Eric Bouchard’s overtime goal helped the Edmonton Oilers defeat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 at the Bell Centre on Saturday, January 13, setting a new franchise record.
The Oilers twice achieved the longest winning streak in team history—nine games in 2000–01 and 2022–23. The club has been playing fantastically lately; they haven’t lost since December 19 and have won 10 games in a row while outscoring the opposition by a total of 22 goals.
However, a closer look reveals a lot of statistics that don’t support the notion that Edmonton is enjoying unprecedented prosperity. Are the Oilers simply fortunate to have won ten straight games? Or have they discovered fresh strategies for victory that would be more enduring and appropriate for a championship run? Here are a few oddities and characteristics of Edmonton’s record-breaking winning run:
The Oilers have tied the team record for the most games in a row won without scoring more than three goals with their last four victory, with three, two, three, and two goals scored, respectively.
The Oilers have only scored eight goals overall in regulation during these four games, but thanks to some tough defense and outstanding goaltending from Stuart Skinner, along with Calvin Pickard, they haven’t needed to score a ton of goals to win lately
During Edmonton’s current winning streak, opponents have only managed to score a pitiful total of 17 goals, while the Oilers have only let up five goals in these past four games.
Although Bouchard’s game-winning goal in Montreal was scored with the Oilers’ man advantage, the team’s power play hasn’t been very successful lately. They have won 10 games in a row, but their percentage of wins with the man advantage is only 17.9% (5/28)—much lower than it was before the run started.
However, throughout the last ten games, the Oilers’ penalty kill percentage has increased significantly to 90.3% (28/31) from 78.3% prior to the winning streak. Not too long ago, the Oilers were so dependent on the man advantage to produce goals that a prolonged period of time with a power-play rate of about 17–18% may have been extremely problematic for them.
The Oilers are averaging nearly four goals per game throughout their winning run, despite their recent four-game winning streak consisting of just 10 goals overall. However, throughout the win streak, neither of Edmonton’s MVP-winning duo, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, has been as effective as normal. Together, they have only had three multi-point games.
