Five games played, nine points on the board.
That's a five-point improvement from last year's opening five-game stretch, a four-point improvement from that of 2024-25, and a six-point improvement from that of the 2023-24 campaign. In addition, the 4-0-1 mark represents the first occasion in five years where the Edmonton Oilers start the season with no regulation losses in their opening five games.
Though it isn't the 5-0-0 start from that 2021-22 campaign, they are one win away from improving on their cumulative six-game point total from that season, which would in turn give them their best six-game stretch to start a campaign during the Connor McDavid era.
The opportunity to do so was made possible by the team's 3-1 win against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, one that featured another strong goaltending performance and some more point-scoring from the defense.
Let's take a look at the four biggest points from Saturday's contest.
Tristan Jarry made the most of his opportunity
With Devon Levi winning each of his first five starts of the season, Tristan Jarry came into Saturday's game requiring a strong effort to stay on level terms with his teammate.
After giving up five goals in his season debut against the Vancouver Canucks, Jarry rebounded in a big way. Despite falling short of the shutout, he was able to keep the Sharks without a goal for 52 minutes before Macklin Celebrini scored off an assist from Michael Misa. Besides the goal, Jarry recorded a .950 save percentage and 19 total saves, with the Oilers defense once again keeping the shots on goal count to a minimum.
To extend Jarry's performance to the bigger picture, it's now been three straight games where the Oilers have given up two goals or fewer; the team has given up just four goals over their last three games. That represent a significant improvement from the 13 goals conceded over the first two games of the season, and it's clear that the goaltending used that Vancouver series as a wake-up call.
Frederik Andersen might be the more experienced of the three Oilers goaltenders, but Jarry and Levi have now both shown that they are capable of holding the fort until he makes his season debut.
If Andersen can continue his strong performance from last year's playoffs, then the Oilers' goaltending could very well be in for a long-awaited bounce-back year.
Podkolzin's ascent continues, but Oilers stars still find a way to contribute
Edmonton's late-game scoring breakthrough saw the Oilers pile on the pressure from the start of the third period. Despite struggling to make their power play opportunities count once again, Vasily Podkolzin eventually earned the Oilers' second goal continuing his hot start to the season with three minutes gone in the third; both McDavid and Evan Bouchard recorded assists on the goal. Two minutes later, Alex Formenton continued the Oilers' early-third-period dominance and, by extension, the successful start to the season for the bottom-six, scoring his first goal of the season off assists from Mathieu Joseph and Connor Murphy.
In a way, this was similar to how the Oilers were able to withstand Seattle's defensive effort last weekend. In that game, the Oilers could only find the game-winning goal with two minutes to play. This time around, the Oilers had to navigate a Sharks team that buckled down after conceding an early goal and held the Oilers to single-digit shots on goal totals up until the start of the third period.
The Oilers are capable of winning games without scoring a lot of goals, but the superstars have to find a way to consistently get on the board. Without that, a lot of potential close games might not go Edmonton's way.
Oilers defense stepping up?
On the offensive side of the ice, yes.
Mattias Ekholm proved that by scoring his first goal of the season. By extension, it acted as the second Oilers goal this season that wasn't scored by a forward or Bouchard; the other was scored by Ryan Shea in the team's second game of the season.
Besides Ekholm's goal and two shots on goal, Bouchard and Murphy recorded points on Saturday; the former's assist represented his 12th point of the season, while the latter had a bounce-back game after spending significant amounts of time against Anaheim in the penalty box.
While Bouchard is still far and away the Oilers' top defenseman when it comes to scoring, the rest of the defensive core still had a big game in the relative absence of the team's biggest stars. Similar to the argument I made in the last takeaway, the ability for the team's defensemen to avoid long stretches of poor form and penalties conceded will also be paramount in their ability to match the offense's production.
No shots on goal? No problem
If one isn't going to win hockey games by creating goals and scoring chances, then why not outskate your opponent.
The Oilers recorded just five shots on goal through the first 36 minutes of the game and had a grand total of zero shots through the opening 70% of the second period.
But what the Oilers could do quite effectively on Saturday was to be the better skating team. They were able to use their skates to move the puck up the ice, create at least a little offensive zone puck circulation, and get back on defense to prevent breakaways and fast breaks. With regard to the latter point, the Oilers almost always had at least three skaters in front of the Sharks' forwards or with eyes on the puck at all times while skating back to their own end of the ice. What resulted was the Sharks struggling to set up consistent offensive zone time for much of the game and consistent turnovers or failed entries at the Oilers' blue line.
Issues like that of the breakaways have become less and less of a problem for the Oilers since the season-opening game. Saturday was proof of that; though the puck has to start getting back towards the goal consistently, the Oilers don't need to always have the puck on their stick to have a good chance at winning. That's on par with the kind of hockey that Mike Babcock wants to instill through the strategic side of the team's performance, and it's clear that the structural changes that have resulted are starting to fully take their place in the organization.
What's next?
The Oilers will have another two-day break before heading south to face the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday. That contest will act as the final stop on a three-game, early-season California road trip; puck drop in that contest is set for 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
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