January 14, 2024 by Ryan Lotsberg

The Edmonton Oilers have won 10 consecutive games for the first time in franchise history. As unfathomable as it may seem, the dynastic teams of the 1980s could only muster a maximum of eight consecutive victories. This feat is truly remarkable considering that the team started 2-9-1 and was in last place in the league after losing to the San Jose Sharks on November 9, 2023. Let’s take a look at the anatomy of a franchise record 10-game win streak.

WWWWWWWWWWIN!

THE #OILERS DEFEAT THE CANADIENS 2-1 IN OT & SET A NEW FRANCHISE RECORD FOR 10 VICTORIES IN A ROW. #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/1UfJuHmo5r

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 14, 2024

The Oilers are known as a strong powerplay team. They set a record for the all-time highest powerplay percentage at 32.4% last season. This season, they have fallen to seventh in the league at 25.2%. The powerplay is still strong, but it isn’t the same weapon that it was last year. The Oilers have only scored five powerplay goals on 28 opportunities (17.86%) during this winning streak. The powerplay has been struggling lately! They aren’t even getting many opportunities on the powerplay. The Oilers have had two or less powerplays in five of the ten games in this winning streak. Nobody can say that the Oilers are only winning all of  these games because of their powerplay.

The Oilers beat the Sharks 5-0 and the Anaheim Ducks 7-2 on their recent California road trip. They didn’t score a powerplay goal in either game! That just speaks to how well they have played at even strength. The Oilers have outscored their opponents 33-14 at even strength, which is good for a ridiculous 70.21% goals for percentage.

“Top heavy” is a term that has been used to describe the Oilers roster for many years. That’s to be expected on a team with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Last season the Oilers got contributions from all over the lineup. Every forward that played meaningful minutes scored at least ten goals. That hasn’t been the case this year, and it certainly has not been the case during the ten-game winning streak.

McDavid’s line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman has been incredible, but that trio has accounted for fewer goals during the streak than Draisaitl’s line with Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele has contributed. Those are the names most heavily featured on the scoresheets from the last 10 games.

The rest of the forwards have contributed precious little. Evander Kane has three points in those 10 games. He has been playing in the bottom six recently. Kane only has five points in his last seventeen games. The combination of Kane’s cold stick and the hot play of McLeod and Foegele has kept Kane in the bottom six. McLeod was out on Saturday night, and Kane got an assist while playing in McLeod’s spot, so stay tuned on that front.

Sam Gagner got two points before getting hurt in the first game of the streak. He hasn’t played since. Connor Brown was a healthy scratch in the first game of the winning streak. He has two points in the other nine games of the streak. Derek Ryan only has one point in the last 10 games. Adam Erne scored a nice goal against the New Jersey Devils in the first game of the streak, but he hasn’t gotten a point since then. Mattias Janmark hasn’t scored a point since December 6, 2023. James Hamblin hasn’t scored a point since November 28.

On another note, the Oilers have outshot their opponents 346-277 (55.5% shot share) during their ten game winning streak. They scored 39 goals on 346 shots, which makes their team shooting percentage 11.27%. According to Hockey Reference, the league average shooting percentage is 10.1% this season. There are five teams with a shooting percentage over 11.27% for the entire season. The Oilers are finsihing at a well above average rate right now, but it isn’t an unsustainable level of performance.

The Oilers have only allowed 17 goals during this ten-game winning streak. 1.7 goals allowed per game is a level of defensive play that this team has only been able to dream of for many years! It would be simple to say that the defencemen have just been playing better. They have, but that’s not all there is to it.

Whatever was ailing the Oilers that was causing all of the rush opportunities against is gone now. No team is perfect, but the Oilers have experienced rush chances against at a FAR lower rate recently than they did at the start of the season. The defencemen have shown more discipline at the offensive blue line, and the forwards have committed to having one forward high in the defensive zone. The 1-1-3 system that Jay Woodcroft utilized early in the season made it far too easy for opponents to attack the neutral zone with speed. Head coach Kris Knoblauch switched to a 1-2-2 neutral zone system, which the Oilers used to great success last season. The 1-2-2 makes it much more difficult for teams to go through the neutral zone with speed.

I detailed this in a piece I wrote shortly after Knoblauch was hired, but he changed the zone defence system for the better. Woodcroft was using a box plus one system where one player would aggressively pursue the puck. It wasn’t the issue during the team’s slow start, but there were several instances where switches on the puck carrier were causing confusion. Knoblauch has put a greater focus on protecting the slot area by having the players simply be closer together and not worry so much about pursuing the puck aggressively. The result has been far fewer breakdowns and high danger chances allowed.

Related: Changes Under Knoblauch

The new systems and improved defensive play have made life easier on Stuart Skinner as well. He is 14-2 in his last sixteen starts, including seven straight wins during this streak. He has stopped 194 of the 204 shots he has faced in his seven starts during this streak, good for an astonishing .951 save percentage. Skinner only allowed more than two goals in one of those starts. His save percentage is up to .903 on the season, and his GAA is now 2.63. According to Moneypuck, Skinner’s .903 save percentage on the season is 31st out of all goalies that have played in more than ten games this season. He’s ahead of Jake Oettinger (.902), Ilya Shesterkin (.901), Jusse Saros (.901), and Andrei Vasilevskiy (.898). Do with that information what you will.

Shout out to Calvin Pickard as well. He’s won his last three starts, stopping 66 out of 73 shots (.904) along the way. He’s got a .902 save percentage in his seven appearances this season. Pickard hasn’t totally shut the door, but he has been more than serviceable as a back up in his limited role.

The Oilers were 30th in the league on the penalty kill at just 70% when the Oilers made their coaching changes this season. Mark Stuart has taken over the penalty kill, and they have improved significantly. They are now eleventh in the league at 81%. In the last 10 games, the Oilers have killed off 28 of 31 penalties (90.32%). They had a five game stretch where they killed off seventeen penalties in a row.

Related: Oilers Penalty Killing Revival

Everything seems to be going right for the Oilers right now, but is it sustainable? The team isn’t going to continue outsourcing their opponents 4.00-1.70 and getting .938 goaltending with Skinner getting 70% of the starts. This is a hot streak. Just like everyone said when nothing could go right for the Oilers early in the season, things have a way of regressing back to the mean. That’s what we’re seeing here. A positive regression up to the mean based on early season results.

However, there are a lot of reasons to believe that the Oilers can play at a high level for the rest of the season. The team has a 20-6-0 record under Knoblauch. There have been systemic changes that have resulted in positive results. This is a strong hockey team under Knoblauch.

These Oilers are closer to reality than the Oilers we saw for the first thirteen games of the season. Yes, depth scoring is still an issue and Skinner playing as much as he is will likely be a long-term issue for the rest of the season and possibly into next season; but these Oilers are an elite team.