Oilers Look: Games 28-32

One of the more impressive stretches for the Oilers so far this year. 5-0 road trip (a couple involving some good teams), and they hung in every game with the exception of the trip finale (where they struggled for 2 periods before coming on strong).

Games 23-27:

• Team Record: 1-3-1


• Shots For - Shots Against (Diff): 142 - 167 (-15)


• Scoring Chances For - Against (Diff): 97 - 117 (-20)


• Goals For - Goals Against (Diff): 14 - 19 (-5)


• Team Shooting %: 9.85


• Team Save %: 88.6

Games 28-32:

• Team Record: 5-0-0


• Shots For - Shots Against (Diff): 170 - 162 (+8)


• Scoring Chances For - Against (Diff): 115 - 117 (-2)


• Goals For - Goals Against (Diff): 16 - 10 (+6)


• Team Shooting %: 9.41


• Team Save %: 93.8

Can't argue with going 5-0 on five straight games on the road. The numbers don't bear out a 5-0 stretch, but 2 of them came on the shootout so 3-0-2 (8 points in 5 games pre shootout) is pretty close to full value. Add in the shootout wins and voila.

Oilers benefited from some fantastic goaltending by JDD. He's really had a good stretch since his awful game against Vancouver, and he's a big reason why the Oilers did as well as they did.

Even though they lost out on the scoring chance battle in this stretch, it was close. And unlike early on (when they got badly out chanced), they aren't relying on 3-4 goals on 16 or 17 chances. They got 3 on 22 vs Tampa, 2 on 19 vs Florida, 2 on 26 vs Dallas and 4 on 26 vs Detroit. The one odd game was the last game where they potted 5 on 22 against St. Louis, but you can take those when they are the exception rather than the rule.

The only disconcerting thing was that they still gave up a lot of scoring chances. You can't expect your goaltender to roll with a save percentage near 94%. If they can start to curb those a bit, they can find themselves on a few more stretches where they are above .500 (this was just the 2nd stretch all year where they did it).