Edmonton Oilers: Goaltending Isn’t The Biggest Issue

Before the start of the season there were lots of questions regarding the skill of the Edmonton Oilers goaltending. We are now 14 games into the season and the play of the goaltenders have put an end to those questions.

Through the first 14 games of the season the Edmonton Oilers have won 11 games and are second in the NHL in point percentage. They sit 1st in goals for and 22nd in goals against. The teams save percentage is currently sitting at 90.67%. That save percentage is 19th in the league. There should be no reason the Oilers should be prioritizing bringing in a new goaltender. In fact the goaltending is one of the stronger parts of their game.

5v5 Play Needs to be Better

As I noted earlier the Oilers are 22nd in goals against but, that is overall goals. If you break it down to 5v5 the goals, they slide down the 27th in the league. There 5v5 goals for is still good in comparison to the rest of the league, sitting in 4rd place. Through the first 15 games they are only at -2 goal differential.

They have given up 156 high danger chances against 5v5 that is the 5th highest in the league. While they have gotten 139 chances for. This is something the Edmonton Oilers need to work on. Even with giving up that many chances the the goaltending save percentage is above average.

Penalty Kill Saves

The Edmonton Oilers penalty kill is the second best in the league right now, killing penalties at a 86.96% rate. This is in big part to the goaltending. The adage says “the goalie is your most important penalty killer” this couldn’t be more true with current Oiler team.

The goalies for this team are leading the NHL in penalty kill save percentage with 92.68%. The league average is sitting at 86.68%. A 6% difference is quite a lot when it comes to save percentage in the NHL.

All the Really Matters is the W

With a record of 9-2, Mikko Koskinen leads the league in wins. He may be 27th in save percentage in goalies who have 5 or games played, but he has the most wins. This means he may not make the most saves, but he makes them when they matter. This also connects to the amount of high danger chances he faces. More dangerous chances is going to lead to more goals.

Take a look at the win against the St. Louis Blues.  He did give up 4 goals against, but he made a number of big saves in a few big moments. This includes a couple of saves in the final moments of the game that would lead to the game winner by Kailer Yamamoto.

There was also a soft goal given up against the Winnipeg Jets last night. Even though Koskinen let that in he was able to make much more big saves throughout the game. He was the reason that the game was within reach in the third period.

If the Mike Smith injury is worse than originally thought or the stats of these goalies go down the Oilers might want to go goalie hunting. Right now I think that the major issue is giving up chances against, not the amount of saves not being made. If the Edmonton Oilers are able to cut down chances against the goaltending will only get better.

Stats provided by Natural Stat Trick