Hold onto your hats, these Edmonton Oilers are on a roll.
And each step they get closer to achieving their goal of making a return to the Stanley Cup Final — after losing their shirts in a winner-takes-all Game 7 defeat at the hands of the Florida Panthers last spring — is only getting hotter.
For the past week, the Oilers have been involved in a tug-of-war with the Vegas Golden Knights over first place in the Pacific Division — a title the Oilers haven’t earned since 1987.
Sure, they are still prone to falter, like every good team still can from time to time, but as the season goes on the losses are getting fewer and farther between. Especially the bad ones.
Earlier in the year, the Oilers looked like a team that just wanted to skip ahead and have a redo of Round 4, and played like they were still in shock after ending up on the wrong side of the one goal that spelled the difference between earning what would have been the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 34 years.
They dropped their first three games out of the gates and spent the entire first month of the season clawing back to an even .500, at 5-5-1.
November saw them carry on at about the same pace, going 5-4-1 before finishing the month on a three-game win streak and haven’t looked back.
They followed up by winning five in a row on the way to a 9-3-1 December record, before heading into their final game of January, against the visiting Detroit Red Wings on Thursday (7 p.m., Sportsnet One), having gone 10-3.
That’s a 22-6-1 run for a .776 win percentage since being one game above .500 on Nov. 21. Currently, the first place Washington Capitals have a .725 win percentage on the season.
Solid goaltending
“During that time, if you look at how good our special teams are, and the other one is goaltending,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Our goaltending has been really solid throughout that stretch.”
On Nov. 21, Stuart Skinner’s save percentage was a horrendous .876 — the lowest out of any Oilers goaltender since the team began playing at Rogers Place in 2016 — and Calvin Pickard’s wasn’t much better.
But Skinner has since climbed back above the .900 mark and sits tied for seventh in wins (19), while Pickard has gone on to win nine of his 10 starts since.
“Both of them have been really good for us,” Knoblauch said. “You get goaltending and special teams, that’s a big part of it.
“But then also your best players, (Connor) McDavid, Leon (Draisaitl) putting up the numbers that they have consistently. With those three things, you’re going to win a lot of hockey games.”
The superstar duo has combined for 141 of the team’s 449 individual points on the season, or 31 per cent, and 56 of their 166 goals, or 34 per cent.
Draisaitl leads the league with 35 goals, while his 75 points on the year have him closing in on the only player with more, Nathan Mackinnon of the Colorado Avalanche (77). The fact he’s not even considered the Oilers’ best player is icing on Edmonton’s cake.
The fact both Draisaitl and McDavid sit top five in the NHL’s points race 50 games into the season might as well go without saying here in the prime of their careers.
And as a team, all signs are pointing to the Oilers getting better as the season progresses, which is obviously the point as they look to peak heading into playoffs.
Extended break
Of course, first there is the small matter of an extended break for the 4 Nations Face-Off looming next month, which could just as easily act as a momentum breaker as it could be a break to rest bumps and bruises.
“I think anytime coming into a break, teams can kind of fall into a lull if you get ahead of yourself a little bit thinking about the break,” said Oilers forward Adam Henrique. “We’ve got a mature group, we know we want to go into the break finishing strong and finish these games out as best as possible.
“Certainly, first place is a motivation but I think for us, it’s more the task at hand. I think we do a good job of just focusing on the (next) game, and we go from there. You try to put the points in the bank and then move forward, and just rinse and repeat this time of year.”
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On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge