Edmonton Oilers Stock Report: Team hits first losing streak of the year

The Edmonton Oilers just had their worst week of the season so far, as they have lost three straight games. The first time the team has lost multiple games in a row all year.

Edmonton still rests comfortably with a 16-8-0 record, but the recent struggles are indicative of larger issues that have persisted all season long (more on that later).

So here we go again, with another week of stock report. Let’s dive into this substandard week of Oilers hockey.

Trending up: Darnell Nurse

Nurse means so much to this team, and getting him back was so important. In the two games he played since his return he logged 26:35, and 28:14 of ice time.

That is absurd, and it speaks to how valuable the Oilers’ number one defender is. Nurse is relied upon to handle the most difficult assignments every single night, and on the year he has been very good.

He leads the Oilers with a 56.5 Corsi for percentage, and he is also second on the team in expected goals and high danger chances for percentages (data courtesy of natural stat trick).

Much has been made about the Oilers back end, and rightfully so. But Nurse should be exempt from most of the criticism that is directed at the defense as a whole.

Trending down: Goaltending

It was a rough week for the Oilers’ netminders. I’m torn on how much to blame them versus the porous defense in front of them though.

Because for every goal you would hope a goaltender would stop, there was a golden opportunity given up to the opposition.

At the end of the day though, a goaltender’s job isn’t supposed to be easy. And Edmonton needs more saves, particularly early in games.

You can’t play from behind every game and expect to be a top-flight team in the league. The Oilers have to do a better job of starting on time. And that starts with getting some saves early in games.

Trending up: Zach Hyman

I know that the game against the Penguins feels like forever ago, but I still feel so bad for Hyman, who was robbed of his first career hat trick.

Nonetheless, his dominance has continued as he is now up to 11 goals and eight assists on the season. On pace for a 37 goal, 64 point season.

In case you are unaware that would be an incredible season for a guy making 5.5 million dollars per year.

I seriously could talk about Hyman all day, he brings so much to the table. He is the quintessential two-way forward that coaches drool over.

Trending down: Team record

It has been long established by now that the Edmonton Oilers are not a very good team at five-on-five. And that they rode elite special teams’ play to a strong record.

However, the special teams have regressed and now the Oilers record has joined in lockstep.

There’s a bit of good news/bad news here. First, the good news, Oilers coach Dave Tippett is very well aware of this team’s flaws.

The bad news, they have not been fixed. Obviously, the team has all season to figure things out. That being said we are already through a quarter of the season of this team over-relying on getting multiple powerplay goals per game in order to win.

To put it simply, the Oilers supporting cast has not been good enough. Outside of four players (McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman, and Nurse), this team doesn’t inspire much confidence. Every game seems to come down to whether or not the team’s best players could mask all the other issues the team has.

Every team has flaws, but not every team has the best player in the world. And the Edmonton Oilers have got to be looking at how they can better this roster and insulate McDavid. He’s only human – at least I think – and he can only do so much. This team needs more if it’s going to make serious noise come playoff time.