As the seasons go on, the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights continue to be two of the top teams in the Pacific Division. Their games are almost always a difficult and draining battle and there is a rivalry brewing between these two teams.
This was the second matchup between the Oilers and Golden Knights in the 2024–25 season. Vegas took the first one 4–2 back on November 6. And they have two more remaining. One just next weekend on December 12, while the final time the Oilers will face Vegas in the regular season is all the way at the beginning of April.
Vegas took a 2–0 lead on the season series after this game. It marks the fourth time in the 2024–25 season that the Oilers have been shut out. After 25 games, it is the most they have ever been shutout in franchise history.
All-in-all, the Oilers played a fantastic game. And it was incredible hockey to watch. They got goalied, plain and simple. These two teams, once again, brought out the best in each other. After taking this all in, here are a few takeaways to keep tabs on moving forward.
Bouchard is not shooting like he used to
Evan Bouchard gained notoriety around the league for his shot. It was hard, powerful, and most of all, found its way through traffic. Now, it is just as hard and powerful a shot this season, but one thing that has changed is how often it gets through traffic unblocked.
Heading into last night’s game, according to Moneypuck, 47% of Bouchard’s shot attempts were blocked. Year-over-year, that is an increase of 10% over the 37% of blocked shot attempts off of his stick. It has been a trend that was noticed more and more over the last few weeks. But it also seems to be impacting the way he plays the game.
Bouchard has dialed back his shooting frequency in light of this trend. Whether it is coach’s direction to choose his shots better or a confidence-related matter that has him overthinking his play, he is not shooting as much as he did earlier this season.
Breaking the season (prior to last night’s game) down into eight-game segments, we do see a noticeable drop in shot attempts per game.
Although it makes sense for him to be adjusting his game in some ways when he keeps getting shots blocked, it has also led to situations where he holds back and it negates a scoring chance. Or even worse, he holds off on the shot and later in the play, it ends up in the back of the Oilers’ net.
Is Stuart Skinner’s season turning around?
Stuart Skinner was the subject of plenty of criticism earlier this season with his play. The flaws in his game were being amplified, scrutinized, and publicized everywhere there was space. But he has quietly started turning things around. He has been making most of the saves he needs to in order to give the Oilers a chance to win. And in this 1–0 loss, Skinner’s performance helped give the Oilers the chance that their offence did not capitalize on.
Despite the first goal being a weak one that he would like to have back, combined with an unlucky bounce off of Bouchard’s pass block attempt, he shut Vegas down the rest of the game.
In his first eight games, Skinner had a 3–4–1 record with an .881 SV%. In his next nine games, Skinner has a 5–3–1 record and an .896 SV%. Earlier this season, he was also sitting dead last in goals saved above expected. He has started to rise up those rankings slightly, and performances like this will only help him return to average.
Oilers offence setting franchise records, but not in a good way
With an offence powered by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, we’d be expecting them to set offensive records for scoring, right? Well, that’s not quite how the 2024–25 Oilers are making the history books so far.
As mentioned before, Edmonton has been shut out four times in their first 25 games. The first time in franchise history that has ever happened. This is supposed to have been an offensive juggernaut filled with scorers and elite offensive talent. But so far, they have been barely even average. The Oilers currently sit 22nd in the league with 72 goals.
Much has been made about their snakebitten start offensively. Zach Hyman took ages to finally get his first goal. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been well-below expectations offensively. New acquisitions Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, and Vasily Podkolzin have provided little on the scoreboard. And even McDavid himself started slow with just 10 points in his first 11 games.
It’s not for lack of trying. In fact, it seems to be the PDO curse once again. Edmonton has no lack of shots. In fact, they lead the league with over 33 shots per game. But they may be falling victim to a shot danger problem, where they are not generating shots from areas with a high chance of scoring. After their first 24 games, according to stats from Moneypuck, the Oilers led the league in low-danger chances for, were third in medium-danger chances for, but 13th in high-danger chances for.
With a team shooting percentage of 8.8, sitting 29th in the league, the lack of offence starts to be seen through a clearer lens. An excess of low danger shots that aren’t going in the net.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
