The 2020-21 Edmonton Oilers in Seven: Goal scoring success overshadowed by defensive woes
By Zach Laing
3 years agoWelcome to year two of the Oilers in Seven series. I kick-started this series last season to break down the Oilers in a smaller sample size. I chose seven games based on the size of a playoff series.
Before we jump into the piece, I got a little jumbled with my dates on this one. The last Oilers seven-game stretch ended with last Monday’s 3-1 win over the Senators, so these numbers won’t include the second of the back-to-backs or the 3-0 win against Montreal.
Nonetheless, let’s take a look at what happened.
The Numbers
Games 1-7: 3-4, .429 points %
Games 8-15: 4-3, .571 points %
Games 8-15: 4-3, .571 points %
Season record: 7-7, .500 points %, 12th in the NHL.
Games 1-7:
PP% – 11.5, 25th overall.
PK% – 75.0, 21st.
PP% – 11.5, 25th overall.
PK% – 75.0, 21st.
Games 8-15:
PP% – 37.0, second overall.
PK% – 73.1, 24th.
PK% – 73.1, 24th.
Season stats:
PP% – 24.5, ninth overall.
PK% – 73.9, 25th overall.
PK% – 73.9, 25th overall.
Even Strength
| STAT | RATE G1-7 + LEAGUE RANK | RATE G8-15 + LEAGUE RANK | SEASON RANKS |
| CF% | 46.63 — 26th | 51.63 —11th | 49.05 — 18th |
| GF% | 46.67 — 21st | 50.00 — 16th | 48.57 — 19th |
| xGF% | 53.15 — 9th | 52.60 — 13th | 52.89 — 12th |
| GF/60 | 2.52 — 15th | 3.56 — 6th | 3.04 — 10th |
| GA/60 | 2.88 — 24th | 3.56 —25th | 3.22 — 26th |
| Team SH% | 7.69 — 19th | 12.12 — 6th | 9.80 — 10th |
| Team SV% | 91.44 — 14th | 87.65 — 30th | 89.68 — 24th |
| PDO | 99.1 — 19th | 99.8 — 13th | 99.5 — 18th |
All Situations
| STAT | RATE G1-7 + LEAGUE RANK | RATE G8-15 + LEAGUE RANK | SEASON RANKS |
| CF% | 48.00 — 21st | 51.78 — 11th | 49.81 — 15th |
| GF% | 45.24 — 22nd | 52.63 — 13th | 49.49 — 18th |
| xGF% | 53.43 — 10th | 52.26 — 12th | 52.87 — 11th |
| GF/60 | 2.71 — 22nd | 4.28 — 2nd | 3.5 — 8th |
| GA/60 | 3.29 — 22nd | 3.85 — 29th | 3.57 — 28th |
| Team SH% | 8.23 — 23rd | 14.35 — 3rd | 11.14 — 7th |
| Team SV% | 90.34 — 15th | 87.02 — 31st | 88.79 — 27th |
| PDO | 98.6 — 21st | 101.4 — 10th | 99.9 — 18th |
Stats via Natural Stat Trick, glossary with definitions here.
Player Stats
Stats via Hockey Reference
What it all means
The player stats are slightly skewed, but still give a good idea of what’s happening. Over the seven-game stretch, however, the Oilers kept chugging along and their offence began to click. The stretch saw them near the top of the league in goal scoring as their shooting percentage spiked.
Despite that, Edmonton’s goaltending faltered. Mikko Koskinen had a tough stretch fighting the puck while Stuart Skinner allowed five goals in his first NHL start. Edmonton was lucky in that they were able to play the Ottawa Senators a bunch and those are games that allowed some of the numbers to rebound.
But beyond those games, the Oilers struggled a fair bit over the stretch. They got outscored in all situations and despite being near the top of the league in production, their defensive woes made things difficult for them. They lost to Winnipeg 6-4, Toronto 4-3, and Calgary 6-4. Their offence didn’t struggle in any of these games producing what should’ve been enough to win, but again, the back end struggled.
In the last game of the seven-game set they got a tight, but clean 3-1 win over the Senators. And as the next set of games kicked off, the Oilers kept it up with a 3-2 win over the Senators, and a 3-0 shutout win over the Canadiens.
The latter of the two being the most impressive against what appears to be a pretty solid Montreal squad.
Edmonton’s next five games to close this seven-game set see two games each against Winnipeg and Calgary, before closing it against the Vancouver Canucks.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.
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