4 Edmonton Oilers New Year resolutions for 2024

Happy New Year to one and all from everyone at Oil on Whyte, with us hoping 2024 is a good one for you. This includes the Edmonton Oilers.

The 2023 portion of this season was an interesting one for the Oilers. Tagged as preseason favorites by ESPN to win it all, things haven't quite gone to plan thus far.

What the rest of this season holds for the Oilers remains to be seen. However, here are four New Year resolutions which, if they can fulfill, will go some way towards finally winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1989-90:

1) Resolve the goalie situation behind Stuart Skinner

From an overall season perspective to date, the team goalie stats for the Oilers are not exactly encouraging. At the time of posting, they are tied-26th with a .891 save percentage and 20th with a 3.24 Goals Against Average (GAA).

However, consider that at one point it was even more dire, with the worst team save percentage and second-worst GAA in the NHL. This speaks to an improvement which sees the Oilers ranked eighth with a .913 save percentage and fifth with a 2.38 GAA in their past 16 games.

In this respect, Stuart Skinner has completely turned his season around. At one stage he had a horrific 1-5-1 record through seven starts, as well as the third-worst save percentage among all NHL goaltenders.

Since then however, as the team has improved so has Skinner, with a spectacular 13-4-0 record in his past 17 starts. While his overall .892 save percentage still doesn't look great, it's above .900 since Kris Knoblauch came in.

In this respect, the Edmonton native is more than proving he has the chance to be the long-term solution in net for the Oilers. There is the concern of playing too much however, with his 24 starts, already halfway to his total from all of last season.

The question is, what do the Oilers do about their goaltending situation behind Skinner? In fairness, Calvin Pickard has been decent in his five starts, but there is some doubt -- fair or not -- based on his previous experience at the NHL level.

There has been talk of giving Olivier Rodrigue a chance with the Oilers and certainly he does offer some intriguing upside. He's been excellent in Bakersfield since taking over from Jack Campbell as the number one, and overall he is second among all qualifying AHL goalies in save percentage this season.

There is also still the option on the table of trading for a quality goalie, whether it be to serve as a backup or even as part of a tandem, although this would come at a cost. Ultimately, whatever route the Oilers decide to take, they need to give Skinner more time off or risk running him into the ground.

2) Be more consistent with their performances

The Oilers are notorious for their slow starts to the season. However, the 2023-24 campaign has been notable for them also being extremely erratic and streaky when it comes to wins and losses.

Consider that the Oilers began this season with a 2-9-1 record. This represented the worst start to a season through 12 games in franchise history, costing Jay Woodcroft his job in the process.

Then, after Knoblauch took over as head coach and started 0-2, the team lost three straight, With a record of 5-12-1, this was the Oilers' fourth-worst ever start to a campaign through 18 games.

To further highlight the streaky nature of this team, they then rattled off eight wins in a row. This was one off the franchise record for consecutive wins and all seemed right in the world again.

However, the up and down, roller coaster nature of 2023-24 continued for the Oilers, with three terrible losses by a combined 15-5. Just like that, the hopes and dreams for fans, was replaced by the desolate and inconsolable feeling from earlier in the season.

Since then though, the Oilers have been on a(nother) role with five straight wins, all of which have come on the road. As a result, after beginning this season 2-8-0 on their travels, they have since gone 7-1-0.

Of course, the question is can the Oilers now find more consistency in the New Year, which they enter with a 18-15-1 record? If you're looking for a positive omen, consider that they were 18-14-2 at the same point in each of the previous two seasons, and finished with 49 and 50 regular season wins respectively.

3) Strive to be the best once again

Already established as the best player in the game today, Connor McDavid took his play to another stratosphere last season. He scored the most points since Mario Lemieux during the 1995-96 season and the fourth-most by any player in NHL history.

As a result, McDavid won his fifth Art Ross Trophy. In addition, he took home his third Hart Trophy, fourth Ted Lindsay Award and first Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy.

This season however, has been a tough one thus far for the 2015 first overall draft pick. It's been filled with plenty of adversity, including missing some playing time through injury, the Oilers' poor start and even controversy regarding his induction into the Canada Walk of Fame.

Worst of all, McDavid received unwarranted criticism from so-called fans with a short memory. Yes he was struggling by his own lofty standards as he equalled a career-worst eight-game goal drought, but still had 16 points through 16 games.

Regardless, the six-time All-Star then found his form, beginning with four assists in a 5-0 shutout of the Capitals. This represented the first of three straight games with three points in a single period, a feat not seen in 28 years.

All in all, McDavid has produced 32 points in his past 16 games, literally double the production from his first 16 contests of the 2023-24 campaign. As a result he has urged up the scoring charts and is now tied-fifth and 13 points behind NHL-leading Nikita Kucherov.

Certainly there is still a tough climb ahead of the Richmond Hill, Ontario native, in order to catch up to Kucherov. However, if there's one player capable of catching the Russian, it's the Oilers' captain.

No one is better when they're in a zone, compared to McDavid. He may well not end up winning four individual awards like last season, but he's going to at least be in the running for them all when it comes to crunch time.