Predictions for Oilers Games 31 to 40

The Oilers tightened things up over the last ten games and took 7 wins and 3 losses from the stretch.  The next ten games has some interesting challenges with games against Tampa Bay and San Jose as well as two games against the Jets.

I have been a fan so far of the attention to detail shown by the Oilers under new coach Ken Hitchcock.  We seem to have stopped making the simple mistakes that we were making before the coaching change.  Checks get finished, sticks are in the right places and every player looks like he knows his role and is in the main looking effective.

Of course a coaching change usually brings with it a bump in performance so the next ten games will be a great barometer of where the Oilers are at.

Another 7 wins (which I am predicting!) would set the Oilers up nicely but that is easy to write!

Here are my predictions:

Exciting times!

My predictions for the Oilers games 21 to 30 reviewed

So the Oilers put together a nice ten game stretch and matched my prediction of 7 wins and 3 losses - I didn't call every game correctly but I did pretty well and predicted 8 of the 10 games correctly.

My original predictions are posted here.

The next ten games could define the season, a similar run or even 6 wins and 4 losses would keep the Oilers well in contention.

I will have a look at the next ten games in a later post.

My Hockey Reading List for the Christmas Holidays 2018

With about ten days off work over Christmas I have a bit of time to read various hockey books I have picked up over the last month or two.

I will post some reviews as I finish them!

Everyday Hockey Heroes: Inspiring Stories On and Off the Ice by Bob McKenzie and Jim Lang

Behind the Bench: Inside the Minds of Hockey's Greatest Coaches  by Craig Custance

Cujo: The Untold Story of My Life On and Off the Ice by Curtis Joseph

Leave No Doubt: A Credo for Chasing Your Dreams by Mike Babcock

Grit and Glory: Celebrating 40 Years of the Edmonton Oilers by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Hopefully I have made some good purchases, time will tell.

McDavid now on pace for 116 points

After Friday night's dominant performance against the Wild Connor now sits with 40 points in 28 games (the Oilers have played 29 but 97 missed the recent game against Dallas).

After a quiet ten days his 4 point outing puts him on pace for 116 points, his best ever but a little off his pace of earlier in the season.

His recent cooling off I think can be attributed to three main factors:

1. Adjusting to live with new coach Ken Hitchcock
2. High amounts of ice time leading to tiredness
3. A recent bout of illness that led to him missing the Dallas game

McDavid sits 4th in NHL scoring, 8 points behind leader Mikko Rantanen.

McDavid continues to score in most games, of the 28 games he has played in he has just 4 games with zero points, he then has:

14 one point games

6 two point games

2 three point games

2 four point games

Lets see what tonight brings in the Battle of Alberta!

Oiler host Dallas Pre Game Stats

I am working to add some extra rows to this so it compares more data, also working on the colour coding.  Oilers don't look good on paper but oddly I expect a win.

Team	Dallas Stars	Edmonton Oilers
Games Played	24	23	1
Wins	12	10	2
Losses	10	11	-1
OT	2	2	0
Points	26	22	-4
Points Per Game	1.08	0.96	-4
Win %	54.2	47.8	7
Goals Scored Per Game	2.833	2.783	0.05
Goals Against Per Game	2.75	3.304	-0.55
E/S GF/GA Ratio	0.9574	0.8222	0.14
Powerplay %			0
Powerplay Goals For	25th	16th	9
Powerplay Goals Against	7th	27th	-20
Powerplay Opportunities	29th	20th	9
Penalty Kill Percentage %	8th	28th	-20
Shots Per Game	22nd	19th	3
Shots Allowed Per Game	10th	7th	3
Win % if scores first	10th	28th	-18
Win % if away team scores first	21st	12th	9
Win % if leading after first period	23rd	22nd	1
Win % if leading after second period	6th	19th	-13
Win % when outshoot opposition	4th	23rd	-19
Win % when outshot by opposition	4th	23rd	-19
Number of face offs taken	24th	27th	-3
Face offs won	11th	29th	-18
Face offs lost	5th	14th	-9
Face off win %	5th	26th	-21
Shooting %	9.3	9.0	0
Save %	0.911	0.889	0

My predictions for the Oilers, games 21-30

The Oilers decided to go into a funk for the second ten games of the season blowing a hole in my predictions for those games - you can find them here and the postmortem here.

I am a little late writing my predictions for games 21 to 30 as two games have already been played.

I am predicted a 7-3-0 run for the Oilers over the next ten games - I am expecting new coach Ken Hitchcock to have quite an impact and all the teams are beatable.  The only thing that could hamper the team is the busy schedule of games.

Oilers at Kings - stats preview and prediction

This will be a win for the Oilers!

Reasons:

Coaching - just the type of game where Hitchcock can squeeze a win out of the Oilers.

Record - despite a mixed season for the Oilers so far they compare favourably to the struggling Kings who look ready for a rebuild.

Rest - the Kings played last night whilst the Oilers were resting.

Rebound - the tough loss in the last few minutes against the Ducks will make the Oilers hungry for a better outcome.

The stats - lots of Orange always a good sign!

	Home Team	Away Team	Difference
Team	Los Angeles Kings	Edmonton Oilers
Games Played	22	22	0
Wins	7	10	-3
Losses	14	10	4
OT	1	2	-1
Points	15	22	7
Points Per Game	0.68	1.00	7
Win %	34.1	50.0	-16
Goals Scored Per Game	2.045	2.818	-0.77
Goals Against Per Game	3.273	3.227	0.05
E/S GF/GA Ratio	0.7317	0.8571	-0.13
Powerplay %	13.4	21.1	-8
Powerplay Goals For	9.0	15.0	-6
Powerplay Goals Against	17.0	17.0	0
Powerplay Opportunities	67.0	71.0	-4
Penalty Kill Percentage %	74.2	76.1	-2
Shots Per Game	27.9545	30.9545	-3
Shots Allowed Per Game	31.0455	29.7727	2
Win % if scores first	0.75	0.5	0
Win % if away team scores first	0.071	0.417	0
Win % if leading after first period	1.0	0.6	1
Win % if leading after second period	0.857	0.833	0
Win % when outshoot opposition	0.25	0.455	0
Win % when outshot by opposition	0.357	0.444	0
Number of face offs taken	1342.0	1306.0	36
Face offs won	702.0	630.0	72
Face offs lost	640.0	676.0	-36
Face off win %	52.3	48.2	4
Shooting %	7.3	9.1	-2
Save %	0.895	0.892	0