Last week saw the Edmonton Oilers make the New York area road trip, facing all four teams in the area and escaping with a 2–2 record. Could have been worse, but could have been significantly better—and should have been better, if this team still has any hope of a lengthy playoff run.
Player absences are starting to pile up as Mattias Ekholm has missed the entire week and is not expected back until Thursday. Zach Hyman missed Sunday’s game against the New York Rangers and Mattias Janmark missed time with an illness.
The Oilers are supposed to be a high-scoring team. Lately, they have been anything but. Not only is almost the entire team in a down year offensively, this past week they managed just nine goals in four games. In three of the games they only scored two goals. Which goes back to the earlier sentiment that this week could have been better, considering the two losses were by just one goal.
About the only positive offensively is that Leon Draisaitl is having one of the most dominant seasons of his career. He was the second player in the league to hit 100 points on the season with his two goal effort against the New York Islanders, and he now sits at 49 goals, which is 12 more than second place William Nylander.
The aforementioned Draisaitl, obviously, led the way offensively with six points in those four games. He factored in on 66% of the team’s goals this week. Connor McDavid was close behind with five points. Of note, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had his first three point game of the season with three primary assists in Sunday’s win over the Rangers.
The question for the upcoming week is, where is the offence? What’s going on here and how can this team find ways to capitalize on more of their chances? Or generate more chances in general? Let’s take a look at the upcoming week’s games for the Edmonton Oilers.
Edmonton Oilers games for the week of March 17 to March 23
After a four-game road trip, the Edmonton Oilers are back at home for three games this week. They will play host to the Utah Hockey Club for their second game ever at Rogers Place, the dominant Winnipeg Jets that will cause trouble for the struggling Oilers, and division rival Seattle Kraken.
| Opponent | Date | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Utah Hockey Club | March 18, 2025 | 30–26–11 |
| Winnipeg Jets | March 20, 2025 | 47–17–4 |
| Seattle Kraken | March 22, 2025 | 29–34–4 |
The surprisingly competitive Utah Hockey Club?
The Utah Hockey Club enters this week right within the mix for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. They’ve taken a massive leap forward this season in their development as they look to create a competitive team in Utah. The roster has progressed well for Utah as they welcome the growth of some of their young players but also owe a ton of success to the improved defensive players they acquired for this season.
Clayton Keller still leads the way offensively with 74 points through 65 games, but the difference this season is that he has far more support than he used to. Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley have combined to form a dynamic duo worth mentioning. Although they’ve cooled down lately, Guenther has 48 points in 54 games while Cooley is close behind with 47 points in 59 games.
Don’t sleep on this team, not only are they entertaining, but they are becoming highly competitive. Fast.
Hosting the league leaders
The Winnipeg Jets are an absolutely dominant force this season. Currently leading the league with 98 points, they have one of the deepest rosters you can make with the presumed Vezina winner in net. And let’s be honest here, he should get some Hart Trophy consideration too. But not more than Draisait, right?
Winnipeg has five 50-point scorers with two players in the top five in the league in goals, with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor both sitting tied for third at 35. Nikolaj Ehlers is set to have the best season of his career as he sits just seven points shy of his career high. He will be a player to watch, as despite his limited ice time he finds ways to capitalize and make it count.
The visiting division rivals
Edmonton is set to play the Kraken twice in one week starting on Saturday as they host Seattle on Hockey Night in Canada. This season is nothing short of a disappointment for the Kraken as they sit in the bottom five of the league and are regressing for the second consecutive year. Dan Bylsma’s first season behind the bench for the Kraken is not going as he anticipated. Seattle swung for the fences in free agency last offseason bringing in Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson, and while both of them are doing well enough, they haven’t really moved the needle in a meaningful way.
One bright spot for the Kraken is that Shane Wright has had a solid first full season now that he has remained in the lineup consistently. 15 goals and 38 points have him sitting around the top five in team scoring.
Another spot with a glimmer of hope is in net, as Joey Daccord has claimed the crease with a solid stat line, something Seattle has rarely gotten from their netminders in their short history.
Keys to the week for the Edmonton Oilers
This is a huge week for the team. A couple of games where they should be the favourite to win, and a challenge by facing the best in the league. They want to get a couple wins out of this week to stay competitive and look towards regaining home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. What might help them achieve that? Here are some keys to success for the week.
Answer the question from the title of the post
Where is the offence? Is it coaching related? Is it a collection of slumps? Is it a lack of chemistry with line juggling? They need to figure this out, fast. We’ve seen in the past that McDavid and Draisaitl, as hard as they may try, cannot singlehandedly carry this team to playoff success. And with nearly everyone but Draisaitl in a slump this season, the prognosis is looking grim.
Deeper analysis suggests that a coaching focus on defence has stifled the players. With the team knowing how successful they can be in Kris Knoblauch’s system, is a return to whatever they were doing last year in order?
Battle through the injury bug
This particular key may not be the most useful at increasing the chances of winning this week, but it does have long term implications. Players are hurting right now, key players. Ekholm and Hyman need to be healthy moving forward for this team to stand a chance. Hyman remained a game time decision on Sunday before ultimately missing the game, indicating he may be back soon. And as mentioned before, Ekholm is expected back by Thursday’s game against the Jets.
But is that going to be too soon? Players often want to come back early. And for the sake of their impact on the team’s game, it is best to hold them out as long as necessary to get them back to 100%. They do not need to be back at 90% to help right now and never really fully heal into the playoff run.
Time to give Jeff Skinner more ice time?
It hasn’t quite reflected in the scoresheet or stat line quite yet, but in his limited role recently, Jeff Skinner has been making some good plays that deserve recognition. He showed some battle and emotion in the game versus the Rangers, and his performance was capped off by a sneaky play where he picked up the puck on a backtrack and turned it into a scoring chance by driving through the defenders and straight to the net.
That is the type of play the Oilers have been missing lately. Maybe it’s time to give him some extra time, if he is the player who is going to do that.
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