Connor McDavid has one goal in five games and is on pace for an 82-point season.
Leon Draisaitl has a pair of five-on-five points in five games.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has one assist on the season and Zach Hyman is sitting on goose eggs across the board.
Edmonton’s power play is 28th in the NHL at 7.7% (one goal on 13 chances) and their offence ranks 30th in the league at 2.2 goals per game.
By rights, the Edmonton Oilers should be dead in the water. And they would be — they’d be 0-5 and in full panic mode today — if not for the depth guys.
You never doubt McDavid and Draisaitl. They re going to get rolling and they’re are going to break 100 points and push for 50 goals. That part is automatic.
And you have to assume that Hyman’s work ethic will translate into offence and Nugent-Hopkins has started slowly and finished fast before.
And the power play is legendary.
They all will come around.
But guys like Connor Brown, Adam Henrique, Corey Perry, Mattias Janmark and Jeff Skinner are driving the bus right now.
It was Brown and Henrique who scored to overcome a 2-0 deficit against Philadelphia when the loaded up top line of McDavid, Draisaitl and Hyman wasn’t getting anything done. McDavid and Draisaitl moved in for the kill late in the third period and in overtime, but if not for the depth guys keeping it close, the game would have been lost.
It was more of the same in Nashville. Once again Kris Knoblauch put the big guns together on the top line, but it was third-pairing defenceman Brett Kulak (from Janmark) and Skinner (on a play made possible by Perry) who made it 2-2, setting the stage for McDavid to swoop in and score the winner.
“I haven’t played with (Perry) long, but I know him from around the league and he’s pretty slippery around the net, he’s got some really good hands,” said Skinner, who has two goals and two assists in his past four games, all of them at even strength.
“It was a great play by him to start it off. Just before that he won the battle behind the net so it was a couple of good plays by him.”
What we’re seeing right now is a very good sign. It’s better, actually, than the alternative we’ve seen in year’s past — two guys and a power play carrying the entire load while the rest of the team goes along for the ride.
When the top six isn’t producing like it can and the power play isn’t cooking, it speaks well for the Oilers that they can still win games.
Not as many games as they’d like, they’re still 2-3 and if they don’t improve at the top end of their roster they will be in trouble Saturday afternoon in Dallas, but this has the makings of the most complete group of forwards we’ve seen here in some time.
When the top end of this roster gets going and the power play (in an 0-for-9 drought) joins the fight, this team could be dangerous.
“We’ve got a couple of goals after power plays expired from that second unit, which is very important for us,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Our top unit has had some good looks, it’s only a matter of time before they start putting the puck in the net.”
This depth presence reached its peak last season in the playoffs, when Janmark, Henrique, Brown and Perry combined for the same number of goals in the Stanley Cup final (six) as McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins.
Edmonton lost some good players over the summer (former Oilers Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele counted for seven goals in the final) but adding Skinner to the mix looks like it’s going to pay off just like they’d hoped.
“I think he’s been really good the last three games,” Knoblauch said. “Any time a player comes to a new team there is always a transition period of getting used to his new role and systems and coach. But these last three games are what we anticipated, not only scoring two goals but being good on the walls, getting pucks out. We’re very happy with him.”
Skinner had a lukewarm training camp and fell out of the top six after one game, but he’s starting to find his groove.
“Every day, every game, I start feeling a little bit more comfortable,” he said. “I’ve felt better as it’s gone along. The guys have done a great job off the ice making me feel welcome right away.
“There are a lot of guys who’ve been here for a while and have some good chemistry, so sliding in to play with some of those guys is going to be an adjustment. But it’s getting better every time I’ve been out there and hopefully I can keep building.”
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