Trick Or Treat: Edmonton Oilers Edition

With today being Halloween and pretty soon the kids will be roaming the streets hollering “Trick Or Treat”. With that in mind I am going to take a look at things that have happened so far that will in the future be proven to be a trick or treat for the Edmonton Oilers.

For example after the first game I wrote in my post game that McDavid is on pace for 328 penalty minutes. This has proven to be a “Trick” as obviously McDavid isn’t going to continue to take penalties at a rate anywhere near that.

Below are some Edmonton Oilers related things that we all hope will be “treats” but may end up being “tricks”.

Connor McDavid Leading The Edmonton Oilers In Goals

Connor McDavid is known around the NHL as the league’s best player, but in the past not at the league’s best goal scorer. Right now he should be considered as both as he is currently leading the league in points and goals.

After 9 games McDavid has 9 goals. The next closest players in the league have 7 goals, there is 6 players at that mark. The player with the stats that compare the closest to McDavid is David Pastrnak who in his 9 games has 7 goals and 10 assists which puts him one point behind the Edmonton Oilers captain.

McDavid already has two hat tricks and the Edmonton Oilers have only played 9 games. That is an impressive stat. Not to mention he is still averaging one goal per game. After the first couple games I thought this couldn’t be sustainable, but the season is just over a tenth of the way done.

Maybe this in the new Connor McDavid, a McDavid that can score goals at what seems like will. Connor found a new level in the Playoffs last season and it looks like that may have carried over into this new season.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Fire 🔥

In this fairly young season Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has had a bounce back season. With 5 goals and 6 assists in the Edmonton Oilers 9 games there is no wonder why he is playing wing on the top 6 now.

Last season Nugent-Hopkins struggled to score goals. In the 63 games he played he only scored 11 goals. He is already almost halfway to that number and it has only been 9 games.

Currently Nugent-Hopkins is playing on a line with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman. Just take a look at the note above and there is no wonder why Nuge is having more success this season. He isn’t struggling to score, so he is getting to play with top players.

He had a fairly slow start to the season when he was centering the third line, but ever sense  he has been bumped up to the top line he has excelled. With his new contract the dollar value makes him look like a steal right now. Hopefully he can keep it going.

Puljujarvi-McLeod-Foegele Magic

Another good thing that came out of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins being moved up in the Edmonton Oilers lineup is the creation of the new third line. The line of Puljujarvi-McLeod-Foegele has looked really good since it has been formed.

At the start of the season both Puljujarvi and Foegele were involved in trade rumors that would give the Edmonton Oilers some cap space. Right now the way that line is playing I don’t see either of those players going anywhere.

It is nice the way things have worked out to me. The fact that Nugent-Hopkins has found a nice niche in the top 6 pushed Puljujarvi down to the third line. While on the third line Puljujarvi will be able to hopefully gain confidence while playing down there.

The speed and size of this line make them hard to play against as well. They are not only contributing offensively but they are solid defensively as well. Which is something the Edmonton Oilers coaching staff love to see and will continue to see from them.

Edmonton Oilers Winning Tandem

The big change during this offseason was that both goalies for the Edmonton Oilers were going to be different. As much Koskinen and Smith took the Edmonton Oilers to the Western Conference Finals, there was room for improvement.

So far this year I believe the Edmonton Oilers goaltending has been a. improvement from last season. There has been some blimps in their games, more so for Campbell, but the blimps still mostly ended up in wins.

The Edmonton Oilers goalies have both won 66% of the games that they have started. I imagine this number will increase as the season goes on. In the losses the Oilers team in front of them were mostly to blame for the loses not the goalies.

The fact that we haven’t blamed a loss on a goalie yet is something that we haven’t been able to do in quite a few years. It is nice to know what to expect from a goalie on a night to night basis and know they aren’t going to cost you the game.

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Now We Wait

Just like a kid waiting to head out to go trick or treating we won’t know what we get for a while when it comes to these points. As an Edmonton Oilers fan I hope they all become “treats” and the Oilers have a fantastic season.

I don’t know if they all will be that way thought. That doesn’t matter though, just as long as most do.