EDMONTON, AB - It's the sum of many, many moving parts.
But for General Manager and President of Hockey Operations Ken Holland, it's the theme of early success experienced by the Oilers at the one-third mark of the '19-20 NHL campaign.
Through the eyes of the Oilers executive, top spot in the Pacific Division with a 16-7-3 record has been the product of contributions throughout the lineup. That starts with the Dynamic Duo of Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid that's created an eight-point gap of separation in the NHL's scoring race on the trailing pack with 48 and 47 points, respectively.
"Certainly Connor and Leon on the offensive side of things have ticked off all the boxes in terms of team scoring and power play," Holland said on Monday in an interview with 630CHED and Oilers Now Host Bob Stauffer.
Those contributions have trickled down to special teams, where Holland's summer acquisition James Neal has notched 10 of his 14 tallies for his new side. But for Holland, the greatest contributions have come a man down where they hold the League's second-best penalty kill (86.7 percent) to go along with their second-ranked power play (32.4 percent).
"I think sometimes you can score on the power play, but give it right back on the penalty kill," Holland said. "A third of the way through, our penalty-killing has been a real story. That again comes down to the coaching staff, the players buying in, and obviously goaltending."
BLOG: Holland speaks to Oilers early success
"Going into a game and believing your best is good enough to win, I think that we're in the process of developing that," Oilers GM and Pres. of Hockey Ops Ken Holland said