Segment Review, Part 2: Games 11-20
The baddest news about the Edmonton Oilers is at last getting better.
The teams very expensive and highly-ranked defensive unit, which skated like it was swamped by concrete and moved the puck like it was made of their own personal kryptonite to start the year, is finally trending up.
Every single regular Oilers d-man, save for Alec Regula, moved the puck far better and defended Edmonton’s net better in this second ten-game chunk of the season, Game 11-to-20, than they did in the first ten games when they were individually and collectively atrocious.
They’re all advancing the puck with greater efficiency to some degree but their biggest individual and collective improvement comes in their own zone, where they’ve taken a huge step in cutting down on the ugly mistakes (turnovers, lost battles, missed assignments, allowed slot passes and shots, bad line changes) that cause Grade A shots and goal against.
On an individual level we see that Evan Bouchard went from making an awful 2.45 major mistakes on even strength Grade A shots per 15 in the first 10 games to a still bad but improved 1.97 mistakes per 15 in the most recent ten games.
Other d-men?
Struggling Darnell Nurse improved from 2.51 mistakes per 15 to 1.79 per 15, unsteady Jake Walman from 2.43 to 2.31 per 15, Ty Emberson from an OK-ish 1.6 to a strong 1.02, Brett Kulak from 1.67 to an astoundingly good 0.66, and Mattias Ekholm from 1.99 to a decent 1.53.
As a group, the d-men in the last 10 games weren’t as good as they were under Paul Coffey, but they’re now getting within striking distance. They’re trending in the right direction, though it’s fair to say Walman continues to struggle playing his off-side, and Nurse and Bouchard still have a ways to go in solidifying their defensive play.
Here are the stats when it comes to major individual contributions and mistakes on all Grade A shots for and against the Oilers at even strength for the last 10 games.
Grade A 11-20 games
And here are numbers for the first 10 games (We’ve been doing video review of Grade A shots for and against the Oilers for 15 years now. Our work isn’t meant to be case-closed in defining the true talent of any one player. It’s our own attempt to dig into the guts of the game — the creation of goals and Grade A shots — and to keep careful notes and detailed records of each player so we have some fair and accurate basis to measure his play, as opposed to going only by eye test and memory or by mainly using the NHL’s team-based shot metrics to rank individual players.).
Grade A 10 games
Oilers team stats, overall and second segment
As a team, the Oilers were mediocre in the second segment, Games 11 to 20, with five wins and five losses, but two of those loses were in extra time so Edmonton won points in both matches.
They were outshot a bit overall in the second ten games, but had almost exactly the same number of Grade A and 5-alarm shots as the opposition. This paints them as a thoroughly average NHL team right now.
coach 20 games
Won-loss
 G1-10: 4-4-2, .500
G11-20: 5-3-2, .600
Goals
  G1:10: 29 GF, 31 GA, 48.3%
G11-20: 33 GF, 37 GA, 47.1%
Shots and PDO
  G1-10: 291 SF, 238 SA, 55.0%, .969 PDO
G11-20: 273 SF, 274 SA, 48.7% .986 PDO
Grade A shots
 G1-10: 131 Grade A SF, 137 Grade A SA , 48.9 Grade A shots%
G11-20: 143 Grade A SF , 140 Grade A SA, 50.5 Grade A shots%
5-alarm shot metrics
 G1-10: 60 5-alarm SF, 53, 5-alarm SA, 53.1 5-alarm shots%
G11-20: 65 5-alarm SF, 68 5-alarm SA, 48.8 5-alarm shots%
Player Grades
The overall two-way performance of Edmonton’s centres dropped off in the second segment, but the scoring of McDavid and Draisaitl picked up, so it’s not an issue for now. The power play remains strong and the penalty kill is improving, as is the play of goalie Stuart Skinner, who might be entering something of a hot streak.
It’s not surprising to see Skinner’s play improving with the play of the d-men in front of him, right?
Player grades g11 – 20
First 10 games segment review, Games 1-10
At the Cult of Hockey
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