Edmonton Oilers Recent Success Is A Positive Sign

After their 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens last night, the Edmonton Oilers have now won4 of their last 5. Winning at that rate is always a good sign for any team, but it is even more important for the Edmonton Oilers right now.

Want your voice heard? Join the Oil On Whyte team!

Write for us!

The Stack Of Injured Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers are missing 4 players right now do to injury. They aren’t a bunch of 4th liners either. The Oilers are missing 1/3 of their top six players and 2/3 of their third line.

Evander Kane is gone for a long time after getting his wrist stepped on with a skate and getting a deep cut. The good news for Kane is that his on the ice skating. Even if he is still taking it easy on the one hand. Seeing him out there is promising.

Kailer Yamamoto has also missed the few games as well, with an undisclosed injury. We don’t know when he will be back on the ice playing games. Yamamoto so far this season has only 3 assists in 13 games played. With numbers like that I think he may have been playing with the injury for the whole season.

The other two players that are out are two third line staples in Warren Foegele and Ryan McLeod. Both of these players play mostly on the third line and McLeod is a key piece on the penalty. Even Foegele has seen some time on the PK this year.

Missing 4 of your 12 regular forwards is tough. The good news for the Edmonton Oilers is their replacements have came in and done very well. This goes to show that Ken Holland has done a good job creating depth in the forward group.

Winning With Average to Subpar Goaltending

Coming into this season the Edmonton Oilers had two new goalies taking the reigns in the net. The newly signed Jack Campbell and homegrown Stuart Skinner. Campbell was brought in to be the starter while Skinner was to feel his way into the NHL as a backup.

So far this season it appears to be the opposite. Campbell has struggled in net more times than not. In 13 games this season Campbell has 7 wins with a 4.12 GAA and a 0.872 SV%. These are not starting goalie numbers. The only good news with Campbell is with those bad numbers he still has those 7 wins.

Skinner on the other hand in his 13 game appearances also has 7 wins. For Skinner though his stat line is much better with a 2.91 GAA and a 0.914 SV%. The goalies have role reversed right now for the Edmonton Oilers.

Right now Skinner has to start more often cause the Edmonton Oilers need solid play from their goalies and they just can’t be guaranteed that with Campbell. This is could become an issue because Skinner is still trying to learn as a goalie and when he starts most game there isn’t much time for growing his game.

Once The Edmonton Oilers Are Healthy They Will Be Better

Right now the Edmonton Oilers are winning games while being shorthanded due to all their injuries. In the next few weeks they should hopefully be getting most their players back.

Once this lineup is back to having everyone in it I think the Edmonton Oilers will be an even better team than they were before the injuries. The players have learned how to win and compete without all the extra skill in their line up. Once the skill is back if they keep the same work ethic they will be an even better team.

In that time hopefully Jack Campbell can find his game and the Edmonton Oilers will have two goalies that on any night can get you a win. As mentioned before it’s not like Skinner is playing bad, I would just like to see him get more breaks between games. With that time he can work with the goaltending coaches to improve his already good game.

We are going to have to wait and see what happens once all these players get back and on their game. In the meantime though if the Edmonton Oilers can keep winning games with this depleted lineup that can only go to prove they are a Stanley Cup contender.