Woodcroft has his work cut out for him

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Where has Edmonton’s offence gone?

That’s the most pressing question for an Oilers organization in turmoil, one that has seen its playoff footing aggressively erode over the past two months, and one that just overhauled the coaching staff.

Jay Woodcroft and the new-look Edmonton coaching staff has a mountain of work ahead of them. The first step is qualifying for the postseason, which in and of itself is a tenuous situation. Woodcroft must assume additional roster help, at least this season, will be sparingly available. Edmonton’s cap flexibility is non-existent, with the team opting to invest in assets (including Zach Hyman, Duncan Keith, and Cody Ceci) last off-season.

To that end, it’s hard to figure how much of a factor the new coaching group can have on the periphery of the roster. Competency in depth roles has been an issue for what seems like a decade now, and for better or worse, the team is anchored to Mikko Koskinen, Stuart Skinner, and Mike Smith in net. Edmonton will likely have to win despite these factors.

Let’s talk about something that hasn’t made much sense, and that’s the breakdown of this team’s awesome offensive output. A team led by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl should rarely have trouble scoring, and for some time, they didn’t.

But if you look at Edmonton’s rate scoring in monthly segments, you can see how quickly this has flipped:

Power-play effects (both the volatility on the power play, and the number of power-play opportunities themselves) can dilute all situations data, but the broad point here is that facing the Edmonton attack has never been easier.

The Oilers, over the past three months of the season, are an average-to-below-average offence. I would argue that is the