EDMONTON — They have been accused of being powerplay-dependent, these Edmonton Oilers, with the best man-advantage numbers in the National Hockey League over the past six seasons.
Edmonton also rode a penalty kill that gave up only four goals in 70 attempts through last spring’s playoffs.
And make no mistake, head coach Kris Knoblauch reminded after a 3-0 loss to New Jersey Monday night, a lot of what the Oilers accomplished last spring was a direct result of winning the special-teams battle, night after night after night.
“You look at our run through the playoffs,” Knoblauch began. “There’s no way we’re going to the Stanley Cup Final if we didn’t have an unbelievable powerplay and an unbelievable penalty kill. That got us through a lot of series.
“It wins you hockey games,” he continued. “We know our powerplay is going to get better, we know our penalty kill is going to get better, it’s just finding the execution.”
They’re going to have to improve.
It’s no secret that good special teams win games, and can even mask some average five-on-five play. And that might be why, after 13 games where their penalty kill is dead last in the NHL and the powerplay languishes in 25th place, the Oilers are a pedestrian 6-6-2 in the Pacific.
Case in point: In Monday’s loss to the Devils, the Oilers gave up a powerplay goal to New Jersey, and barely threatened on their own man advantage, going 0-for-1. Right now, Edmonton is barely even drawing penalties, ranked 26th in powerplay opportunities.
“We lost the special-teams battle,” Knoblauch said. “We haven’t drawn many powerplays to really generate things, get in a rhythm and build on something. It’s something we’ll have to look at.”
To be fair, there were plenty of chances at even strength to beat a stellar Jake Allen in the New Jersey nets, and players like Zach Hyman, Adam Henrique and Vasiliy Podkolzin simply did not cash.
Natural Stat Trick has the high danger scoring chances at 13-6 in Edmonton’s favour five-on-five, but the Oiler hands were as cold as Allen was hot. With Connor McDavid on the shelf for the third straight game, the rest of the roster failed to produce the way they had the night before in a 4-2 win at Calgary.
With the score 1-0 New Jersey, Podkolzin had a wide open net courtesy of Leon Draisaitl and simply steered the puck wide of the yawning cage.
“I have to score there. I feel bad for Leon and for myself,” he said post-game. “Sometimes I need to create more and I need to be maybe a little more physical. I need to learn how to be more consistent in this game, to be more useful for my linemates.
“Sometimes it is your turn, and sometimes it is not. Tomorrow will be a new day.”
This was an Oilers team on a back-to-back facing a rested Devils team and out-chancing them at five-on-five. Henrique hit a crossbar early, Hyman had three decent chances without a goal, and Podkolzin missed on a chance that he’ll score on 99 times out of 100.
New Jersey pulled away as the night wore on, but this could have been entirely different had the Oilers found some found fortune, or simply executed on their fair share of Grade A chances created.
“We won on the back of some incredible goaltending,” New Jersey head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Jake gives us a chance to get going in the game, so credit goes to him certainly. I thought we had a bit of a bend but don’t-break mentality throughout, and the third period was our best period in terms of defending less and pressing and extending our lead.”
This was a game in which McDavid would have dearly loved to play, with scads of open ice through the opening 40 minutes as two teams played with little physicality and plenty of speed. If he plays it might be a different result, but the reality is the Oilers are 2-1 with McDavid on the shelf, and they won’t have him on Wednesday when Vegas comes to town.
McDavid skated with the spares on Monday morning and looked very much like a player who won’t need all of the two-to-three weeks allotted to recover from his ankle injury. He spoke like a guy who would be back as soon as next Tuesday against the Islanders, or in Oilers fans’ wildest dreams, perhaps even Saturday night in Vancouver.
But without their captain to fashion a highlight-reel goal, the Oilers were unable to solve Allen with even a cheap one on a night where the Oilers outshot the Devils 31-16.
“We have to find a way to find an ugly one at some point there,” Henrique said. “I thought we had good pressure, good opportunities to do that but we just couldn’t get that first one.”
The goals, they’re harder to come by right now in Edmonton.
That happens — especially when you’re losing the special teams battle more often than you win it.
