What a 3 Game Stretch/Nuge Breakout

Now I could write about how amazing Stuart Skinner was in his two starts. I could write about how Zach Hyman is the best Free Agent signing in Oilers history. I could do all of that and I will touch on some of that here. I do want to talk about the 4 game winning streak that the Oilers are currently on. However I want to talk about the longest tenured Oiler at the moment. Ryan Nugent Hopkins.

Forever Oiler

Wow he looks exactly the same now! Ryan Nugent Hopkins was drafted 1st overall in the 2011 NHL draft before Jonathan Huberdeau, Gabe Landeskog and Mika Zibanejed. Now at the time Nuge was almost the consensus number 1 overall pick. A lot of Oiler fans at the time wanted a great number 1 centre of the future and Nuge had all of the capabilities of one! Great hockey IQ, insane passing and good speed. He just needed to bulk up a bit and of course learn the NHL game. He put up 106 points in his draft year in Red Deer and somehow wasn't on the World Junior team (ya I am still pissy about that). There were rumours of the Oilers taking a defensemen with that first pick with Swedish d man Adam Larsson and Niagara defenceman Dougie Hamilton on the board. The Oilers went with the Nuge!

Almost immediately RNH made an impact, scoring in his first game vs the Penguins in a 2-1 shootout victory. He was 3rd on the team in scoring with 52 points and had 18 goals! He was a finalist for the Calder trophy as the leagues best rookie and you could see that the Oilers found somebody here. He has just never taken that next step to be a superstar in this league. Now granted, the Oilers don't need him to be with 97 & 29 on the team. Nuge has gone over 60 points twice and has scored 20 goals 4 times. He was on pace for a career year in 19-20 and then the you know what took over. Is this the year he explodes? He is currently at 11 points in 9 games and playing with Connor always helps that number. He is also primarily playing on the wing and is on both the power play and penalty kill. This could be the year that the Nuge takes the next step and becomes the point per game player we always thought he was going to be when he was drafted! It's not like he was a bust either! He is 6th in scoring in the draft class and has the 2nd most games played from that year! At 29 years old and on a really nice contract for the Oilers, it is time for the Nuge to be huge!

The Oilers are streaking

A 4 game winning streak sounds so good doesn't it? The Oilers have wins over the Pens, Blues, Hawks and most recently the Flames! They won in different ways as well. The Pens game and the Blackhawks game was very high tempo and high scoring with some questionable calls in the Chicago game. I won't go too in depth as I am sure you all saw what happened. In both of these instances the Oilers played some not great defence and had to have there forwards take over. McDavid scored a hat trick vs Chicago and the Oil scored 5 unanswered vs the Pens!

Now the other thing that has been brought up in both of those wins was that Jack Campbell was in for those games and hasn't look good in those games and he isn't going to be good for the Oilers in general. I also thought that, but then I had to do some research of my own. Since the year 2018 He is 12-11 with a .899 save percentage in the month of October. In the months after that, he is 59-29 with a .922 save percentage. So let's pump the breaks on Campbell a bit!

Yes Skinner has been fantastic so far this year. 2-1, .955 sv % and a 1.59 GAA. Those are crazy good numbers and I said at the beginning of the year that Skinner should be given 25-35 starts this year! Just give Campbell a bit of a break everybody! New team, October being historically a bad month for him. He will bounce Back

4 game winning streak and in that streak the Oilers beat the Flames in the 2nd of only 3 regular season meetings and the Oilers looked solid at times and had to be bailed out by their goalie other times! Skinner stopped 40 of 42 pucks and was dynamic in the victory! As was Zach Hyman. Who had 2 goals and the game winner. So far Hyman has 6 goals and 11 points on the season and has looked so good with McDavid and Nige this year. Can he top his career best that he set last season with the Oil? Scoring 27 goals and adding 27 assists? He is on pace to do it for sure!

What does this all mean?

THE OILERS ARE THE BEST TEAM IN THE NHL!! Well maybe not yet but we all love a good winning streak. They currently sit at 2nd in the Pacific and 2nd in the west. 4th overall in the league and are playing well! Can things be cleaned up? Absolutely! But lets enjoy these wins while we get them!

Also Connor McDavid has been named 1st star of the Week putting up 8 points in 4 games including that hat trick vs Chicago!

QUESTION:

How would you split up the goalie starts this year?