Oilers are peaking at the right time

Several players are leading to the team’s recent run of success. The McDrai duo is doing their usual bang-up job, they’ve grabbed a lot of headlines by doing their thing and being 1-2 in league scoring and obviously on the team as well.

This is fantastic, but as past seasons have shown two players can’t will the team to success. The bigger story is how other players are chipping in as cavalry to help out the McDrai duo.

Let’s start with the man in the picture, The Nuge. He’s in the midst of a career year in goals, assists, and points, going 35-61-96 so far this season and playing full-time in the top six ever since Ken Holland traded for Nick Bjugstad. Those are all career highs for him, and he seems destined for the first 100-point season of his career with seven games left in the season.

That five-point game he had against Vegas certainly didn’t hurt that cause. Of course, he’s also riding a 19.1% shooting %, almost 7% above his career average, so don’t expect him to duplicate that next season, but for now, we can certainly enjoy the ride.

Zach Hyman has also followed suit, setting career highs in goals, assists, and points, going 33-45-78 in 72 games this season. This is the first time he’s cracked the 30-goal mark in his career, and also the first time he’s putting up a point per game plus. The best part of Hyman’s success is it might be a lasting success, because his shooting % is 12.9%, only 0.5% above his career average. His secret to success is simply shooting more as he already has 255 shots on the season, with more time left in the season.

Kailer Yamamoto and Evander Kane have both struggled with injuries this season, but both appear to be getting healthier and back up to speed. Kane has 14 goals and 25 points in 34 games this season, and with seven games left in the season 20 goals is still within reach for him – I wouldn’t count him out as he certainly has the talent to get there. Kane’s -9 – one of three minus players on the team – I’m sure we can chalk up to recovering from two major injuries as he was +25 for this team just last year. I have a feeling he didn’t just suddenly forget how to play defence – no concrete proof, but just a feeling.  🙂

Yamo, meanwhile, has 10 goals on the season and it’s probably asking a bit much for him to crack 20 goals at this point, but it appears between injury recovery and jettisoning the snakebitten nature of his play from earlier on in the season, he’s coming on at the right time. He’s currently on a three-game points streak and has currently put up 5-5-10 in the month of March, by far his most productive month boxcars-wise. Let’s hope Yamo can build on the 2-5-7 that he put up in 14 games in the playoffs for us last year. Also, a sign the not quite in his prime 24-year-old is taking a step forward in his career – he’s rebounded from a -1 last season to a +10 so far this season.

This is a top six that’s looking healthy and very good going into the playoffs – buoyed by the fact that Jesse Puljujarvi is no longer bringing it down.

Now you know why the Oilers are leading the league in Goals For.

A key ingredient for the Oilers this season, however – one which has been incrementally getting better over the last few seasons – is the depth scoring has markedly improved from seasons past. Outside of those top six forwards that I’ve mentioned, Darnell Nurse, Warren Foegele, Ryan Mcleod, Klim Kostin, and Derek Ryan all have 10+ goals on the season. Mattias Janmark is also hot on their heels with eight on the season and Evan Bouchard could get there as well as he has six goals with seven games remaining. If you include the boxcars from their old teams, Nick Bjugstad has reached that mark as well and Mattias Ekholm is close with eight goals on the season.

That’s five out of six bottom six forwards – very stellar.