The Edmonton Oilers look better than ever on defence — and might improve soon

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DALLAS – The traditionally firewagon Edmonton Oilers enter the Western Conference final against the Dallas Stars playing arguably their best brand of defensive hockey ever.

That they’ve done so without the services of probably their top defenceman, Mattias Ekholm, only adds creditability to their work.

“You don’t play defence with one guy. You play defence with five guys,” veteran blueliner and longtime former Star John Klingberg said. “It comes down to that everyone on the ice is buying into that.”

A former NHL player who keeps close tabs on the Oilers told The Athletic that the way they’ve defended has been a “hallmark” of their success in these playoffs, as they head into Game 1 on Wednesday. It’s hard to disagree.

It was evident throughout the second-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights. The Oilers allowed only 10 goals, the fewest they’ve surrendered in a single series in the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl era. That was capped off by shutting out the Golden Knights twice, allowing just 47 shots against over nearly six and a half periods in that span.

“We’ve been a very good defensive team for years now,” Draisaitl said. “Are we going to give up a couple more goals than we’d like to every now and then? Yes. Of course. Every team does. The league’s too hard to just shut out every team and just give up one or two goals. But we’re a good, structured, defensive team that can defend really well.”

Draisaitl seemed perturbed to be asked about how well the Oilers are keeping the puck out of the net, just as McDavid was after Game 5. Regardless, it’s clear the team has taken another step.

Just ask Ekholm, the stalwart defender, who travelled to Dallas with his teammates and whom the Oilers hope can return from a lower-body injury to make his 2025 postseason debut sometime during this series.

Ekholm has preached, almost from the time he arrived via trade from Nashville in February 2023, that the Oilers need to be more comfortable playing in their own zone and withstanding opponents’ offensive pressure. The Golden Knights had a couple of sustained stints in the Oilers’ end in Game 5; the Oilers essentially gave up nothing.

“That’s something that you learn,” Ekholm said. “If you look over seven games against Florida (in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final), they may have been a little more comfortable defending than maybe we were. A little bit more stubborn.

“Sometimes, it’s not about what you get. It’s about what you leave. You’re not going to score every game. As a line or a D pair, you’ve got to understand that I’m not at least going to hurt the team by letting those in the other way. Our team has done a tremendous job of that.”

Defending, as Klingberg notes, requires commitment from everyone. But the six blueliners — or seven, given the recent lineup swap of Troy Stecher for Ty Emberson — deserve their share of the credit, particularly in Ekholm’s absence.

“They’ve done really, really well. Playing fast. Playing simple. Moving pucks,” Ekholm said. “Our D corps has been really sound. There’s a lot of experience on that back end right now. I love the way they’re playing. Hopefully, we keep it going.”

Goaltender Stuart Skinner praised the way they’ve blocked shots and had tight gaps on oncoming forwards.

“When the guys in front of me are doing a good job, it makes my job a lot easier,” he said.

The Oilers have gotten something positive out of every rearguard. Evan Bouchard has led that charge.

After struggling early in the first round, Bouchard is having yet another outstanding postseason. He’s third on the team in scoring with 12 points and is doing so with the power play producing at only a 25 percent clip. The Oilers are outscoring opponents 16-13 with him on the ice at five-on-five, including a 9-2 advantage against Vegas, all without his Ekholm, his regular partner.

“It’s a hard void to fill, but everybody’s got to step up in their own way,” Bouchard said. “For me, it’s focusing on my game and elevating my game as we keep getting further (along).”

Darnell Nurse, who had a rough postseason a year ago, has been much better.

Brett Kulak has built off a career season, in which he got a bigger role and received regular penalty-killing duties. He’s gotten top-four minutes and has provided versatility, continuing to often play the right side instead of his more customary left slot.

“We did that a lot throughout the whole season, so it’s not something like we’re sitting in the second round and you’re asking someone to do something they haven’t done all year,” Kulak said. “It’s prepared you for this.”

Though Emberson provided PK work, Stecher’s inclusion in the lineup for Game 4 of the Vegas series, after entering the playoffs with an injury, has given the Oilers more stable pairings. He’s worked well with Nurse, his most common partner in the regular season, whereas Kulak and Bouchard have found chemistry.

And then there’s the duo of Klingberg and Jake Walman, two players Oilers GM Stan Bowman targeted for their puck-moving abilities. Klingberg was signed in January after a double hip surfacing procedure that kept him sidelined for more than 14 months. Walman was acquired just before the trade deadline.

“They’re underrated players,” a former NHL coach told The Athletic. “I don’t think people realize how good they are.

“John Klingberg never gets the credit he deserves for how good of a player he is.”

Klingberg and Walman took on most shifts against Golden Knights star Jack Eichel to close out the second round. With their help — along with Draisaitl, Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen up front — the Oilers held Eichel in check, as he had zero points in games 4 and 5.

“When I’ve thrived the most playing hockey, I’ve had a defence partner that’s moving the puck and thinking the game the same way that I do,” Klingberg said. “I love to play with a guy who plays thinks the same way as me, skates the puck really well, because then you play with the puck more during the game. You never have to waste that much energy playing defence. You’re more playing with the puck and you’re more driving offence.

“That’s something I’m excited about playing with Jake. He’s a really good skater. He’s got really good hockey sense. He’s got a great shot. Really good offensively. He can all see how good defensively he is.”

The Oilers appear to have found the correct mix when it comes to how they try to fend off opponents collectively and as a group of six defencemen. The thought of Ekholm joining the fray is tantalizing.

It’s not hard to envision Ekholm rejoining Bouchard, with Klingberg and Walman remaining together and Kulak getting more action on the right side with Nurse – a duo that was used at times in almost every game this season. That’s before even considering Stecher and Emberson.

“I’ve played with him a lot. These guys have played with him for two years now,” Klingberg said of Ekholm. “We all know how good he is. He’s one of the biggest keys to this team. That would be a great addition for sure.”

Until then, the Oilers just have to keep buttoning down defensively.

With McDavid and Draisaitl leading the charge at the other end of the rink, there might be no stopping this team if they can continue limiting pucks from entering their net.

“We know that we’re going to be a really good offensive team,” Klingberg said. “We can score goals, especially with those two top guys that we have. If we just take care of our own zone and the neutral zone and doing the right things there, we know that when we get in the O zone, we have a really good chance to score. That’s been the goal.”

(Photo of Mattias Ekholm: Kyle Ross / Imagn Images)

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