Edmonton continues their streak of improved play with a dominant 6-2 performance against the Winnipeg Jets. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, Matt Savoie, and Evan Bouchard all recorded a goal in the first period for a 4-0 lead that sent Eric Comrie packing after 20 minutes, ending the night with a 0.750 save percentage. Thomas Milic came in for relief, but there was no chance – Savoie had already scored the game winning goal eight minutes in.

The Oilers were completely outclassed in terms of hits, recording 9 to Winnipeg’s 36, but there’s a reason for that; Edmonton completely controlled possession for almost the entire night, and that’s a big reason why the Oilers are looking better vs. their first twenty games.

If you control possession, you control the game.

Edmonton won 53.7% of Saturday’s faceoffs, and when they gained possession they didn’t give it up easy. The Oilers kept the puck moving through smart passing, and they made sure to clear the puck quickly if the Jets managed to to get any time in Edmonton’s end. Connor McDavid made a comment earlier this season that defensive systems don’t exist that can deal with 90+ seconds of offensive pressure. It’s simple, and obvious, but the Oilers inability to get the puck over the blue line earlier in the season resulted in a lot of goals against. That wasn’t the case Saturday; the Oilers are cleaning up their act.

It also helps that Edmonton is finally seeing some proper scoring throughout their lineup. Matt Savoie has doubled his goals for the season over that last two games. David Tomasek and Curtis Lazar both chipped in for their own goals as well for some extra depth scoring.

Of course, you can always hand wave this game away; the Jets are on the tail end of their road trip, on a back to back, and Hellebuyck is out due to a knee surgery. It’s a scheduled loss. But that’s exactly why the Oilers should be winning this game in dominant fashion. This is the expected result when a good team plays a bad one. And not to mention, no one was making excuses for the Oilers when they only played 0.500 hockey in their longest road trip of the year, with no practice, and after coming off their second year of no rest with a gruelingly long playoff run in back-to-back finals appearances. No excuses, Edmonton won that game handedly, fair and square.

It’s too early to start planning the parade, but the last two games show a lot of promise.

And while I’m not a huge fan of the new jerseys, the Oilers might want to consider wearing them for every single game from here on out. The Oilers have outscored their opponents a whopping 21-9 while wearing their new alternate, that’s an average of 2.3 goals every single period. To put that in perspective, the current leaguewide goal average is three goals a game.

You can’t argue those results.

The Oilers continue their homestand against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.