The Edmonton Oilers survived — barely — their toughest stretch of the season.

They played 24 games in 46 days with 16 of them on the road, and they accumulated 25 points. That’s not great, not even very good, but with only one game in the next five days, the team will be able to rest, have their first real practice in a few weeks, and prepare for a better December. They need to play better, but gaining three points in Tampa Bay and Florida, in the final two games of a seven-game road trip, should give them some confidence.

The Oilers had consecutive games where they didn’t surrender too many high danger chances, and when they did, their goalies made some timely saves. It is only two games, but I’d argue those were the first consecutive games this season where the goalies played well and the team was sound defensively. It is a small sample, but in order to dig out of their hole of mediocrity, they need a foundation to build off of, and for two games they’ve had it. We’ll see if they can continue it against the Mikko Rantanen-less Dallas Stars on Tuesday.

— Rantanen had a horrible week. He got a major for this hit on Alex Romanov. He and Scott Mayfield did clip skates at the goal line, and he was on one leg, so I actually understand why he wasn’t suspended for this hit.

Then Rantanen was fined $2,000 for embellishment. The NHL’s Rule 64 is “designed to bring attention to and more seriously penalize players (and teams) who repeatedly dive and embellish in an attempt to draw penalties. Fines are assessed to players and head coaches on a graduated scale outlined below:

Rantanen’s first dive/embellishment occurred on October 16th vs. Vancouver and then his second came on Remembrance Day (November 11th) vs. Ottawa.

And on Saturday night, Rantanen delivered this dumb hit to Matt Coronato.

Rantanen received an automatic one-game suspension under Rule 23.6, Physical Infractions Category.

My question is why did they settle for only one game? This hit deserved more than one game in my eyes. The NHL’s unwillingness to punish hits from behind is stunning to me. They’ve significantly reduced head shots by punishing them harshly, yet they continually turn a blind eye (no pun intended) to hits from behind. I don’t understand why. The game doesn’t need them.

— The Oilers are the benefactor of Rantanen’s carelessness as he will sit out tomorrow’s game.

— The Colorado Avalanche are on fire. They’ve won nine games in a row and are 16-1-5 this season. They are on pace for 137 points, which would be two more than the NHL record set by Boston in 2023. I don’t expect the Avalanche to get 135 points, but they look like a juggernaut right now. They’ve outscored teams 61-33 at 5×5. They are +28 at 5×5, and the next closest team is Washington at +20 followed by Carolina at +13. What interests me most about the Avs is how they will deploy their goalies the rest of the season. MacKenzie Blackwood was injured and didn’t play in October. Scott Wedgewood started 11 of their 12 October games. In November, Wedgewood has started six and Blackwood has started four. They are bringing Blackwood along slowly, as he’s yet to start consecutive games, but once he does, I’m curious what the split will be. Wedgewood has been unreal with a .918Sv% and 2.09 GAA, but Blackwood is paid to be their starter. When does he take over that role, and will the split ever be more than 60-40 in his favour?

— The list of teenagers to score 100 points in a season is quite short. The players who scored 100 points in their 18- or 19-year-old seasons (meaning they were 18 or 19 on December 31st) include: Wayne Gretzky (18 and 19), Mario Lemieux (19), Dale Hawerchuk (18), Jimmy Carson (19), Sidney Crosby (18 and 19) and Connor McDavid (19). Macklin Celebrini needs 66 points in his final 59 games to reach 100 points. He is on pace to score 121 but being on pace and actually doing it are two very different things. But 66 points in 59 games, while difficult, isn’t as challenging as maintaining his current pace which would have him produce 87 points in 59 games.

— I don’t understand how some websites will deem Gretzky was 19  in his first season, despite him turning 19 in January. That goes against the entire age grouping in hockey. Take Ducks’ forward Bennett Sennecke. He is currently 19 and eligible to play for Canada at the World Juniors (where you have to be 19 by December 31st). He turns 20 in January, and sites will claim this is now his 20-year-old season. It isn’t. It is his 19-year-old season. It is asinine for those sites to claim that players who turn 20 in January, February or March are in their 20-year-old season. Dumb. End rant.

— Being consistent, in life or in the NHL, is very difficult. I think at times we take for granted the players who can produce consistently year after year. I’ve noticed some people focus a lot on how players do when they leave Edmonton. Last season, Dylan Holloway, Warren Foegele and Ryan McLeod each set career highs in goals and points — unreal seasons for all three, but how are they doing this year?

Holloway is averaging the most minutes of any Blues forward, but he’s off to a slow start. McLeod is on pace for a very similar season, while Foegele’s production is down drastically. It is just a reminder how difficult it is to produce similar point totals in consecutive seasons, especially at 5×5. McLeod wasn’t going to be a second line C in Edmonton, and I’m happy to see him doing well in Buffalo, and the Oilers believe Matt Savoie (who they got in return) will emerge as a solid 40 or 50-point player, or maybe more in the future. I never understood why the Oilers didn’t match Holloway’s offer sheet. I understand why Oilers fans are upset about that move. Foegele wanted a bigger role than he was going to get in Edmonton. It makes sense, and he got a multi-year deal, but producing 40 points at 5×5 is difficult to do year after year.

— This year fans are watching how Corey Perry, Viktor Arvidsson, Connor Brown, and Jeff Skinner are doing. Perry missed the first few weeks of the season and then stormed out of the game with 7-4-11 in his first 10 games. He has 0-1-1 in his last six. Arvidsson had 6-4-10 in 20 games, but then he got hurt. Brown had 5-1-6, then got injured and since returning he doesn’t have a point. Skinner had 4-3-7 in 17 games and then got injured. It is unfortunate for them that they’ve all been injured at some point this season.

— Edmonton’s new forwards through the first 24 games.

New players have 20 goals and 37 points.

Forwards who left and their production through 24 games last year:

They combined for 13 goals and 30 points.

— Many Oilers fans and pundits didn’t like the 2021 draft day trade by Ken Holland and Tyler Wright, that had the Oilers trade the 20th pick to Minnesota for the 22nd and 90th pick. The Wild moved up and took goalie Jesper Wallstedt while the Oilers took Xavier Bourgault at 22nd (Wyatt Johnston went 23rd to Dallas) and they took Luca Muenzenberger with the 90th pick. The Oilers traded Bourgault to Ottawa for Roby Jarventie, while Muenzenberger was never signed. Passing on Wallstedt looks even worse today as he’s been great with the Wild. He is 6-0-2 and he’s posted three shutouts in his last four starts.

The Wild are 9-1-1 in November and both Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson have played great. They each posted a shutout on the weekend to match Colorado’s duo of Blackwood and Wedgewood who also posted consecutive shutouts. The Wild started the season 3-6-3 but have rebounded nicely in November and are now only two points behind Dallas for second in the Central.

— While Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota are playing well, the Winnipeg Jets might be in trouble. Connor Hellebuyck is out 4-6 weeks after arthroscopic knee surgery and the Jets are 0-2 without him. Last season, the Jets played great defensively in front of their goalies, but this season they are leaking way more chances. Hellebuyck had 12.5 goals saved above expected before his injury. He was winning them games by himself. They can’t expect Eric Comrie to do that.

Six of their next seven games are on the road. They are in Washington Wednesday, then in Carolina and Nashville on Friday and Saturday. Next week they play Monday in Buffalo, Wednesday in Montreal, Friday at home to Buffalo and they are in Edmonton on Saturday. That is tough back-to-back travel from Winnipeg to Edmonton. Then they have a four-game homestand against Dallas, Boston, Washington and Ottawa and before the Christmas break they face St. Louis, Colorado and Utah on the road. Their next 13 games will have a major impact on their season. If they struggle to be even .500, they could lose a lot of ground to Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota.

— I’ve seen many claiming the Oilers have changed their system. I hadn’t noticed any changes at 5×5. I saw a team playing poorly making too many wrong decisions with the puck and positionally, so I asked Kris Knoblauch if he has changed anything 5×5 this season from last year.

The Oilers’ struggles thus far have been more self-inflicted from bad decisions with the puck or poor positioning. The glaring turnovers cost them. A lack of 5×5 production has led to them taking risks they shouldn’t and they hadn’t played consecutive games with solid goaltending until Tampa and Florida. A lack of energy was also apparent too often early this season. Add all of that in and that leads to their record. Now it is up to them to play better, and as Knoblauch outlined, they coaches will make some adjustments. They haven’t had a practice in two weeks, so this morning was the first time to implement the small change.

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