November 13, 2022 by Raghu Sharma

The Edmonton Oilers pulled off a gutsy 3-2 road victory over the Florida Panthers on Saturday. The Oilers record now stands at a decent, but unimpressive 9-7-0 through 16 games.

Here’s a recap of what has gone right, what has gone wrong so far, and some key areas of focus the Oilers need to address if they intend of competing for a division title and another long playoff run in the spring.

Let’s start with what has gone right, and to no one’s surprise, the Oilers continue to excel down the middle thanks to superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who have 32 and 28 points, respectively, in just 16 games. McDavid and Draisaitl have started the season right where they left off in the 2022 playoffs, each averaging around two points per game.

McDavid is well on pace to his first 50-goal season, and he has a real shot of hitting 60. Draisaitl will surely push for 50 goals, as well. They could become the first set of teammates since Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in 1995-96 to each score 50 goals in a single season.

Related: Can Connor McDavid win the Rocket Richard Trophy this season?

With emergence of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as a legitimate top-six winger, the Oilers have been able to play Ryan McLeod as a third line centre, adding to real depth down the middle. The Oilers appear to have found a true home developed goaltender in Stuart Skinner, who has posted a 2.53 goals against average and a .932 save percentage in seven appearance this season.

Finally, the Oilers are continuing to post astounding numbers on the power-play. Edmonton currently ranks second in the league at 32.2 percent, putting them just behind the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche for the top spot (39.0).

Despite several positives thus far, the Oilers have a worse record than they should. There are a few key areas that need improvement over the final 66 games this season.

As I mentioned, the power-play is a real strength, but the penalty kill is an entirely different story. The Oilers currently rank 29th while shorthanded the with a dreadful 70.6 percent. This same penalty kill ranked 17th last season and was second in 2020-21, so the trend we are seeing is a concern.

The Oilers have also seen a lack of production from the back end with Tyson Barrie, Darnell Nurse, and especially Evan Bouchard having some slow starts. However, Barrie did score two critical goals on Saturday, so hopefully he can keep that up.

Edmonton’s biggest free agent signing, Jack Campbell, is also off to a rocky start. Campbell has a winning record at 6-4-0, but his 4.27 goals against average and .873 save percentage leave much to be desired.

Now, on the bright side, the Oilers are going through some of these growing pains earlier in the season rather than later, which is always a good thing. All these areas mentioned can be improved upon and the Oilers did a fantastic job of cleaning up these areas following a disappointing 7-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.

Warren Foegele has come alive as of late with a shorthanded goal he scored against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. Foegele had an excellent performance again today and got the game winning goal with good persistence
stripping Aleksander Barkov in his own zone, leading to a pass from Draisaitl to finish off a beautiful play.

It will be important for depth scoring to continue to produce especially with the loss of Evander Kane earlier this week when he suffered a skate blade to the wrist against the Tampa Bay Lightning who will be out for three to four months. The Oilers still have a lot to clean up despite the win, they still allowed 42 shots on goal and Skinner had a fantastic first period to keep the Oilers in the game despite being outshot 20-7.

If the Oilers can figure out how to start games on time, work better at boxing out high scoring rebound opportunities in their own zone and, continue to transition the pucks out of their own zone they can right the shaky ship to start the season.

Next up the Oilers return home for a light two-game schedule against division rivals the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday and the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.