The Edmonton Oilers skate into Vegas with an opportunity to go to their third Western Conference Final in four years. The Oilers have been a legitimate Stanley Cup contender for four seasons, but this year’s team is the deepest group they’ve had. So deep in fact, that they are overshadowing Connor McDavid’s playoff output.

McDavid won the Conn Smythe Trophy last year with 42 points in 25 games. He averaged 1.68 points/game and produced the fourth-most playoff points in as season behind Wayne Gretzky (47 in 1985), Mario Lemieux (44 in 1991) and Gretzky (43 in 1988). It was a remarkable run. Through 10 games this season he’s averaging 1.70 points/game with 17 points in 10 games, but due to a massive increase in depth scoring and timely goals from throughout the lineup, many feel the Oilers aren’t relying on their superstars as much. It’s true that McDavid and Leon Draisaitl haven’t had to carry the team like past years, but they are still quite productive.

Last year, and even dating back to 2022, the Oilers have always had excellent production from McDavid and Draisaitl in the playoffs, but this year, the power play hasn’t been a main outlet of offence. Edmonton has six PP goals on 22 attempts. It is still effective at 27.3 percent, but the PP is zero percent in five road games. The PP isn’t as much of a factor mainly because their PP chances are way down. Last year they had 35 opportunities through 10 games and scored 14 goals. But this year they’ve only had 22 opportunities.

Edmonton’s 5×5 production is carrying the team, and while McDavid and Draisaitl have more 5×5 points this year through 10 games, the rest of the lineup has produced significantly more, and that has led to the feeling McDavid doesn’t have to be out of this world. Here’s a look at the Oilers’ leading scorers last year and this season through 10 games. Power play points are in parentheses.

McDavid has 17 points this year compared to 18 last year, but he has 10 fewer PP points.

Last year through 10 games the Oilers had 14 PP goals — 21 goals at 5×5 and 38 goals overall. This year they have six PP goals — 28 goals 5×5 and 42 goals overall.

Their big guys are still producing at very high rates, but the rest of the lineup has increased its production significantly. The top five had 25 goals last year and the rest of the lineup had 13, while this year the top five have combined for 18 goals and the rest of the lineup has 24. The depth players are scoring way more.

In 2024 Evander Kane and Mattias Ekholm had three goals, Dylan Holloway had two while Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark, Warren Foegele, Brett Kulak and Cody Ceci had one through 10 games.

This year Corey Perry has five, Kane and Connor Brown have four, Henrique has three, Janmark and Darnell Nurse have two while Jake Walman, Viktor Arvidsson, Trent Frederic and Vasily Podkolzin have one.

We’ve seen them almost double their production through 10 games going from 13 goals to 24.

In this series Edmonton’s had 10 different goal scorers while Vegas has had six. Eleven Oilers have at least two points while seven Vegas skaters have two. The Oilers have six skaters with at least a point/game (four points) while Vegas has three. Edmonton’s top guys are outscoring Vegas’s top players, and the Oilers’ depth is outscoring Vegas’.

Vegas will need to reverse both trends to have any chance of winning three straight games.

— The Oilers lead the NHL in goals (42) and 5×5 goals (28). Florida is second in goals (33) and third in 5×5 goals (22), while Toronto is third in goals (32) but second in 5×5 goals (23). Dallas and Winnipeg each have 19 goals 5×5 while Carolina and Vegas have 17 and Washington has 14. The Oilers’ depth has been significantly more productive than the depth of the other seven teams still in the race for the Cup.

— If you are perplexed by the lack of power plays for the Oilers this postseason, you have a valid concern. Last year at this time the remaining eight teams had played a total of 79 playoff games. They’d combined for 241 PPO which equates to 3.05 per game. This year the remaining eight teams have played 86 games and have combined for 263 PPO, which is also 3.05 per game.

But the Oilers have seen their PP chances go from 35 in 10 games (3.5o PPO/GP) down to 22 in 10 games (2.2 PPO/GP). Playoff PP chances across the league are identical overall, except the Oiler’s chances, which are down 37 percent. It is a bit odd. I haven’t seen 13 obvious non-calls, to put them at the same level as last year, where they got the second-most PPO/game, but the fewest any team had last year through 10 games was 29. The Oilers are at 22 this year, with Washington being the closest at 25, but only in nine games. The great news for the Oilers is they are winning without having to rely on their power play, but if they do start drawing more penalties their odds of winning will only increase.

— The Oilers are scoring more goals, and they are hitting more. They had 237 hits last year compared to 292 this season through 10 games.

The leaders last year were Kane (34), Holloway (29), Hyman (28), Vincent Desharnais (27) McDavid (24) and Henrique and Foegele (22).

This year Hyman has been a physical force. He leads the team with 65 followed by Podkolzin (44), Kane (36), Frederic (33), Henrique (28) and Nurse (23).

Last year McDavid, RNH and Draisaitl had 49 hits through 10 games, but they haven’t needed to be as physical this year with 35 combined hits. The team is more physical, and their top guys don’t have to be. That’s a plus.

— Paul Coffey kept his three D pairs together most of last game. Darnell Nurse logged 18:54 at 5×5 followed by Brett Kulak (16:16), Evan Bouchard (15:55), Troy Stecher (14:28), Jake Walman (12:39) and John Klingberg (12:19).

Nurse played 13:13 with Stecher and 2:22 with Kulak and then a total of 2:30 between Bouchard, Klingberg and Walman. Every defenseman played well and each of them had a positive SF-SA in the game. Nurse (11-5), Kulak (13-8), Bouchard (11-9), Stecher (9-4) and Walman and Klingberg (6-4).

The Walman-Klingberg pair faced Jack Eichel’s line the most (six minutes), followed by Nurse and Stecher (4:30). Bouchard and Kulak saw Karlsson’s line the most, because Vegas matched them against McDavid’s line who Bouchard plays the most with. Leon Draisaitl’s line faced Eichel the most and when Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Kapanen were out together they outshot them. Will Vegas look for the same matchups tonight, or will they put Eichel out against McDavid?