Oilers Greatest Strength From Last Season Takes a Major Turn Early This Year

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Liam McCormick
October 13, 2024 (1:04 PM)

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The Oilers greatest strength that fuelled their incredible playoff run last year was their special teams, and its cratered to begin the year.

The Oilers powerplay hasn't begun to produce at a prolific rate, but no one is concerned that McDavid and Draisaitl will get scoring on the powerplay. However, there could be real concern about the penalty kill.

The Oilers lost four of their most regular penalty kill players this offseason: Ryan McLeod, Warren Foegele, Cody Ceci, and Vincent Desharnais - and the Oilers didn't bring many more defensive minded players in. So far the results have been abysmal on the penalty kill, and especially last night against the Blackhawks, it severely cost the Oilers.

Edmonton has some newcomers on the penalty kill with Travis Dermott and Darnell Nurse, and the forwards are more veteran forwards. The Oilers lost some significant speed on their penalty kill, which is an asset to quickly get to open space in the defensive zone. The slower penalty kill of older players will need to seriously dial in their positioning to be effective, and even then, they may want to consider making a younger player a penalty killer - like Vasily Podkolzin.

When asked about the struggles on the PK after the game, Coach Knoblauch admitted that new players are getting acquainted to new systems, but that everyone else needs to be better. Knoblauch openly admitted they're just not in sync right now.

»Yeah, absolutely, that does add a little bit. We've been scored on when our four guys who were here last year have been on the ice together, and we've been scored on when the new guys have been out there, too. So just to say it's because we have new guys is not good enough, but there is some guys getting familiar with the system right now, obviously, we're not in sync."
- Coach Knoblauch

Tonight in the Battle of Alberta, the Oilers will need to have a much stronger effort effort to pull off their first win of the year, and then string together a few more to dispel the fears of a slow start. If they don't, losses to Chicago and Calgary will be a tough way to open the year for the Oilers.