The Edmonton Oilers powerplay continues to be near the top of the National Hockey League when it comes to scoring efficiency, ranking second in the league only behind Tampa Bay with 11.14 goals per hour. This is largely driven by their high-end talent who help generate the fifth highest rate of unblocked shot attempts (91.49 per hour) and the second highest rate of actual shots on goal (66.83 per hour). And their team shooting percentage sits at 16.67 percent. The Oilers actual results this season are right in line with where they’ve been over the last three seasons where they’ve posted 11.28 goals per hour between 2020/21 and 2022/23, which translates to a 17.40 percent shooting percentage.

What’s worth noting is that while the results over the full season have been excellent so far, the team’s productivity has slipped slightly over the course of the season. If we split the current 52-game season in half, we see that the finishing ability of the powerplay is down a few percentage points going from 19.08% in the first 26 games, to 14.05% in the most recent 26 games. This has resulted in the goals scoring rate dropping from 12.17 goals per hour in the first half of the season to 9.90 goals per hour in the second half.

It might feel like things are worse than they actually are based on the couple games where the powerplay didn’t score and how players are reacting on the bench shortly afterwards. But the team is still generating plenty of chances, actually seeing a 10.5 percent increase in their rate of shots when comparing the two segments. And they’re still in the range of the shooting percentage we can reasonably expect them to be at (17.40 percent). My guess is that over the last 30 games of the season, we’ll see their shooting percentage bounce back up to where it should be, and things should be calmer.

The reality is that the Oilers have set very lofty standards for their powerplay, and there’s a lot of pressure that’s been built up because of the team’s inability to win titles with such high-end talent on the roster. The powerplay is a massive weapon for the Oilers and it appears the coaching staff is doing everything they can to maximize its output. Over the last 26 games, the first powerplay unit (using Evan Bouchard as the proxy) has played 80.6 percent of the team’s powerplay time – an increase of 6.60 percentage points from the first 26 games of the season where they played 74.0 percent of the total time The first powerplay has responded well to the additional responsibility, generating even more shots in the more recent stretch of games. Their rate of shots on goal has increased by 19.0% from the first 26 games of the season, going from 64.81 shots per hour to 77.15 per hour. So it should be a matter of time before the powerplay heats up again.

Data: Natural Stat Trick