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A strong start to the year and the Oilers empty net struggles
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Photo credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
Tyler Yaremchuk
Oct 13, 2025, 13:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 13, 2025, 13:55 EDT
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Listen, splitting the first two games of the season is nothing to write home about, but the way that the Edmonton Oilers have looked in these first two games of the season has been very encouraging to me.
First off, getting three of the first possible four points that were up for grabs to start the season is a pretty big accomplishment for this Oilers team, considering that during the last two seasons, it’s taken them until game five to cross that threshold.
A start like this is a nice change of pace from what we’re used to around here.
The Oilers have also been pretty dominant in these two games. 
At five-on-five, they’re getting 55 percent of the shot attempts, fifth-best in the league, and are only allowing 17.5 shots against per hour, which is the best in the league by almost a full shot.
Even though their first two opponents weren’t exactly offensive juggernauts, they are defending very well, and they’re doing it without two key pieces of their lineup in Jake Walman and Zach Hyman.
The game against Calgary was frustrating for various reasons. Stuart Skinner was not sharp, and the team in front of him made some really dumb mistakes that ended up in the back of their net, but as a whole, the team played a really solid game.
The game against Vancouver was really never in doubt.
From puck drop, the Oilers were in control of that game and really dictated how it was going to be played. Even when the Canucks made it close late, there was never much concern that the Oilers were going to blow it.
Thatcher Demko was incredible and really is the only reason why the Oilers didn’t win by more than two goals. Edmonton generated 19 high-danger shot attempts in that hockey game, and six of them were counted as high-danger shots by Natural Stat-Trick. Demko stopped them all.
The Oilers could have won that game in a blowout.
Instead, it took an empty-netter from Leon Draisaitl to put the game out of reach. That goal was scored in about the most impressive way that you could score a goal into an open net, but you won’t hear Oilers fans complain about how a goal goes in, especially when you consider how tough it’s been for them to score goals against an empty net in the past.
Which brings me to my next point…

Empty netters

The Oilers stink at scoring when the other team has their goalie pulled.
If you’ve made that observation while watching the team over the last 12 months, don’t worry, you aren’t imagining things and you aren’t just overreacting to something because the Oilers are the team that you watch the closest.
The numbers back it up.
Last season, in situations where the other team had their goalie pulled the Oilers only scored 12 goals. Only four teams in the league scored less than that and two of those teams were the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks who combined for fewer wins than the Oilers had, so you can understand why they didn’t score more: they rarely ever had a late lead.
Still, for those teams to be within four empty net goals of the Oilers is insane.
The Oilers played a total of 56:26 against an empty net last season, which was 13th in the league, so even when you look at the stat as goals per hour, it doesn’t look flattering as they rank 25th in the league.
Now, the good news is that the Oilers rarely ever gave up the game-tying goal when the other team had their goalie out. They only allowed four goals all season when the other team had an extra attacker on the ice, which was tied for fifth-fewest in the league.
So I guess you could say that they’re so focused on not getting scored on and playing safe hockey when protecting a lead, that they don’t really care if they score into the empty net. Which would be a pretty valid point. If they’re not blowing leads, who cares? (Besides people who love to bet the puckline).
The Oilers were also one of the league’s better teams when their goalie was out of the net. They scored nine times last season with an extra attacker on the ice, which was tied for the ninth most in the NHL.
So yes, the Oilers technically do stink at sealing up games with an empty net goal. But, they rarely get scored on when the other team throws a sixth skater on the ice and they’re pretty darn good at tying games up late themselves.
It’s definitely more of just a funny footnote than it is some serious cause for concern but next time you’re sitting at the bar or in your buddies basement and you watch Leon Draisaitl, one of the games best goal scorers, fire one three feet wide of a yawning cage and you think to yourself “boy, we suck at scoring empty netters” just know that your feelings are verified. 
The Oilers do indeed suck at it.

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