Oilers look to earn more power-play chances as they prepare for Canucks

Forwards Pavel Dorofeyev of the Vegas Golden Knights, left, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Edmonton Oilers battle for the puck during NHL action on Nov. 6, 2024. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

Scoring goals has been a challenge for the Edmonton Oilers lately.

Sounds strange, doesn't it?

They're led by two of the biggest offensive stars in the game, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who between them have led the National Hockey League in scoring four of the last five seasons.

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McDavid and Draisaitl have led the club to the upper reaches of the NHL standings and stats sheets, helping it finish in the goals-per-game Top 10 the last four seasons, including fourth last year averaging 3.56 goals per game and first two campaigns ago with 3.96.

Fourteen games into 2024-25, however: an average of just 2.36, good for 30th among the 32-team league.

The statistical dip corresponds with the team's dive in the special teams-rankings. The Oilers' once-lethal power play, which set an NHL record two seasons ago, has scored five times in 35 opportunities for a 14.3-per-cent success rate. That's good for 27th in the league.

Last season, they converted 26.3 per cent of their power-play opportunities, good for fourth in the NHL. The record the Oilers set in 2022-23: they were good on 32.4 per cent of such chances.

Add to that their league-worst penalty-killing numbers – a 59.5-per-cent success rate, 20-per-cent less than their showing last year to put them in the middle of the NHL pack – and special teams are indeed a big concern almost a fifth of the way through this season.

Head coach Kris Knoblauch said Thursday at Oilers practice his team has been good defensively at even strength, but they're "losing a lot of games on the special teams battle, and last night was another one," referencing Edmonton's 4-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday that saw the visitors from Nevada come from behind in the last 10 minutes of the game to win, including a power-play goal to tie it.

"It makes a big difference."

Draisaitl told media at practice the Oilers haven't been getting as many power-play opportunities as usual – "Of course, you're not touching the puck nearly as much as you want to," he said. "That can, at times, sift into your confidence with the puck" – but that he and his teammates need to "earn" more chances with the man advantage.

"We've got to do a better job of that," Draisaitl said.

Fellow Oilers forward Zach Hyman agrees, adding it "goes with being hard to play against."

"I think if you're hard to play against in the (offensive) zone, you're holding onto the puck, you can do a much better job of holding on to the puck. If you're tired in your D zone, you're more likely to take a penalty. I don't think we've done that enough with other teams with regards to holding on to it and wearing them down and then forcing them to draw a penalty.

Hyman said he believes the team is close to turning a corner and needs "everybody just turning it up a degree, finishing our chances, just being harder on the puck, just little things."

"We got to start finishing our chances, capitalizing," he said. "It's similar to the beginning last year, you've just got to get to the net. I think we've got to score in those dirty areas. We haven't done enough of that. It's amazing when you start going to the net, how many more opportunities you get."

Draisaitl said the Oilers – who will travel to Vancouver for their next game: a Saturday night clash with the Canucks – enter each game with the "same mindset" but need to stick with it.

"We played a solid game last night until the last seven minutes or so, (then) we give up two big goals and the game's over," he said. "We've just got to be a little sharper."