The Edmonton Oilers’ offence has been significantly better than last season.
Earlier this month, after the team’s 10th game, I compared their depth scoring to last season’s playoffs. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl had less impact in terms of points on the Oilers’ goals, and the team had 11 players with two or more goals.
Fast forward to 14 games into the postseason, and the Oilers’ depth scoring has had much more of an impact than they had last season. Take, for example, the number of players who’ve scored five or more goals.
Both McDavid and Hyman had two-goal games in the Oilers’ 6-1 blowout win on Sunday afternoon, reaching the five-goal mark. Through 14 games, the Oilers have seven players with five or more goals: Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor Brown, and Corey Perry.
Last postseason, the Oilers also had seven five-goal scorers, with all seven of those players playing 25 games. In total, 18 different players scored at least a goal in the Oilers’ 25 postseason games, which was matched on Sunday thanks to John Klingberg’s late power play goal.
Depth scoring has been incredibly important for the Oilers this postseason, but so too has their best players emerging in the third round.
Comparing last postseason and this postseason, the Oilers have fewer goals (obviously, they’ve played 11 fewer games), but are scoring at a higher rate than they did last season. Through 14 games this postseason, the Oilers have 55 goals for a 3.93 goals-per-game average. Last postseason, the Oilers scored 86 goals, which was an average of 3.44 goals per game.
Hyman led the playoffs with 16 goals last season, the most since Joe Sakic in 1996. Draisaitl finished with 10, McDavid with eight, Nugent-Hopkins with seven, and Bouchard with six. Combined, those five players scored 47 of the Oilers’ 86 goals, or 55% of their total goals.
This postseason, Draisaitl and Bouchard have six each, while Hyman, Nugent-Hopkins, and Hyman have five. Once again, their five best players are at the top of the leaderboard, but they’ve only combined for 27 of the Oilers’ 55 goals, good enough for 49.1%.
While that percentage isn’t as high as last season, it still shows that the Oilers have gotten scoring from their stars, even if their depth has been better than last postseason. The maximum number of games the Oilers can play this postseason is ironically 25, the total they played last season.
If they were to keep at the same rate 3.93 goal per game rate, they’re on pace for 98 goals. If all players stay on the same rate as they are now, depth scoring would contribute 50 goals, nearly double of how much their depth scored last season (28 goals).
Of course, things can change quickly. After the second round last postseason, McDavid took over for the remainder of the playoffs, scoring six goals and 21 points in 13 games, good enough for 1.62 points-per-game. In the three games against the Stars, McDavid is on a 1.67 point-per-game pace.
The thing is, they are only going to get better once Mattias Ekholm returns, which sounds like it’s going to be sooner rather than later. Despite Brown’s injury, the Oilers have two competent players in Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson who can replace him. Worst case, the Oilers could roll seven defencemen and 11 forwards, something they should be doing anyway once Ekholm returns.
Of course, the Oilers can’t get complacent with a 2-1 series lead, as the Stars had that exact same lead in the Western Conference Finals, just for the Oilers to win three consecutive games. That said, the Oilers are in good shape thanks to their best players elevating their game and the team’s depth continuing to score.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.