The Edmonton Oilers will wake up today seeing themselves tied with the Vegas Golden Knights for first in the Pacific Division. The team is on a huge roll right now. They’re 7–1–0 in their last eight games, which occurred over 13 days, and the lone loss was to Pittsburgh, a team they typically beat all the time, and again, killed them but Alex Nedeljkovic held strong.
The Oilers started this streak by playing a game in Boston but in my opinion, the significant shift in the way they played came against the San Jose Sharks back in December before the Christmas break. I like to examine only these two games to show how the Oilers played collectively as a group defensively as I believe they’re the two biggest games to get the Oilers on the heater they are on right now.
Tracking shots Edmonton has given up
Continuing on from my last two articles, I want to assess the types of chances the Oilers are giving up and how it’s been affecting their play on the season thus far. As I just alluded to, I want to go over the Boston Bruins and the Sharks games. Just a refresher on how we track shots.
@NHL_Sid, @Papa_Nurse25 on Twitter, and myself do the shot-tracking. @NHL_Sid started this shot-tracking project last season and was kind enough to let both PapaNurse and I work alongside him. These stats are coming from this project where we manually track each 5v5 shot attempt and shot on goal (blocked shots do not count). Here are the stats from the games I tracked. (Note: BT = Behind The Net, RR = Royal Road (across the slot in the offensive zone essentially—High Danger Chances come from here typically)
The passes within the offensive zone that completely crosses the royal road line you see highlighted are considered royal road passes.
Shots taken within the black grid are considered scoring chances. Any passes made within the trapezoid behind the net are considered BT passes.
A 3–2 OT win versus the Sharks
Oilers shot attempts: 53
Sharks shot attempts: 29 (4 from NZ)
Oilers 5v5 xG: 3.13
Sharks 5v5 xG: 1.53
Note: The number within the brackets indicates how many shots came off that shot type.
Sharks Shots:
| Shot Type | Assist Type | Chances | Goals | Odd-Man Rushes | Screens | Rebounds | Tips |
| Rush (11) | 7 | 3v2, 2v1 | |||||
| Cycle (8) | 1BT, 1 RR | 6 | 2 | 3 | |||
| Forecheck (4) | 1BT | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Faceoff (3) | 1 |
The Oilers killed the Sharks when it came to their chances and shots. Yaroslav Askarov played one of the best games a netminder has played this season and nearly won the game in regulation for San Jose.
We know Edmonton dominated the game but how did they prevent the Sharks chances??? Well…not great? Obviously, the Sharks were killed without question, but when they did get their chances, they tried to make them count. The Sharks had a few rush chances that turned into grade A opportunities and one that caused the first goal against. The Sharks also loved to set up a screen to set up a tip to fool Calvin Pickard as seen with the Rutta goal late in the first. While their forecheck and faceoff chances were non-existent, San Jose showed with the amount of offensive young talent they have that if you give them an opportunity, they’ll burn you for it.
A 4–0 win against the Bruins
Oilers shot attempts: 41
Bruins shot attempts: 30 (3 NZ)
Oilers 5v5 xG: 3.57
Bruins 5v5 xG: 2.16
Bruins Shots:
| Shot Type | Assist Type | Chances | Goals | Odd-Man Rushes | Screens | Rebounds | Tips |
| Rush (7) | 6 | 3v2 | |||||
| Cycle (13) | 1BT | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Forecheck (6) | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Faceoff (1) | 1 | 1 | 1 |
The tale of two games in which the Oilers played. Let’s start with the bad. The first period was awful. While Boston only had 16 shot attempts which isn’t much, they generated five high danger scoring chances, had screens and deflections set up against Stuart Skinner, were moving the puck, and skating faster than Edmonton and were bullying them.
The next forty minutes? A masterclass road period by Edmonton. Only allowing 14 shots against, with 11 of them in the defensive zone. Yes, three of those shots were from the NZ. Yes, the Oilers only allowed 11 5v5 shots against in the final 40. An absolute clinic. The only decent chance Boston had was the three-on-two rush late in the third that amounted to nothing. The Oilers blocked everything in sight, allowed Boston to only shoot from low danger areas to secure the shutout.
What lies ahead for the team
The Oilers are tracking well right now. As they’re only a few points back of the Presidents Trophy lead, the team has shown that they’re legit even after all the question marks this past summer’s roster turnover brought. I’m so excited to see how these next few months play out before the deadline and the playoffs.
Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire
