It’s a good time to be an Edmonton Oilers fan again, with the team outscoring Seattle and Winnipeg by a combined score of 15-6 over the last two games.

The Oilers are once again getting depth scoring as bottom six forwards Mattias Janmark, Curtis Lazar, and David Tomášek have found the back of the net over those two games, to say nothing of the top six forwards outside of the McDrai duo who have also contributed — Vasily Poskolzin, Zach Hyman, Matt Savoie (three), and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Evan Bouchard from the blue line — and that’s just the goals.

Other players such as Ty Emberson, Mattias Ekholm (three), Adam Henrique (two), Trent Frederic, Andrew Mangiapane have collected assists in that time. Putting the weight of scoring only on Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s shoulders was never going to be a recipe for success, as the Oilers needed the rest of the wingers to step up their game and the depth scoring to contribute in a complementary way – and so far that’s what’s happening.

There’s a lot to like defensively, too. Leon Draisaitl has gotten even better, going from +1 earlier in the season to +6. Connor McDavid has gone down to -6, which means he’s still got some work to do, but at least he can outscore his mistakes. Bouchard was one of the worst earlier in the season and is now even. Ekholm was as low as -8 and has flipped that to +1. Podkolzin was hovering just below zero to start the season, and he’s now +9, a team high mark. Emberson is up to +5.

Even some of the minus players are trending in the right direction and are bound to finish stronger than they started. Janmark, known for his defensive skill, which was absent earlier in the season, is now up to -2, his strongest mark yet, and if he continues his turnaround will be on the right side of the ledger sooner than later. Jake Walman was around -8, and now he’s -3. Darnell Nurse has gone from -11 to -10 in an ever-so-slight improvement. Even Mangiapane has improved from -17 to -14 – still a team worst, but progress is progress.

Predictably, with the skaters playing better in front of them, the goalies have seen a reduction in Grade A shots and their stats are inching up ever so slightly as a result. Over his last three games, Stuart Skinner has finished with a shutout, .a 958 save percentage, and .905 save percentage. Pickard has only had 10 starts this year so and he started the game against Seattle, and though he let in four goals on 32 saves for an .875 save percentage for that game, that was his first win since Oct. 23 — almost a month and a half. He looked like he would be traded or waived if he kept it up. Now at least, he has, if nothing else, bought himself some time and breathing room.

Now predictably the noise around changing out the goalie via trade has quieted down. I told you people once that before you judge the goalies you have to look at how the team in front of them is playing, and now unsurprisingly when the team in front of them is playing better they’re playing better. It goes hand in hand, Pickard and Skinner didn’t just forget how to play goalie overnight.

But enough about the state of the team, let’s get to the conspiracy theory du jour amongst some fans — Is Matt Savoie being favoured over Isaac Howard?

The short answer is no. It’s important to remember that Matt Savoie has something that Howard doesn’t have right now – just over a full season in the AHL. In total he’s got 74 AHL games to his credit, and that’s development time that Howard just hasn’t had yet. Howard may have started the season jumping directly from the US College system to the Oilers, but in the end it didn’t work out for him and he was having trouble playing even on the fourth line, likely losing confidence in the process. For those who think Howard is getting the shaft, do you think the best league in the world is the best place for a player struggling with confidence to remain?

No.

The best place for him to be is in the AHL, where the game will slow down for him and become easier, thus building his confidence. It looks like it’s working too, since he has nine points in eight games and is a +8 in those games, up from the -2 he was at here. Let him play for the Condors and either later on this season or next season he’ll come back and kill it just like Matt Savoie has been doing – three goals in two games is absolutely rocking. Savoie is becoming a key part of the second line and is developing great chemistry with linemates Draisaitl and Podkolzin. This is rapidly turning into the best second line the Oilers have had in some time.

This is not a knock against Howard. It’s incredibly hard to make the jump directly from the US College ranks or directly from junior, which is why very few players can do it every year. The usual place for players to play is in the AHL or the ECHL, cutting their teeth in the pros before earning a callup at some point.

So if you’re one of those fans, just know this is normal development, not a scheme to favor one player over another.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the Daily Faceoff DFS Hockey Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.