Edmonton Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Anaheim Ducks in Anaheim, Calif., on April 5. Nugent-Hopkins reached the 100-point mark for the season with the goal.Ashley Landis/The Associated Press
In the first three months of the season, the Boston Bruins made it clear which team was the best in the National Hockey League. Since then another – the Edmonton Oilers – has been the most dominant.
On Wednesday, they won their sixth straight game and 11th in the past 12. They are 17-1-2 in their past 20 contests against Western Conference opponents and are 12-0-1 within the Pacific Division. At .784, they have the highest winning percentage in the league since Jan. 11, and it is .844 since trade deadline day on March 3.
What happens when the playoffs commence nine days from now is anybody’s guess, but the Oilers have certainly positioned themselves well. With only three games remaining they still have an outside chance to win both the conference and division.
I know some scornful readers are saying, “Yes, but they are the Oilers” while cheering for a club like, say Toronto, that hasn’t won a playoff round in 19 years or a Stanley Cup in 56. Oh, the pretense.
On Wednesday, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins joined Connor McDavid (148) and Leon Draisaitl (123) in the 100-point club. It is the first time a team has had three 100-point scorers since Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis accomplished the feat with the 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins.
Nugent-Hopkins is 29 and has spent all 12 seasons of his career in Edmonton. In seven of his first eight years, the team failed to qualify for the postseason. In the 2021-22 campaign he scored only 11 goals. Now he has 36 to go with 64 assists.
“I’m so happy for him that I feel like I got 100 points,” Klim Kostin said.
Added Jack Campbell: “It was the most electric empty-netter I’ve been a part of.”
Nugent-Hopkins certainly benefits from the McDavid effect. If that seems like a sideways compliment realize that Mitch Marner is still waiting to record his first 100-point season and he plays beside Auston Matthews. The latter has had one 100-point season, as have Nathan MacKinnon, Johnny Gaudreau, Steven Stamkos and Claude Giroux. They are all elite players; nobody would ever attempt to denigrate their accomplishment.
Edmonton lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference final last spring. The team was confident it would build off that success and then went 10 and 10 in its first 20 games and had won one more than it lost as of Dec. 25.
“We had high expectations but we didn’t really put anything together until after Christmas,” Ken Holland, the Oilers general manager, says. “We weren’t bad, but we weren’t good either. We were kind of middling.
“We expected to compete with the best teams in the Western Conference and weren’t doing that. We were barely keeping our heads above water.”
Since Dec. 26 they have a league-best record of 29-8-7.
“We have a lot of great stories here,” Holland said.
Of course much of their success is due to McDavid, who has 62 goals, and Draisaitl, who has 51.
“Connor is the best player I have ever seen live,” Holland said. He is 67 and was the general manager in Detroit for 22 years before accepting that position in Edmonton prior to the 2019-20 campaign. “I am not sure it is even close. When I came here I knew he was a good young player, but when I watch every day from a front-row seat I recognize his hockey skill but also his commitment and passion and how badly he wants to win.
“He is the best in the game.”
The Oilers have recovered from a rash of injuries among their forwards, the worst of which was a life-threatening skate slash to Evander Kane’s wrist.
They have found a goalie in rookie Stuart Skinner, who is 26-14-5 with a .911 save percentage and will surely receive votes for the Calder Trophy. Skinner was expected to be the backup to Campbell, the former Maple Leaf who stumbled out of the gate and has recently just started to right himself.
The 24-year-old saw limited action last season when the was called up after Mike Smith was injured and is only two years removed from a stint in the ECHL. Yet he has set a franchise goaltender record for wins by a first-year netminder.
“We really felt comfortable that we could pencil him in as one of our two goaltenders,” Holland said. “We certainly felt Jack was going to be the No. 1 but he had a slow start and Stu was a little better. It is a hard position for a young goalie to be put in.
“With a few exceptions, though, the NHL has become a two-goalie league. There has been an evolution.”
Between them, Skinner and Campbell have allowed just two goals in their last four starts and have stopped a 126 of 128 shots combined over that span.
The team is 15-2-1 since it acquired Mattias Ekholm, a tough defenceman, at the trade deadline and is 25-5-3 when Vincent Desharnais, a 6-foot-6 rookie, is on the blueline.
Zach Hyman, the former Maple Leafs left wing, has career highs with 35 goals and 81 points. Nick Bjugstad, a hard-edged 6-foot-6 forward acquired at the deadline, got his 17th goal on Wednesday. Darnell Nurse has four goals in the last five and 43 points overall and a host of others are contributing.
“Certainly Connor and Leon drive our team but we are a lot deeper,” Holland said.
This is the first time Edmonton has had back-to-back 100-point seasons since 1985-86 and 1986-87 and should not be taken lightly.
“I think our team feels good about itself,” Holland said. Detroit won three Stanley Cups during his tenure as GM and one as the assistant general manager. “We probably feel as good as we have at any point in the season. What I learned over the years is that you just don’t make the playoffs once and win it. You have to get into multiple series.
“You need those experiences to understand what you need to do to have success in the future. We seem to be growing our game here.”