January 18, 2025

SETTABLOID

Random News

A December to remember for the Edmonton Oilers

Kris Knoblauch
As far as monthly productivity goes, the Oilers couldn’t have hoped for much better heading into their final game before the stockings get hung with the Ottawa Senators at Rogers Place on Sunday.
If a turnaround was at the top of the Oilers’ wish list this year, then they must have been very good, indeed.

They avoided Santa’s naughty list by going 7-2 over the first three weeks of December. And 10-2, if you include the final three games of November.

And that’s a whole bowl full of jelly better than the .500 record the Oilers posted in the opening month, going 5-5-1 through October.

“We started the season not in the playoff picture for a couple of weeks. Would I expect that? No,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, whose squad entered the season after losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to the Florida Panthers. “Not that we played terribly, I think our record should have been better. And I think the two outlying factors were the shooting percentage for and against.

“More pucks were going in than should have and we weren’t putting pucks in the net over a short period of time. And there were times in January, February, March where things aren’t going our way and we can’t put the puck in the net — like it was (Saturday) night.”

In the meantime, the Oilers are content to make hay while the sun is shining.

“I think the last three or four weeks, things have been going pretty well for us,” Knoblauch said. “But we’ve also been shooting at a much higher percentage than what we could realistically expect throughout the rest of the year.”

They avoided Santa’s naughty list by going 7-2 over the first three weeks of December. And 10-2, if you include the final three games of November.

And that’s a whole bowl full of jelly better than the .500 record the Oilers posted in the opening month, going 5-5-1 through October.

“We started the season not in the playoff picture for a couple of weeks. Would I expect that? No,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, whose squad entered the season after losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to the Florida Panthers. “Not that we played terribly, I think our record should have been better. And I think the two outlying factors were the shooting percentage for and against.

“More pucks were going in than should have and we weren’t putting pucks in the net over a short period of time. And there were times in January, February, March where things aren’t going our way and we can’t put the puck in the net — like it was (Saturday) night.”

In the meantime, the Oilers are content to make hay while the sun is shining.

“I think the last three or four weeks, things have been going pretty well for us,” Knoblauch said. “But we’ve also been shooting at a much higher percentage than what we could realistically expect throughout the rest of the year.”