Oilers coach, players hesitant to change struggling power play

Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch on Oct. 21, 2024, at team practice. (Credit: TSN)

It's too soon to blow it up, says the bench boss.

Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch told media Monday after practice that although his team's usually potent power play has been sputtering badly to start the season, he's not ready – yet – to make changes to it.

Through six games in the 2024-25 season, the Oilers' success with the man advantage sits 30th among the National Hockey League's (NHL) 32 teams having converted just one of 15, just 6.7 per cent, of their opportunities.

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Knoblauch said he's "cautious about changing things."

Can't blame him. Last season, the Oilers ranked fourth (26.3 per cent) among teams in the power-play department, a year after they paced the NHL at a record 32.4-per-cent clip.

Knoblauch also pointed out Edmonton isn't the only team with an elite power play that's struggling.

Indeed:

• The Tampa Bay Lightning are in that category, currently 28th in the league. Last season, it was the league's best with a 28.6-per-cent success rate.
• The Dallas Stars, too. Saturday's 4-1 winners over the Oilers sit 29th in the NHL at 11.1 per cent. In 2023-24, it was the sixth-best at 24.2 per cent.
• And the Toronto Maple Leafs sit 27th at 12.5 per cent. Last season: seventh with 24 per cent.

Edmonton has iced a top-five power play in each of the last five seasons. Not a surprise as it features the world's best player, Connor McDavid, and one-time scoring champ and most-valuable player Leon Draisaitl.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard round out the Oilers' extra-man murderers' row (to borrow a cliche born with baseball given a World Series featuring the New York Yankees is soon to begin.)

Knoblauch said not only does the Oilers' coaching staff "expect more from them," the players themselves "expect more from themselves," too.

"We have to be a little patient and not thinking about blowing things up because there are stretches where power plays don't go well," he said.

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Defenceman Bouchard, the point man on the unit, said he "wouldn't say anything is wrong" with the power play. His prescription for whatever ails them: "Keep it simple, shoot from the flanks and get in front of the net."

"We've just got to bear down," said Bouchard, the relative newcomer to the top power play who assumed his role following the departure of Tyson Barrie at the February 2023 trade deadline, adding the players aren't suffering from "a lack of confidence."

"Everybody, as a five-man group, needs to shoot more."

Edmonton Oilers centre Leon Draisaitl celebrates his goal against the Seattle Kraken during NHL preseason action on Oct. 2, 2024, in Seattle. (Lindsey Wasson/Associated Press)Nugent-Hopkins echoed Bouchard's thoughts on what the top power play should work on, saying "there's no panic."

"It's just about sticking with it, shooting the puck a little more, and winning battles," he said, adding that opponents have probably adjusted "to what we've done over the years."

That's something Knoblauch, too, suggests, but the head coach thinks "execution" -- getting shots and passes through -- is the No. 1 issue.

And he isn't ready to give the second power-play unit of Corey Perry, Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson, Darnell Nurse and Mattias Ekholm a bigger share.

"We want those players (the first unit) out there a lot, and we think they'll make a difference," Knoblauch said, adding a 50-50 split between the units is "not realistic."

"A lot of teams that do that, most of them don't have very good power plays."

The Oilers play their next two games at home: Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes and Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both games start at 7 p.m.

O'Reilly signs entry-level deal

The Oilers' top NHL draft pick in June has signed a contract with the team.

Sam O'Reilly, taken by the Oilers with the final pick of the first round after Edmonton hastily peddled a future conditional first-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers, inked a three-year, entry-level contract, the club announced on Monday.

The six-foot-one forward attended Oilers training camp, playing four preseason games and scoring one goal, before thebefore the the NHL team sent the 18-year-old back to his junior club, the London Knights.

O'Reilly helpedhelp guide the Knights to the Ontario Hockey League title last season, scoring 20 goals and 56 points in 68 regular season games. He recorded four points in the Memorial Cup, in which the Knights lost the final to the host Saginaw Spirit.