So far this postseason no one in the NHL has more goals than Zach Hyman and his 14 goals. The problem is that his goals per series have been on a decline since the first round. For the Edmonton Oilers to have success they need Zach Hyman to start putting the puck in the back of the net again.
Yesterday our newest contributor, Justin Lavoie, wrote an article where he noted some keys to an Edmonton Oilers victory tonight. One of those keys was, that Zach Hyman needs to show up. I think that he is spot on with that take so I am going to do a bit of a deeper dive into what is going on with Hyman numbers wise.
Progressively Getting Worse, Statistically Speaking
While there is no doubt Hyman is a spark plug for this Oilers team and still contributes in other ways even when he doesn't show up on the scoreboard. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, all that matters though is the stat line, you can't win games by playing hard, you still need to score and ever since the first round, Hyman's goal totals have gone down.
Round | Opponent | Games | Goals | Assists | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Los Angeles Kings | 5 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
2 | Vancouver Canucks | 7 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
3 | Dallas Stars | 6 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
4 | Florida Panthers | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Total | 22 | 14 | 6 | 20 |
Now it has only been 4 games so far in this series, but the fact that the Oilers' top goal scorer has yet to tally on goal is a concern heading into tonight's game. Now if he scores tonight then we can crumple up this article and throw it away cause Hyman just proved me wrong. I have full confidence that he has the ability to score but getting one in game 5 would mean a win for the Oilers.
Hyman averages 0.64 goals/game so far in the postseason if he continues that pace he is more than due for a goal this series. While the Panthers are the best team the Oilers have faced so far this postseason, there is no reason Hyman can't score a goal tonight and help propel this Oilers team to the win, forcing a game 6 back in Edmonton.