Edmonton Oilers End the Regular Season with an Exclamation Point

The Edmonton Oilers are coming into the 2023 NHL playoffs on a rhythm that could be difficult for other teams to slow down, writes Avry Lewis-McDougall.

Thursday's win over the San Jose Sharks wrapped up a bow on the Edmonton Oilers' best regular season since the mid-1980s. 

With a 50-23-9 record, the Oilers tied the 1984-85 team for the fourth-most points in franchise history.

Game 82 finished a year that saw Connor McDavid put up a career-high 64 goals and 153 points, and Leon Draisaitl produced another campaign of more than 120 points. Edmonton also set the NHL's best power-play percentage in a season since it was first tracked in 1977-78, at 32.4 percent. They even led the league in shorthanded goals with 18. 

The Oilers improved on their last few seasons, but they also ended with the level of consistency they lacked at times earlier on. 

Edmonton ended its regular season going 14-0-1, the best stretch among any team's final 15 games in the league. The Oilers won two games in a row 11 times but won a third-straight match five times. And yet, they finished their season with nine straight victories.

One of the biggest question marks on this team was whether they could find offense outside of McDavid and Draisaitl. Edmonton's bottom nine forwards were able to help – and then some. 

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman put up career years, and 12 forwards recorded at least 10 goals. Depth scoring was an issue in Edmonton, but in the back half of this campaign, the Oilers were able to get timely contributions from Derek Ryan, Mattias Janmark, Warren Foegele and trade deadline acquisition Nick Bjugstad. 

Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said the depth production will be important come playoff time when they need a spark outside of the biggest names on the roster.

"Where we're about to get to, you need contributions from everybody," Woodcroft said. "Sometimes, the best players on both teams saw each other off, and you're looking for a little bit of production elsewhere. We have a lot of guys who can score when given the opportunity."

With much of the talk being centered around Edmonton's offensive ability, the squad also became more defensively responsible. In the Oilers' final seven games of the regular season, no team scored more than two goals against them, which included six straight games allowing one goal at most. 

Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard also continued to shine together as a defensive pairing on the blueline. In 21 games together in 5-on-5 situations, the duo was on the ice for 27 goals-for and only allowed eight while holding a Corsi-for percentage of 59.02 percent, according to naturalstattrick.com.

In net, Stuart Skinner's run as the Oilers' starting goaltender in 2022-23 was one of the better stories this regular season. His 29th win on the year set a new Oilers franchise record for rookie goaltender wins, surpassing the 28 of Grant Fuhr from the 1981-82 campaign.

The Edmonton-born goaltender isn't taking for granted what it means to break a mark held by one of the most iconic netminders the franchise has ever had, but he also recognized the bigger task at hand.

"It means a lot, being recognized in the same sentences as Grant Fuhr," Skinner said. "Growing up in Edmonton, all you heard about was how fantastic of a goalie he is, a competitor. I mean, he's a Hall of Fame goalie, one of the best goalies to ever play the game. It's a really cool moment. 

"At the same time, (the) regular season, it's about trying to make your way into the playoffs. Now that we're able to do that, the season's over with, and it's all about the post-season."

Part of playoff hockey is doing whatever it takes to win, from the special teams to tying wins together and being strong in their own end. Woodcroft said he likes that characteristic about his team, even if the wins aren't always pretty.  

"I like the rhythm that our team is in," Woodcroft said. "We've been a team here down the stretch that has been finding ways to win. It's not always perfect – we make some mistakes here and there – but I think there's a real belief in each other and what the opportunity before us is."

With the task at hand now turning towards the post-season, we now know who the Oilers will face this coming Monday. It's an opponent they're starting to get familiar with in the playoffs – the Los Angeles Kings. 

Fans from both teams still talk about last year's seven-game thriller that went the way of the Oilers. Edmonton took the 2022-23 season series between the two sides, but there was no love lost all year long. For an Oilers team that is more balanced and better defensively, the odds of them finding a way to get past the Kings in fewer than six games this time around could be in their favor. 

With expectations to not only repeat but exceed what they were able to do last summer, you'd be wise to keep an eye on every single Edmonton playoff game.