It’s hard to dunk on the Oilers when they just beat the Boston Bruins in regulation. And yet, I shall try. The trouble is the Oilers aren’t actually a bad team this season. The trouble for the Oilers themselves is that they aren’t very good either. This is an affliction that most of the NHL suffers from right now, and it is legitimately tough, even halfway through the season, to tell the “meh, but might trend up” from the “meh, but likely will stay that way” teams.
The Oilers, at 15th in the league in points and 20th in goal differential, and they are 11th in regulation wins largely because their starter, Mikko Koskinen has been about league average, and their power play has been smoking hot.