2019/20 Edmonton Oilers: Twenty Games In and Things are Looking GOOD!

We’re twenty games into the Edmonton Oilers’ 2019/20 NHL season and I just wanted to give you some stats to let you know where they sit as we pass the quarter-mile. The reason I’m doing it this year is just to track how the team plays throughout the year to see where they progress and where they regress. You can check out how they did in their first ten games right here.

To get us started, here is how the roster is scoring. I lifted this image from Lowetide’s blog. You can head over there to read what he’s had to say about this campaign to date.

It’s good to see some of the depth players starting to contribute. A lot of people were complaining about that saying that the Oilers couldn’t sustain their early-season success without help. It’s still pretty lopsided but great goaltending (for the most part) and strong special teams have helped that. They’re still going to have to get more though.

Sheahan, Archibald, Khaira, Granlund, Russell, and Haas have seven points amongst them. Gagner’s feet are failing him now, Jurco and Cave are in the minors, I just think the fact of the matter is, they’ve got some players playing in spots that might be a bit too high up the lineup for their actual talents. Chiasson has 5pts this year playing top-six minutes and that’s not good enough. How long until they clear some of that under-production out to make room for the likes of Tyler Benson or Kailer Yamamoto or possibly bring someone in via trade?

The offense from the blueline has dried up as well and that worries me. Good teams get contributions from their defensemen.

THE STATS

The chart below will look a bit different than last time. I introduced the color green to indicate if the Oilers got better and red if they got worse. Also, you’ll see in that “stat” category some numbers in brackets, those numbers will be the difference from the previous ten games. For example, in the GA metric, the total goals against for the season is 53 and in brackets, colored red is +7. That means the Oilers let in seven more goals in this ten-game block than the last one (30 to 23). Another thing you might observe is that there are some stats that have a + beside it but are red. What I’m trying to tell you there is that even though an increase has occurred, that’s not a good thing for that particular representation. If the number is black, then no change has taken place.

Record: 12-6-2 (3rd)

As we said prior, the special teams was never going to stay as high as it was and both the PK and PP came down a shade. The goals against went up just ever so slightly and in addition to that, shots for was a problem before and we can see that a correction has taken place.

The above stats are courtesy of NHL.com.

These unconventional stats don’t mean a whole lot by the end of the year. We find out who might’ve had the biggest balls, who couldn’t handle the puck, and who hit the net the most, but by no means do any of these metrics have a say in who makes the playoffs or not. I just find them interesting. I suppose to some extent, I do use them to get an idea of if a team’s grit factor is high or not and if they’re being careless.

Let’s move on to the fancies though.

If any of these metrics are unfamiliar to you, please consult the Natural Stat Trick Glossary.

The fancies have come to life! The Oilers had some poor metrics in their first block of ten games but in the latest ten, they’ve improved drastically, most notably in high-danger goals for and high-danger save percentage. Basically, the goals are going in when they shoot from the high-danger areas and at the other end of the rink, the goalies are stopping those shots. The scoring chances created and capitalized on also increased greatly.

We’re nearly 25% done the 2019/20 season and the Oilers are still at the top of the standings for the most part. The possession metrics are progressing and it’s going to be important that they consistently improve as each ten-game bucket passes by.

The stats that concern me and that I would like to see addressed are shots per game played, scoring chances for %, and of course Corsi and Fenwick %. If they can get into the middle of the pack or better with those metrics, I’ll be happy.

How do these numbers speak to you? Are you happy with what you see? Where do you think the team might progress or regress? Did I mess something up? Let us know in the comments below!