The Edmonton Oilers have to play better on the road to have a successful month of November

At 2–4–1 through seven contests, Edmonton has flat-out struggled on the road, and the major problem is obvious. No, it’s not the low-hanging fruit of bad goaltending. It’s not even defence, though that corps has suffered in the earlyseason going. The major problem currently with this team is goal-scoring, or lack thereof.

Even in their two road wins, the Oilers scored just twice in regulation both times. They have scored more than two regulation goals in a road game exactly two times so far. One ended with an overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks, the other saw centre Curtis Lazar pot a late garbage-time goal to make a 5–2 final score appear 5–3. In what is commonly referred to as a “3–2” league, these results won’t translate to wins very often.

What can the Oilers do to find the win column more consistently on the road? Here’s some ideas.

First goal of the game is the most important

Going into last Saturday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Oilers had given up the first goal of the game in eight of their previous nine contests. The only exception was their 3–2 OT win over the Ottawa Senators. That stands as just one of, you guessed it, two times Edmonton has scored first on the road.

Not getting the first goal has directly corresponded to the team’s success away from home. Ottawa, and at the New York Rangers, have been their only two instances of a first goal in a road game. They’ve won both times, while conversely going 0–4–1 in road games where the opponent gets the first tally. Put simply, this season’s Oilers so far haven’t found a way to complete comebacks like in years past.

When it’s going that way for the team, your objective becomes to try and play with an early lead. In that context, at any cost, the Oilers have to take their game to their opponent heavily in the early going. Find a way to grind out that first tally, and then let offence come to you via opponent’s mistakes while they have to play from behind. It hasn’t happened often, but it will need to for the Oilers to rack up wins in this season’s early stages.

Cut back drastically on the number of Grade “A” shots against

This issue was most prevalent in the game against the Seattle Kraken, but it’s come up several times so far. While the Oilers might not give up a whole lot solely within their own zone, they have given up too many rush chances that end up being back breakers. Worse yet, how the team approaches those chances has been less than desirable.

Focusing on the Kraken game for now, let’s take a look how Seattle got their first two goals. Put away your Skinner comments for now, that comes later on in this story. Let’s zone in on how the lone defenceman back approaches these two-on-one rushes.

Corporate needs you to find the difference between these two pictures. They’re the same picture. And they feature the same mistake made by the Oilers skater having to defend in these plays.

Both times see the defenceman violate the rule you’re taught as early as under-10 hockey, where on a two-on-one against, you take away the passing lane and leave the shooter to your goalie. Skinner’s attempts to stop the ensuing goal leave much to be improved upon, yes. But the genesis of him having to flail across in the first place is first Mattias Ekholm, then Evan Bouchard, not sliding to take away the cross-seam pass like the defenceman is supposed to, when Skinner is ready for a shot attempt.

Simple defensive mistakes like these result in prime scoring chances for the opponent. Though this exercise focuses on just one game, too many goals against have occurred similarly to this. Born out of a simple defensive mistake that opens up a difficult-to-stop shot. Cutting back on these is paramount when you know your offensive game isn’t up to snuff.

Pickard (and to a lesser extent Skinner) has to be better

It can be agreed upon, that Skinner is still trying to refine his lateral movement. It’s a fact that that contributed to the Oilers not getting a point against Seattle, at minimum. Skinner has not been perfect to start the season, even if he has fulfilled last year’s pleas for .900 goaltending.

The greater issue at hand here is the other Edmonton netminder. There’s a common denominator between the two road games where the Oilers scored thrice, and lost. Calvin Pickard was in goal for both games.

Pickard’s start to the campaign consists of a decent start against Vancouver at home where the Canucks were outshot into oblivion, and not much else. By metrics including save percentage, and Goals Saved Above Expected, he has not at all been good enough. When three goals per 60 is a blessing to have, you need one or two more saves from your netminder. Skinner has brought that extra save more often than Pickard has.

In this road-heavy month of November, Pickard will have to play at least a couple more games during back-to-backs. The fortunate news is that, if he starts tonight, both St. Louis goalies have had worse seasons so far. Tonight is survivable.

However, Pickard will have to face two of the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Washington Capitals later this month. He will need two much-improved outings in those games for the Oilers to have a realistic chance to win. Nothing showstopping; just serviceable, like he’s been able to do before.