It took longer than they wanted, but the Edmonton Oilers seem to have found their collective stride. A mixture of rest, practice time and increased attention to detail has led to three wins in their last four games and improvements in every area of their game.

Edmonton scored first in only nine of its first 22 games. They were playing catchup too often and it led to a losing record. They’ve scored first in five of their last seven games and went 4-0-1 in the five games they scored first. They led from start to finish in all of those games, except when Tampa Bay tied the game with 2:32 remaining and won it in overtime. The Oilers never trailed at any other point in those five games (301:43 minutes) and picked up nine of 10 points.

Since getting smacked 8-3 by Dallas, the Oilers got some rest, playing only four games in 11 days, and had three solid practices. Every facet of their play has improved since. It is a small sample size, but the schedule was set up for them to succeed, and they have. They’ve outscored teams 19-7. Their power play is a ridiculous 63.6 percent, their penalty kill is 91.7 percent. Their goalies have a combined .932 save percentage and 1.79 goals against average. Ten skaters have goals, including three goals from bottom-six skaters, 12 forwards have points, and the Oilers have outscored teams 3-1 without Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl on the ice at five-on-five. In their first 25 games, the Oilers were outscored 33-13 when neither of their superstars was on the ice. They outscored the opposition 35-33 with them on the ice in the first 25 games and have outscored teams 8-5 over the past four games.

They are gaining confidence and are starting to move up the standings in the Pacific Division.

Edmonton has yet to play Anaheim, Vegas, Los Angeles or San Jose. They have 20 games remaining against Pacific Division rivals, but they won’t face one until December 21st when they host Vegas. They play Calgary before and after Christmas then in January, they play the Kings, Golden Knights, Canucks, Ducks and Sharks. In February they only play five games, but four are on the road against the Flames, Ducks, Kings and Sharks. In March they play Vegas twice, and the Ducks, Sharks, and Kraken once and in April, they face the Golden Knights, Sharks, Kings, and Canucks.

Twenty of their final 46 games are against Pacific Division teams and those games will play a huge role in who gets home ice advantage in the division. The Oilers went 33-18-1 against the Pacific the past two seasons. They are 3-1-2 so far this year. Anaheim and San Jose are much improved from the past few seasons, so those games should be closer. The Oilers went 11-4 and outscored them 65-35 — those will likely be more even this season, but the Oilers are still deeper and more experienced.

Their slow start didn’t bury them in the Pacific. They are in catchup mode, but a six-point deficit isn’t that bad considering how inconsistent they were through the first 25 games. The Oilers are through the most difficult stretch of their season. They have one more road trip out East starting this Saturday, but they will be done all of their games in the Eastern time zone on Thursday, December 18th. From December 19th to the end of the season, the Oilers have much less travel.

They will play seven games in the Central time zone, eight in the Pacific and 32 in the Mountain. They will have less travel time in the final four months of the season, and that, in theory, should have them more rested and fresher down the stretch. But before then, the Oilers need to continue to play well in the final two games of this homestand. The Oilers host Buffalo Tuesday and Detroit on Thursday, and both teams will have played the night before in Calgary. This is another scheduling advantage the Oilers need to capitalize on.

— Noah Philp skated with the team this morning. He is eligible to come off LTIR on Friday, as he’ll have missed 10 games and 24 days. The first game he could play would be Saturday in Toronto. I’d be surprised if he plays back-to-back nights returning from injury, so I could see him returning Sunday possibly. He was skating very well and had a lot of jump in practice.

— Jake Walman didn’t skate this morning. His injury has lingered longer than anyone expected. He skated last week, but left the ice before practice ended and hasn’t skated again since — a frustrating situation for the team and player. My understanding is he has a deep bone bruise from blocking a shot where he didn’t have any padding, and it is taking longer to heal.

— Kasperi Kapanen and Jack Roslovic will be back around Christmas, either before or after, but no set date on when they will return.

— Connor Clattenburg didn’t skate. Clattenburg’s got stitches after taking a stick to the face in the Seattle game. Initially he just needed stitches, but the next day he woke up with some vision issues, so he was instructed to take a few more days off before he can resume skating.

— Vasily Podkolzin was out 30 minutes before practice working with skills coach Conor Allen. He was working on his one-timer, as well as redirections and deflections from sharp angles, and then he spent some time working on picking up pucks off the boards. The latter is such an important skill in today’s game with so much of the play along the walls.

Thank you to all who donated in our Pyramid of Giving on Friday. GS Construction offered to match the $7,500 pyramid and we ended up raising over $16,500 for The Holiday Hamper.

You can bid via text between 2-6 p.m. on Sports 1440 by texting 833.401.1440 (can call the same number) and include your name and donation amount. All money raised will go to Operation Friendship Seniors Society.  Thanks in advance.