Oilers stats & news.

The Oilers sit with a 9-9-2 record through the first 20 games of their 2008/2009 season. The following is an extensive list of figures and statistics that will serve to highlight the positives and negatives of the first quarter of the season:

*The team has played a league-leading 14 games on the road. The next highest total of road games played is 11. That does mean, of course, that the Oilers will play a league-leading 35 of their final 62 games on home ice. In fact, fast forwarding to the end of the year, 7 of their final 10 games are at Rexall Place.

*The Oilers are 2-2-2 on home ice this season and 7-7 on the road.

*Schedule quirk: The Oilers play 3 of their 6 games against Vancouver this season in a 2 week span in the month of December.

*Ales Hemsky is the leading point scorer in the league in games played on the road. 17 of his 21 points have come away from Rexall Place; Marc Savard of the Bruins and Alexander Semin of the Capitals are #'s 2 and 3 on that list, scoring 16 and 15 points respectively on the road so far this year.

Hemsky is tied for 2nd in the NHL with 12 power play points; only Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins (15) has more.

*Steve Staios might have a tough time defending his crown as the team's leading shot blocker; Lubomir Visnovsky is even with Staios through 20 games as they've each blocked 40 shots. Zbynek Michalek of the Coyotes leads the league with 59.

*Only one player in the league (Rod Brind'Amour) has taken more face offs than Shawn Horcoff. Horcoff is executing at a 50.1% efficiency rating on 421 draws this year. Brind'Amour is 62.3% in 424 trips to the dot.

*To borrow a line from TSN hockey analyst Pierre McGuire, Sheldon Souray has been a monster this year! He's leading the team in goals with 7 and is 2nd in points with 15. He's also a +2 while leading the team in average ice time with 24:54 per game. If he keeps up his blazing pace he'll score 29 goals and 34 assists for 63 points this season. Think it's far fetched? 2 seasons ago he scored 26-38-64 with Montreal.

*The Oilers seem to be on the right track with their powerplay. With a 20.0% efficiency rating they are tied for 10th in the NHL. They have scored at least one powerplay goal in 13 games this season and multiple powerplay goals in 3 games. In the previous 5 seasons the team has only had a powerplay finish in the top 15 in the league once.

*The Oilers' penalty kill has finished in the top 10 in the league each of the last 3 seasons (including a 5th place finish last season). The PK, however, is off to a slow start this year, allowing approximately 1 goal per 4 powerplays. Their efficiency rating of 73.9% is good for 27th in the league. They have allowed multiple powerplay goals against in 4 games this season.

*Poor starts have been a consistent part of the copper and blue identity to start this season. The Oilers are ranked 29th in the league in first period scoring, averaging just 0.5 goals per period. Conversely, they are ranked 2nd in second period scoring with 26 goals in 20 games.

*The Oilers do not have a player on the team that has more than 4 even strength goals. Ales Hemsky, Ethan Moreau and Dustin Penner each have 4. Notables: Sam Gagner (0), Robert Nilsson (1), Erik Cole (2) and Shawn Horcoff (2). It doesn't seem to be because of a lack of effort on Shawn Horcoff's part; he's 2nd on the team averaging just about 3 shots per game. More alarmingly, Penner, Gagner and Nilsson are all averaging less than 2 shots per game.

*The Oilers have only 4 players who are averaging at least 1 hit per game. Ethan Moreau leads the team in that category with 41 followed by Erik Cole (38), Jason Strudwick (25) and Steve Staios (21).

*Shawn Horcoff played his 500th game in an Oilers uniform on Thursday night against Detroit. The only other active Oiler to have played 500 games for the franchise is captain Ethan Moreau (520).

*Dwayne Roloson has seen the most minutes of the 3 goaltenders on the roster. The 39 year old veteran checks in with 496:52 of ice time followed by Mathieu Garon with 440:22 and then Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers with 270:43. Deslauriers owns the best statistics, however, with a 2.44 GAA and .927 SV%; Deslauriers is also the only Oilers goaltender to register a point (an assist on the game winning goal in New Jersey). Each of the goaltenders has 3 wins to their record; Garon leads the team in losses with 5.