The Edmonton Oilers’ magic isn’t going to last, but it’s still fun

Seven games into the 2019-20 NHL season, the Edmonton Oilers are 6-1-0 and defying the odds. It won’t last, but we should still enjoy it anyway.

The Edmonton Oilers are making waves in hockey news this week, and not for the reasons you’d think. Over the last few seasons, the Oilers have been known for the awe-inspiring play of generational talent Connor McDavid, and not much else.

Since the 2016-17 NHL season that saw Edmonton finish second in the Pacific Division, the Oilers have been mainstays at the bottom of the league standings. General managing malpractice from former GM Peter Chiarelli has caused the Oilers to regress in the McDavid era instead of taking steps forward alongside a once-in-a-lifetime hockey talent.

The Oilers, however, seem to be putting those woes behind them to start the 2019-20 NHL season, as Edmonton has jumped out to be tied for first overall in the NHL with 12 points and a 6-1-0 record. Only the Carolina Hurricanes (6-2-0) have matched the Oilers in points this season, but have a slightly worse record with one more loss on the season.

Everything is breaking right for the Oilers at the moment. Connor McDavid has a league-leading 17 points in seven games, putting him on pace for a blistering 199 points this season should he play a full 82-game season. James Neal, who many believed to be washed up as an effective forward in this league after disappointing last year, has exploded back onto the scene with eight goals in his first seven games, matching and exceeding the total he had all of last season in Calgary.

The Oilers’ goaltending rotation of Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen has been incredibly solid for the team as well, and with the netminding duties being split throughout the first few games of the season, Edmonton has a sixth-best combined save percentage of .918 on the year

Edmonton’s special teams also deserves mention as to why the team has gotten out to such a hot start on the season. The Oilers are near the top of the NHL in both penalty kill and power play rates, according to Hockey Reference. The penalty kill — which took a bit of a hit against the Flyers on Wednesday night — sits at a 88.46 percent kill rate, good enough to be fifth in the league. On the other hand, the Oilers’ power play leads the NHL at a 45.45 percent clip with 10 goals already on the man-advantage this season.

The last time the Oilers won six of their first seven games? That 2016-17 season where the team ultimately lost in the second round of the postseason. If you needed any indicator of how well it’s going for the Oilers right now, McDavid was out there on Wednesday night making everyone look foolish en route to a 6-3 win against Philadelphia.

While on the surface, things seem to be going smoothly for Edmonton, the fun will probably not last. At the moment, the Oilers are benefiting from an extreme bout of good hockey luck, in addition to McDavid being McDavid. Edmonton’s PDO — the stat that combines a team’s shooting percentage and save percentage used to determine a team’s “luck” — at 5-on-5 sits at 1.038 via Natural Stat Trick, well above the average of 1 that denotes the usual baseline. Teams can sit well above that baseline over the course of a season, but the Oilers will likely hit regression in due time this year as the numbers start to balance out.

The Oilers’ shooting percentage is also well above average to start out the year, sitting at 15.6 percent through seven games, which also leads the NHL. Really outstanding hockey teams sit above 10 percent in shooting percentage at the end of the season, with the NHL average hovering around nine by season’s end.

It’s fair, given the numbers, to see the Oilers regress as the season progresses, as overall the league will find the balance it usually does within the next few months. While that means fewer blowouts and four-goal games by Neal, it’s nice to see the Oilers having fun playing hockey. It’s a crime that McDavid is spending the prime years of his hockey career in a franchise that has seemingly done everything in its power to not surround him with talent to help the team succeed. McDavid is a generational hockey talent, and one of a handful of players in the current NHL that has the ability to make seemingly impossible hockey plays possible.

The NHL is better when the Oilers are competitive, as the league puts competitive matches on primetime and markets them as such. NBCSN will only air 14 Canadian hockey games on television in America this season, with four of those featuring McDavid and the Oilers. The hockey community is better off when McDavid is showcasing his talents to the sports world at large, and it’s a joy to see the Oilers starting off this season the way they have.

This stretch of games may end up being a flash in the pan for the Oilers by the time the season ends, but let’s enjoy the time we do have with this exciting, league-leading Edmonton team.