We are back! For the first time this year, we’ll be diving into the Oilers In Seven. As noted above, this is a series I kicked up a few years ago to look at the Oilers in smaller sets. While still a relatively small sample size in the big picture, seven games reflect a playoff series — something the Oilers will be looking to win a few of this year.

Games 1-7: 6-1, .857 points %
Games 8-14: 5-2, .714 points %

Season: 11-3, .786%

Games 1-7:
PP% – 47.8, 1st
PK% – 90.0, 3rd

Games 8-14:
PP% — 35, 3rd
PK% — 86.4, 12th

Season:
PP% — 41.9, 1st
PK% — 88.1, 2nd

5×5

All Situations

Stats via Natural Stat Trick, glossary with definitions here.

Stats via Hockey Reference 

After a rock-solid start to the year, there are some cracks in the foundation that are beginning to show for this Edmonton Oilers club. The main area of concern comes with the Oilers play at 5×5. While their 5×5 scoring now ranks right at the top of the league, their 5×5 defensive play has been… not good.

Edmonton gave up tons defensively at 5×5 these past seven games, and head coach Dave Tippett knows it.

“I’m always upset about the chances we give up, but our special teams has been pretty good,” said Tippett after Sunday’s win over the St. Louis Blues. “Our five on five scoring, I think we’re top three in the league. Our five-on-five goals against is not where it needs to be. There’s some defending issues we’ve got to dig into.

“We’ve got to be much harder in front of the net. Mikko was excellent tonight, but there’s a few I’m sure he’d like to have back. There’s a few things there. Keeping the goals against down is where we need to clean up, it’s our biggest improvement needed and we’ll continue to work on it.

The good news, however, is that the Oilers continue scoring at an incredible rate. With the team shooting percentage at the top of the league, statistically, it’s likely to drop a bit at some point. But in the same breath, the Oilers have the two best offensive players in the league in their top six, and on their powerplay.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are literal game-breakers are will continue to inflate the team’s shooting percentage. Given the incredible scoring pace their on, we may actually see the Oilers sh% stay around the 12 percent mark.

Edmonton’s special teams continue to be a massive part of their game. While their powerplay continues to put up record-breaking numbers, their penalty kill has been elite too.

In net, Mikko Koskinen has held his own keeping the Oilers heads above water. Despite some shaky goals against, Koskinen has made massive saves that has helped keep Edmonton in games. Stuart Skinner has had two starts over this time, and unfortunately the team hasn’t played well enough in front of him to snag a win.

Evan Bouchard has slid up to the top pair alongside Darnell Nurse and has looked tremendous doing so. He paces all full-time Oilers defencemen in 5×5 shot attempt share, goals percentage, goals against per hour, and shot attempts against per hour. He’s been nothing short of incredible. There’s still warts in his game and he makes mistakes, but the truth of the matter is this is his first full-time action in the NHL.

On top of all that, he’s scored eight points in 14 games to start the season. For him to be producing the numbers he has is incredible and I’ll take warts in his game if this is the kind of production he puts up.

Looking ahead, the Oilers next seven kicks off with a back-to-back against the Winnipeg Jets. One away Tuesday, and another home on Thursday. Edmonton gets another home game against Chicago, before hitting the road to visit the Dallas Stars, Arizona Coyotes, Vegas Golden Knights, before returning home against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

We’ll be back on Dec. 2nd with the next Oilers In Seven!