It’s tough to look at the Edmonton Oilers roster and think anything but offence.
Case in point, they are headed into Friday’s game against the visiting Anaheim Ducks with not one but two players currently on 12-game point streaks.
And they just happen to be the same two players who have scored a full one-third of both their team’s goals and points.
Connor McDavid has an impressive 23 points (three goals, 20 assists) over his past dozen games, while Leon Draisaitl averaged two points a game in that same stretch, (10 goals, 14 assists) and leads the league with 27 goals.
“You look at our record and where we are in the standings, and two big, big reasons are Connor and Leon. How well they’ve played at both ends of the rink and then also producing offensively ever single night,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Very rarely are they held off the scoresheet, and you have success when your best players are your best players. And those two are our best players.
“Very, very few times they’re not, so it helps everyone else. Especially me.”
Indeed, a coach’s job security benefits from strongly driven offence since the Oilers are a little over one full year removed from a coaching change that saw Knoblauch take over for Jay Woodcroft following a 3-9-1 start to the season.
But it has hardly been all gas, no brake as the team turned things around on their memorable march to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. There is a balance to their game, despite boasting a pair of poster-boy forwards.
The Oilers sit ninth overall with 47 points (22-12-3), while their goals-for (121) and goals-against (105) each follow right behind in 10th place.
What it’s led to — following another start that was not nearly as bad, but still well short of expectations — is a much more balanced game that saw them go 11-2 heading into the Christmas break.
Their momentum got interrupted coming out the other side of it by falling to the Los Angeles Kings and the Ducks, for their first back-to-back losses since Nov. 18. But they bounced back with a strong showing in a 4-1 win against the Utah Hockey Club on New Year’s Eve and are looking to kick off 2025 with a better result against Anaheim.
Twice, the Oilers blew two-goal leads in their previous meeting in California, before the Ducks migrated to a 5-3 win with four unanswered goals.
“I think we’ve been playing some really good hockey. Obviously, the two-game road trip in California is not our best and we know that,” Draisaitl said. “We knew how to adjust and had a really good game against Utah.”
It all just goes to show that even when things appear to be going well, the Oilers simply can’t rely on outscoring their problems on any given night.
That’s why a roster can have the leading goal scorer in the league, and — just like his team’s balanced goals-for and goals-against — his focus remains on his two-way game more than trying to run away with the goal-scoring race.
“I think just the consistency of it, is something I’m very proud of,” said Draisaitl. “I’ve always had moments where I can defend really, really well, it was just a matter of doing it each and every night.
“And I think for pretty much all year, I’ve done that. I’ve taken big steps in that and prioritized my defensive game. I think it’s obviously shown. But even with that, I think there’s another level to me.”
While a Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard trophy would look nice next to the Art Ross trophy from 2020 already on his mantle, Draisaitl understands as much as any player skating off the ice as the Florida Panthers prepared to hoist the Stanley Cup in June that there is a much bigger goal to all of this than just scoring goals.
And one way they can help themselves finally reach it is by having everyone contribute to keeping the puck out of their own net.
“It’s everything combined. It’s commitment, it’s committing to it. And while you’re committing to it, you’re due to making it a habit at some point,” Draisaitl said. “Once you have a habit, you want to keep that because habits are hard to break.
“In life, every habit is extremely hard to get out of. So, I’ve established that bar in my defensive game, and now it’s a matter of developing and getting better at it, and keeping that habit.”
And if he happens to continue leading the way in an offensive category while leading by example on the defensive side of his game, then so be it.
“I find the less you think about it is when you get on these streaks,” Draisaitl said, “where you’re just playing and trying to do the right things every time you’re on the ice.”
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge