Oilers offense is firing on all cylinders

The Edmonton Oilers have certainly gotten their season started off on the right foot from a goalscoring perspective.

It began with 14 goals over two games to start the year against the Vancouver Canucks, and then after a 3-1 win over the Seattle Kraken, the Oilers put together another explosive night with a 5-2 win over the same Anaheim Ducks team that bounced them in the first round of last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.

With 22 goals in just four games, Edmonton is far and away the NHL’s highest-scoring team, with the Canucks in second place at 19. It’s a run that’s been fueled by the usual suspects, as Connor McDavid has 12 points (3 goals and 9 assists), and Leon Draisaitl has nine.

But the real standout has been defenseman Evan Bouchard, who would have an ironclad case for the Hart Trophy if the voting were to, for some reason, take place today. Bouchard leads all NHL skaters with six goals, and his five assists give him 11 points, a mark that trails only McDavid in the leaguewide rankings.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the Oilers’ scorching hot start to the season as they look to avoid the mistakes that plagued them throughout last year.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Edmonton Oilers, man, that’s an offense that will bring a tear to your eye if you’re an Oilers fan. 22 goals through four games for the Edmonton Oilers, they have not lost in regulation through the first four games of the regular season, and how about this? Just comparing this year’s Oilers to last year’s. Last season it took them 55 games to finally put together a three-game winning streak. There were nine instances where they won back-to-back games, but they could not get that third for 55 games last season. They have done it this year. They are 3-0-1 to begin the year, and they are being driven by the top line of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin, so let me throw some numbers your way. In 37 5-on-5 minutes, that trio is handling, the shot attempts are 49-17 in favor of the Oilers… The shots are 21-8, and the goals are 7-0. Hutts, they were magical last night, East of Disneyland, there was some magic for the Oilers.

Carter Hutton: For me, Podkolzin is the interesting part, right? You put Leon and Connor together, you kind of know what you’re going to get. He’s got four goals and six points in four games. It’s been a lot of fun to watch, and for me watching it… He doesn’t seem like a player who constantly needs the puck all the time on his stick. He’s opportunistic. He forechecks hard, and then he kind of creates space where Leon and McDavid can just roll. I think it will be interesting… Right now they are on an absolute tear.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…