The Edmonton Oilers have started slow this season with a 2-4-1 record through their first seven games, with some concerning trends as they come to the end of October. While fans are hoping this will be a copy of last season and the team can turn it around, there is one player fans are growing increasingly concerned about due to his lack of offensive production. Zach Hyman has zero points through seven games this season and while he hasn’t been bad defensively, his slow start has begun to worry fans considering his stat line last season where he had 54 goals and 23 assists for 77 points through 80 games, leading the team in goals.
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The slump should not be a concern for fans this early in the season, since the entire team had a brutal start to the 2023-24 season and they still made it to the Stanley Cup Final. Hyman embraced a coaching change last season and ended up being one of the strongest offensive players throughout the entire NHL, so a slump early in the season seems to be a case of bad timing. Hyman has downplayed his early struggles, stating that fans wouldn’t be commenting on it if it were to happen midseason. While he had high expectations coming into the new campaign, he should still be able to put forward a strong season once he can get the ball rolling offensively.
Slow Start This Season a Reminder of the 2023-24 Campaign
The Oilers’ 2-4-1 start is upsetting for fans who want to see their team come out strong out of the gates. While there are still 75 games left in their season and plenty of time to fight back to the top of the Pacific Division, they will have to make some slight changes to their lineup to start winning games, and it seems as though that is exactly what’s happening with some adjustments to the special teams’ lineups.
There haven’t been any indications that the team is going to overreact and make a big trade to try and shake up the team, which is the same approach the team took last season. While the Oilers did relieve Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson of their duties and replaced them with Kris Knoblauch and Paul Coffey, they were smart to let a slow start ride out and hope they could snap out of it, which they did.
Hyman started strong last season putting up nine points through the first eight games and maintaining a strong pace for the remainder of the season and into the playoffs. An elite player entering a slump is normal and everybody deals with it, so for Hyman to be dealing with it now is tough, but it’s nothing to be concerned about. Considering he had an insane offensive pace last season, he was bound to have some bad luck and not have things go his way at some point, and unfortunately, his slump is happening at the beginning of the season.
It isn’t due to a lack of ice time, a lack of trying, or a lack of effort either, as he has consistently been one of the Oilers’ best skaters and hardest workers in every game. He seems to be dealing with some bad puck luck as he hasn’t gotten any bounces to go his way, whether it be on the man advantage or at even strength. If he keeps playing the way he has been playing and doesn’t try to change anything, he will eventually get some of that luck going his way and start to find the back of the net, and it seems to be just a matter of time.
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