There's no denying the Edmonton Oilers are on a roll right now, as arguably the hottest team in the NHL. At 8-2-0 they are tied for the best record in the league over their past 10 games, with an Ottawa Senators team which they just beat 3-1 in their last contest before the Christmas break.
As a result of winning 11 of their past 13 games, the Oilers find themselves up in fourth place in the Western Conference standings. If the playoffs were to begin today they would hold home-ice advantage for their first round matchup, and wouldn't you know that it would be against the Los Angeles Kings, who they've knocked out of the opening round the past three seasons.
However, for as well as the Oilers are playing, you can make the case that they should be even higher in the Western Conference standings. Although we don't mean because of their second consecutive slow start to a season, because all teams suffer slumps at some point (or points) during the long and gruelling slog of an 82-game schedule.
Instead, we're talking about certain aspects of the Oilers' game, which are still holding them back. Here are three team stats, which need to improve in order to have the team better-placed when playoff time rolls around.
.897 - Save percentage
This represents the Oilers' team save percentage for the season through 34 games. Following Monday's slate of NHL action, they are ranked a lowly 22nd in the league, which of course is quite simply not good enough.
Now yes, the duo of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard have gotten better after a slow start to the 2024-25 campaign. In addition, we know that this issue is not solely on the goalies, with the team as a whole severely under-performing defensively at times.
Irrespective though, it is incumbent on the duo to do a better job of stopping the puck hitting the back of the net, particularly Skinner. A big part of a goalie's job is to pick up their teammates when they're struggling and steal the odd game here and there, a la Dominik Hašek during his Buffalo Sabres career.
74.7 - PK efficiency
This relates to the Oilers' penalty kill efficiency to begin the season. At the time of writing, they are ranked all the way down in 26th place among all 32 NHL teams and needs to be better, where even a league-average ranking would make all the difference.
In this respect, the Oilers were indeed around average last season, as they finished with a 79.5 percent penalty kill efficiency which was good enough for 15th-best in the NHL. However, even this was nothing compared to during the playoffs.
Nothing spoke more about how galvanised and in a zone the Oilers were during the 2023-24 playoffs, when they had the best penalty kill unit among all 16 competing teams, with a stunning 94.3 percent efficiency. No one's expecting this level of performance again this season - although it sure as heck couldn't hurt -- but improving to even 20th-best would represent a positive contribution.
7 - Home losses
With 12 wins at home so far in 2024-25, this is just two less than the most among all 32 NHL teams. On the flip side however, the Oilers have also already been dealt seven losses at Rogers Place, with only 11 teams having suffered more defeats on home ice.
To provide some context, consider the last two campaigns for the Oilers at home during the regular season. Back in 2022-23 they lost 12 games all season over 41 home fixtures, while last season they were even better, in suffering just nine losses on home-ice.
Now to be clear, the Oilers have proven their ability to play well on the road, as evidenced by making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final last season despite not holding home-ice advantage for the final three rounds. At the same time however, it's always better if you can minimise your travels wherever possible and enjoy some home cooking, so it's up to the team to find a way to start winning more consistently at home and move further up the standings.