The Edmonton Oilers are in a good spot right now in the western conference, holding on to the first wild card spot and only a few points outside of first in the Pacific division. They have the best overall goal differential in their division (+31), which ranks eighth highest in the league.

Below is a summary of the western conference, sorted by each team’s points percentage. Included in the table is each team’s even-strength performance numbers (i.e., shot-share metrics that measure how well a team controls the flow of play and the total chances) as well as each team’s goal-share and goal-differential. I’ve also included each team’s shooting percentage and save percentage to get a sense of what might be driving their overall results. And I’ve applied a simple heat map to each metric to show how each club compares to the rest of the conference.

It’s been the last 25 games of the season that the Oilers have really separated themselves from the rest of the western conference. In this stretch, which is from December 31, 2022 onwards, the Oilers rank top five in the league when it comes to generating shots and scoring chances at even-strength, and top five when it comes to preventing shots and scoring chances. This is even before acquiring Mattias Ekholm, who is only going to further improve things and be a massive boost for a playoff run.

The western conference is going to be wide open, and it appears the Oilers (at least for now) should be the front-runner for a deep playoff run if they can continue dominating at even-strength.

Data: Natural Stat Trick