. But at the end of the day, you can’t teach offence, and a right-handed offensive dman is worth their weight in gold.
Bouchard is already 16th in franchise defenceman scoring, and has a very real chance of being top 10 by the end of the season. If he maintains his pace and finishes with a point-per-game, he will be just the third Oilers’ dman to do that, and the first since (his now coach) Paul Coffey in 1986–87.
Oilers fans are notorious for being harsh on offensive defencemen:
- Boris Mironov
- Tom Poti
- Marc-Andre Bergeron
- Tom Gilbert
- Denis Grebeshkov
- Ryan Whitney
- Justin Schultz
- Tyson Barrie
All were lampooned at one point or another for their defensive play, whether rightly or wrongly, and Bouchard is currently trending that direction it seems.
It is important to remember that Bouchard is still only 24-years-old, and while patience may be wearing thin given the win-now mentality of the team, a young defenceman putting up these kind of numbers is nothing to sneeze at.
The Western Conference sucks
The Oilers are 9–12–1 a quarter through the season. That is a 0.432 points percentage, on pace for 71 points for the season, and at this point would normally make it seem like the playoffs are only a possibility from a technical mathematics perspective.
Except that the Oilers are still, somehow, actually in the race.
The Oilers are only five points back of the second wild card spot in the Western Conference, although they do have to jump over four teams to get there.
The Oilers are also 6–3 since they made the coaching change to hire Kris Knoblauch, outscoring opposing teams 38–28.
With the aforementioned current four-game winning streak, it would appear things are starting to turn around leading into a six-day break in their schedule.
This is a team that everyone knows can get hot, especially in the second half of the season. If the Oilers can get their poop in a group, then this bad start may not have sunk them as much as we would think.
The fancy stats
While the counting numbers may not quite be there, the fancy stats for the Oilers show promise for the rest of the season.
Currently, the Oilers are rocking the second lowest PDO in the league while simultaneously rocking the third highest HDF%, along with the fourth highest CF%, FF%, SCF%, and xGF.
Do I know what any of that means? Not really, no. But it looks like it’s good right? This is basically the definition of #OilersPositives, and we are gonna rock it.
McDavid is back baby
In addition to the team struggles, one concerning aspect this season was Connor McDavid’s (relative) lack of production. In the first 11 games, McDavid had *only* 10 points, including a three-game pointless streak.
He appeared to be starting to get on track a bit after, with six points in his next five to get back to a point per game pace, but still nowhere near the usual McDavid numbers, and sitting miles away from the scoring leaders.
After a devastating loss to the Carolina Hurricanes where the Oilers let in four goals in the first period, a video of McDavid stewing on the bench made its rounds, with all the body language experts in the hockey world clamouring that this was the final straw and McDavid wanted out.
Well clearly McDavid wasn’t a fan of such comments, and has now proceeded to notch 13 points in his last four games, vaulting him up to ninth in scoring with 29 points in 20 games, and seventh in points per game with 1.45.
The craziest thing about that? McDavid’s career points per game is 1.49, and the last time he had a points per game below his current 1.45 was 2017–18 when he scored a measly 1.32 for 116 points in 78 games.
It’s no coincidence that with McDavid heating up, the Oilers have started winning. And if he has gotten over whatever was ailing him to start the season, then a both healthy and motivated McDavid should be a thing of beauty to watch for the rest of the season, and hopefully will translate to improved performance by the team as a whole.
The Heritage Classic
Beer lines and concourse issues aside, the Heritage Classic was a pretty big success. The weather was good, the jerseys were cool and, most importantly, the Oilers beat the rival Calgary Flames to grant fans some small joy during what was a tough start to the season.
The other positive from that game is it appeared to spark something in Evander Kane. Kane notched a goal and two assists in that game, and since has posted nine goals and 14 points in the next 14 games, turning around from his three points in seven games to start the season.
Having Kane appear to be regaining form after his gruesome arm injury last year is huge for the Oilers in attempting to turn things around.
Hyman’s outstanding production
For a guy who signed possibly the worst contract in NHL history according to one twitter account, Hyman is playing pretty well.
He leads the Oilers in goals with 12, and is one of only five Oilers rocking a positive +/-. Plus his 23 points in 21 games would have him tied with former teammates Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews. All of this after scoring career highs in goals (36), assists (47), and points (83) last year, and posting 27 points in 28 playoff games during his Oilers career.
That user is right—all of that is definitely not worth $5.5M AAV. Pretty sure a lot of people would pay a lot more for that kind of performance.
Plus, the guy writes children’s books. That wholesomeness in and of itself is a positive and worth something.
Fans Get six days of happiness
As mentioned, the Oilers now have six days between their win last night over Winnipeg until their next game against the Hurricanes on December 6.
What that means is that it is literally impossible for them to lose a game for almost a week (I double checked), so fans do not have to worry about the team potentially ruining their mood for that time period, and can continue to carry this four-game winning streak high for another week.
Forget six geese-a-laying, I’ll take four games-a-winning and six days-a-happy to start my December off, thank you very much.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
