“We aren’t creating enough offence,” said Leon Draisaitl. “We aren’t seeing it right now. I think everyone is trying hard, but it isn’t easy when you aren’t seeing it and plays are closing down on you. It is frustrating. We are playing fine defensively, but you aren’t going to win many games when you score one or two goals.”

“I’m certainly not feeling it,” said Draisaitl. “The game changes when your top guys are feeling it and seeing it and creating offence. It changes the entire dynamic of the group, so I just have to take a look in the mirror and figure out something to be better.”

“They’re not creating enough overall in terms of net front offense,” said Woodley. Other than doing it geographically, just looking at the types of chance, we typically associate with that, screens, offense, overall terms of expected goals, chances created, they rank 18th in the NHL. It’s one thing to generate a rebound, but it’s another thing to be able to get to that puck and create a second chance. And that requires getting it on net, and they rank dead last in the league at less than half a goal expected per game. There are teams like Colorado, who are similar to the Oilers in skill, and they are generating 3.6/game for comparison.

“Deflection chances, they are 12th, which is okay. Then, in a lucky bounce chance, where pucks go off legs and bounce to another guy, you’re in the right position to win that battle in the front of the net after it hits a butt or a leg, or a stick; they rank 23rd. So, overall, their offensive profile is uncharacteristically down for this year. Their net front O-zone, the types of chances you create around and directly in front of the net, they rank 29th. Overall expected goals 5×5, they rank 27th, and they are 28th off the rush in high danger chances. So far, they’re not generating anything in relation to how we think of them as an offensive profile team in terms of rush chances, where they are 28th, and their net front is 29th. None of these add up to positive results.”

“I haven’t minded his game at all. His numbers are just slightly above expected. There are only 30 goalies in the league who are outperforming their environment, and he’s one of them. Is he near the top of that list right now? No, but he’s outperforming his environment.  He’s better than expected. When I look at how he’s performing from an eye test standpoint, overall, it is good. He’s had two hiccups. So how do they look at the third goal in Detroit, whether it’s a mental mistake of not getting up sooner or the physical mistake of losing that control against the post? It’s the mistake on the goal against Calgary; these are little sort of hiccups mentally that are costing him.

“But when I look at his game in totality, it looks balanced. It looks neutral. He’s giving himself a chance on a lot of plays. We are not seeing him off balance and pitched forward as much as he was before. And to me, those are all positives from an eye test standpoint. The performance is good.  Like I said, it’s not top of the league, but it’s not bad at all. And there’s a little more to go. If you eliminate those two brain cramps, and I hesitate on the second one in Detroit, to call it that. For sure, the Calgary one was, but those moments are costing him statistically, because take those away and he’s into the top 15 in the league. For me, it is just those little details, but overall, I like where his game is at.

“It just looks cleaner than it has in the past. And he’s giving himself a chance to make saves. He’s not taking himself out of plays off the rush with excessive depth. He’s not scrambling around his crease. And part of that is the Oilers with a good defensive environment. But I like that even when he’s in recovery situations on his knees, there’s a lot less swinging back and forth. It’s just push and go and stop. And there’s a good control element to it. I also think his butterfly looks a little wider. I don’t know if that’s a biomechanical thing. I don’t know if that is from the work he’s done in the summer. I don’t know if that’s the pads or maybe the weight loss, but he looks like he’s got a little more flare to his butterfly, which is allowing him to make those side-to-side pushes from his knees without having as many wild swings with the upper body, staying in one piece as he goes east-west. All of those are positives. And when you look at that, I think more of the results would follow. And like I said, outside of the two little brain cramps, the results have been really good.”