The Edmonton Oilers have been stuck in a pit of misery for far too long. What’s wrong in Edmonton?
The Edmonton Oilers are winding down on a season where they have once again failed to reach expectations. For the 12th time in the past 13 seasons, they will not be playing hockey past early April. But why? What has gone wrong?
Before getting to that, it would be wrong not to mention that since Andrej Sekera has come back from injury, the Oilers are 7-2-2 in those 11 games. While their recent play gives some hope, it is too late to mount a comeback in the standings. However, if we are being fair, this is a great sign for the team moving forward perhaps.
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Now that I have added two nice paragraphs, let’s examine what is wrong with the Oilers. This is based on how their season has gone overall. And because of this, the feeling isn’t as warm and fuzzy.
Lack of Secondary Scoring
It seems like one of the same problems is constantly repeating itself. The Oilers have a lack of secondary scoring and they have for a while. Sam Gagner has come back and been surprisingly decent for the Oilers. Other than him, Edmonton has not had much secondary scoring.
Another player that has been pretty good is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but given that he was the first-overall pick in the 2011 draft, he continues to disappoint me. I have waited for him to come alive and be an elite player. And while this season he’s gotten closer to it, he still falls short of the “elite” distinction. He has been very good, but not great nor outstanding. That or my expectations of him are unreasonable. Regardless, he has not met elite status expectations to this point.
The Oilers have more issues that secondary scoring, but to me, that is the biggest issue. If you look at their team stats you will see that outside of Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid no one on Edmonton has really scored. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, again, is having a good season but nothing great. Nothing that jumps at you when you look at a player making the money he is.
| Rk | Player | GP | G | A | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connor McDavid | 65 | 34 | 64 | 98 |
| 2 | Leon Draisaitl | 69 | 42 | 47 | 89 |
| 3 | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | 69 | 22 | 36 | 58 |
| 4 | Darnell Nurse | 69 | 8 | 27 | 35 |
| 5 | Alex Chiasson | 60 | 19 | 12 | 31 |
| 6 | Zack Kassian | 66 | 12 | 9 | 21 |
| 7 | Oscar Klefbom | 48 | 5 | 14 | 19 |
| 8 | Milan Lucic | 67 | 5 | 12 | 17 |
| 9 | Adam Larsson | 69 | 3 | 14 | 17 |
| 10 | Jujhar Khaira | 56 | 3 | 13 | 16 |
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/12/2019.
As you can see from the number 3 spot to the number 4 spot is a 23 point difference. And number four is a defenseman so for that standard 35 points is pretty solid. Darnell Nurse is having a good season. The spread is even wider from one forward to the next. That spread is 27 points and I never expected that name to be Alex Chiasson, but as it turns out, he is the fifth best points producer on the Edmonton Oilers. What were the odds?
The Oilers have two other bigger problems, the first I will discuss is their cap issues, later I will discuss the goaltending.
This article continues on the next slide.