Concerning trends becoming big issue for Oilers

Then there’s the issue on the blueline, where the Oilers take the highest percentage of shots from defencemen in the league. 38 percent of the Oilers’ shots have come from blue liners this season, a mark that’s led to the team’s lower rate of high-danger chances, with three defencemen — Darnell Nurse (45, second), Mattias Ekholm (38, fourth) and Evan Bouchard (37, seventh) — ranking within the top seven for five-on-five shots on goal by defencemen. The only other team with two defencemen in the top 10 are the Colorado Avalanche (Brent Burns, 35, eighth and Sam Malinski, 34, ninth), who has a whole take the 13th most shots on goal from defencemen.

Monday night at five-on-five, the Oilers had 27 shots on goal at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick, where 14 of those shots came from defencemen and 13 from forwards. Nurse had five shots, Bouchard and Ekholm three each, Alec Regula had a pair, and Brett Kulak had one. Compare that to the forwards, as Zach Hyman led the way with three, Trent Frederic and Andrew Mangiapane had two, while Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl had one each.

So many of the Oilers’ shots coming from low-percentage areas and while they are generating rebounds, Edmonton’s struggled to clean them up. The team had a similar number of shots from defencemen last year with the team at 36.3 percent, but the Oilers forwards averaged 9.2 high-danger scoring chances per game. That number has dropped to a measly 6.5 per game this season.

The Oilers have lots to clean up in their game, but offensively, getting forwards to the front of the net and generating better quality looks is a place to start.