The Edmonton Oilers officially punched their ticket to the 2023 Playoffs after defeating the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday (April 1). They currently sit in second in the Pacific Division and Western Conference with 99 points. They have been the best team over the second half of the season and have shown no signs of slowing down. As they’re already in playoff mode and are dominating every night, let’s look at the five key things that helped them qualify for their fourth consecutive postseason.
Oilers’ 5 Elite Forwards
We couldn’t start without mentioning the career years of the Oilers’ top four forwards and bringing attention to their elite five. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman have all blown by their career-best marks and the season isn’t even over yet. If Evander Kane, the fifth forward in this group, hadn’t suffered a freak injury that kept him out for half of the season, then he would be right with the four leading scorers and having a career year as well.
McDavid is scoring and putting up points at a pace not seen in nearly 30 years, and definitely not in the salary cap era. He has 62 goals and 146 points with five games remaining on the schedule. He is set to win the Rocket Richard Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, Hart Trophy, and Ted Lindsay Award. The Oilers’ captain has a 26-point lead on the next closest player, Draisaitl.
Though the spotlight has been on McDavid for most of the year, Draisaitl just hit 50 goals and is the third player to do so this season. It appears as though he is looking the best he has in his career over the past couple of weeks, but with 120 points as well as 50 goals, he has driven play for the Oilers.
Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman, and Kane aren’t as skilled as McDavid and Draisaitl and are seen as a tier below them, but they have all been great this season, on the power play, shorthanded, and at even strength. Nugent-Hopkins’ career high in points was 69 before this season and he is at 97 points, tied for sixth in the league. Hyman is at 34 goals and 80 points this season, blowing by the career highs in goals and points set in his first season with the Oilers. As for Kane, he now has 50 goals and 83 points in 94 games in an Oilers uniform.
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It just so happens the four forwards having career years are all a part of the all-time best power play, which brings us to the next reason.
All-Time Best Power-Play
The Oilers’ power play has been running at an all-time best for the entire season and is set to stay that way for the remainder of the season. The power-play percentage is at 32.4 thanks to the top unit. Though it seems to run through McDavid and Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins has been a quiet and very important contributor as well.
There is only one player in league history that has logged more power-play points in a season than McDavid, and that’s Mario Lemieux. McDavid has 68 on the season and has passed one of Lemieux’s top four seasons. McDavid is 12 off the all-time record and 11 behind Lemieux’s second and third-best seasons in regards to power play points too.
Now, as McDavid has 21 goals and 68 points on the power play, Draisaitl has also had an incredible season on the man advantage as well. He just reached 30 power-play goals and is now four off the all-time record held by Tim Kerr. He also happens to currently sit 16th all-time for power-play points in a season (58) on top of his crazy goal-scoring.
Sitting third in the NHL this season in power play points is Nugent-Hopkins with 50 while he and Hyman have combined for 29 power play goals. They may not be talked about as much, but both players know exactly where to be on the ice. The Oilers’ power play wouldn’t run as efficiently if either of them weren’t on it. The top unit is so good that even after replacing Tyson Barrie with Evan Bouchard, it hasn’t missed a step.
Stuart Skinner
The Oilers would have been in a similar position to where the Buffalo Sabres are right now if it weren’t for the stellar goaltending of unlikely hero Stuart Skinner. While Jack Campbell was the presumed starter for the Oilers this season, he had a horrible start to the season that hasn’t gotten any better throughout. With a .886 save percentage (SV%), starting more games would have sunk the Oilers by now. Luckily for them, Skinner assumed the role early in the season and held onto it.
Skinner, who is a rookie, became an All-Star and has now started 11 more games than Campbell this season. For a team that focuses on offence as much as the Oilers do, Skinner’s .911 SV% is very respectable and has done the trick this season. Skinner set the Oilers’ record with 10 wins in the month of March, and coming into the season with 13 starts in the NHL to his name, he has been a game-changer.
Perfect Trade Deadline
General manager Ken Holland helped out his team in the best way possible this season as the trade deadline additions have been a big reason for the recent success. The Oilers cleared out the contracts of Barrie and Jesse Puljujarvi while adding exactly what they needed in Mattias Ekholm and Nick Bjugstad.
Ekholm has not only been lights out defensively and valuable for the development of Bouchard, but the veteran has also chipped in offensively with three goals and 11 points in 16 games. He is a calming presence that plays extremely hard and also takes some weight off of Darnell Nurse’s shoulders. He has been playing some of his best hockey of the season now that he doesn’t have to always face the toughest matchups every shift.
Bjugstad has been the bottom-six forward addition the Oilers needed. He is big, strong, can play physical, score, and play multiple positions. His arrival came at a time when Ryan McLeod started to deal with an injury, and Bjugstad has three goals and five points in 14 games centering the third line.
Depth Scoring Turnaround
The start of the season was very rough for the Oilers’ depth. Offensively, the team was carried by the power play and their top players while the forward depth struggled to score. Klim Kostin and Mattias Janmark weren’t even with the Oilers yet, while Bjugstad had yet to be acquired. Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto, Warren Foegele, and Derek Ryan were all brought up in the trade rumour mill, while McLeod and Dylan Holloway just couldn’t find the back of the net.
Once Kostin and Janmark got called up, the narrative changed. The Oilers started to see more goals from the bottom-six and Nugent-Hopkins was centering the two while that line dominated. Halfway through the season, Foegele was a healthy scratch. This flipped a switch for him as he has been good ever since. He has become the player the Oilers had hoped for when they originally traded for him and has solidified a third-line role, getting chances and producing offensively.
As the Oilers have five elite forwards, they have one spot open in the top-six. Yamamoto has held onto that spot for most of the season, and though he doesn’t always find the scoresheet, he is a great puck-retriever and allows his linemates to keep control in the offensive zone and get scoring chances. He was in a slump early in the season, but has risen up and produced along with the rest of the secondary scoring during the second half.
Making the playoffs isn’t enough for the Oilers and isn’t where it ends for them this season. The goal is a Stanley Cup and to push deeper than the conference finals. They have the squad, and momentum, and the West is wide open. We’ll see what they can do with their opportunity.