Edmonton Oilers find their speed game, but two top forwards are struggling to keep up

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The Edmonton Oilers have just two wins in their first six games, but the team is finding its best game.

In two recent tough matches —  a road win over Nashville and a road loss to Dallas — the Grade A shot totals were 20 to 14 vs the Preds and 15 to 10 against the Stars. If the Oilers had got a bounce or made a shot at a key moment against Dallas, things might well have gone differently that game.

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There are concerns about the Oilers lacking in physical play, having lost Evander Kane, Dylan Holloway and Vincent Desharnais from last year’s team, and lacking in speed, having lost Holloway, Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod and Philip Broberg. I share those concerns — it would be nuts not to do so — but I’ve been encouraged that Edmonton is finding a way to get the better of other squads even if it doesn’t necessarily have better skating speed than the opposition.

The puck travels faster than the skate. the quick mind pushes the pace every bit as much as a speed merchant. Edmonton is blessed with numerous veteran players who think the game at an exceedingly high level. They were rusty in the first few games, but have started to beat opponents with strong reads, solid positioning, exceptional anticipation  and fine passing plays, all of which set a blistering game pace that few other teams can match.

In this way, these 2045-25 Oilers are finding, mastering and taking advantage of their own speed game on the attack. They remind me of the solid Detroit Red Wings of the 1990s and 2000s, which tended to have older players, not all of them speedy, but almost all of them highly adept at reading the game and making plays. This kind of hockey can win in the regular season and in the playoffs.

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That said, a few top Oilers forwards are still a step behind when it comes to executing at this high level of speed, namely veteran Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and newcomer Viktor Arvidsson. Both RNH and Arvidsson have had long and successful NHL careers and both were strong at times last season. There’s no obvious reason to expect any major drop off in their play this year, but that’s what we’ve witnessed in these early games.

Arvidsson has no points in six games, while RNH has just two assists. I wouldn’t mention their point totals at this early juncture as a low point total just now can be the result of bad puck luck as much as anything. That’s what we’re seeing with Zach Hyman just now, for example. Hyman has made major contributions to 28 Grade A shots in all situations, but has zero points to show for it. With that kind of offensive activity, I’d expect Hyman to have about seven points right now but the puck hasn’t been dropping for him.

But Arvidsson and RNH aren’t getting much done on the attack, with just 8 major contributions to Grade A shots each in all situations. RNH’s power play rate of chipping in on Grade A shots is at one third the rate we saw from him last year. He’s out of sync just now, a step behind.

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RNH is also struggling on defence, making a high rate of major mistakes on Grade A shots against.

What to make of this?

First, it’s good the Oilers appear to be finding an identity as a team, one that attacks with lightning speed mainly by making lightning reads and passes, and a team that also defends smartly, not using brawn so much as solid positioning and fundamental play. A team can go a long way if it cranks up those two qualities to maximum. Few teams can handle that kind of challenge.

As for RNH and Arvidsson, the season is still young. It’s barely a newborn. They’re both solid, smart players with proven track records. We’ll see how they’re doing a month from now.

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