The Edmonton Oilers are rolling into the New Year on a five-game win streak, after closing out 2023 with a dominating 7-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Sunday (Dec. 31).
Warren Foegele scored twice for the Oilers, who also got goals from Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, Brett Kulak and Ryan McLeod. Edmonton netminder Calvin Pickard made 28 saves to win his second straight start. Anaheim’s goals were scored by Max Jones and Frank Vatrano. Ducks goalie John Gibson faced 39 shots, stopping 32. The Oilers never trailed, leading 2-1 after the first period and 5-1 going into the second intermission.
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The Oilers improved to 18-15-1 this season and have won 15 of 21 games since changing coaches on Nov. 12, when Kris Knoblauch replaced Jay Woodcroft behind the bench. They are now just three points behind the Arizona Coyotes for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Depth Scoring Propels Oilers
Over their current streak of five wins, all on the road, the Oilers have outscored their opposition 24-10. But it hasn’t been the usual suspects doing all the scoring for Edmonton. Seven different Oilers have at least two goals and 13 skaters have at least two points during this five-game stretch.
Connor McDavid and Draisaitl have six and seven points, respectively, over the last five games. Those are pretty good numbers, but pedestrian by their superstar standards. They’re both looking up at Foegele and McLeod, who are tied for the team lead with eight points apiece during Edmonton’s current win streak.
McLeod has a team-best five goals, including two game-winners, and four two-point games during the win streak. Foegele erupted for a career-high five points on Sunday, notching three assists to go with his two goals, becoming only the fourth Oilers player with a five-point game in the last 10 years, joining Draisaitl, McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins.
Edmonton has won 13 straight games when McLeod scores, is 21-2-3 when Foegele scores, and has never lost a game when both McLeod and Foegele score. This latest run of games is the strongest example yet that when they get consistent depth scoring to support their big guns, the Oilers are near unbeatable.
Draisaitl and McDavid Milestone Watch
After going eight straight games without assisting on a goal, tied for the second-longest assist drought of his career, Draisaitl picked up a pair of helpers on Sunday to pass Hall of Fame defenceman and current Oilers assistant coach Paul Coffey for sixth-most assists in franchise history. Draisiatl has 461 apples in 672 career games, one more than Coffey recorded over 532 games with the Oilers.
Meanwhile, McDavid picked up an assist on Hyman’s goal. It was point No. 898 in 601 career games for the Oilers captain, leaving him just two away from becoming the fifth fastest player to reach 900 points in NHL history. McDavid is closing on Glenn Anderson, who compiled 906 points in 845 games as an Oiler, for fourth most in franchise history.
Oilers Have a Rare Happy New Year
To say New Year’s Eve has not been kind to the Oilers would be putting it kindly. They arrived at the Honda Center with a dreadful record of 3-13-1-4 (win-loss-tie-overtime loss) in games played on Dec. 31 and had won just one of their previous 20 New Year’s Eve contests.
Sunday saw Edmonton get just its second-ever New Year’s Eve victory on the road, more than four decades after the first, an 8-1 thrashing of the Vancouver Canucks on Dec. 31, 1981, at Pacific Coliseum. The seven goals are tied for the second most scored by the Oilers on New Year’s Eve.
Before beating the Ducks, Edmonton’s most recent win on Dec. 31 had come in 2019, against the New York Rangers, 7-5 at Rogers Place.
December to Remember for Oilers
Historically, the Oilers have often struggled throughout the last month of the year: Over a three-decade span from 1992 to 2021, Edmonton’s record in December games was 133-165-25-34 for a point percentage of .455. But after their terrible 2-9-1 start this season, the Oilers couldn’t afford to have a sub-.500 record this December if they wanted to be in the playoff chase.
With the result in Anaheim, Edmonton concludes its December schedule with a record of 9-3-0 and a positive goal differential of 1.42 per game. The nine wins are tied for the second most in the NHL over the last month and are the most for an Oilers team in December since 1990. They allowed only 31 goals in their 12 games, third-fewest in December in franchise history.
The Oilers will look to ride this momentum into January, starting Tuesday (Jan. 2) when they host the Ottawa Senators at Rogers Place.
