BLOG: The Oilers are trying different power play combinations

The Oilers went 1-for-4 on the power play on Tuesday night in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Hurricanes. They looked business as usual in the early stages of the power play, with three shots and many other great performances, but they didn’t look threatening before the break with the second man advantage.

Later in the game, despite McDavid’s PPG in the second period, there wasn’t much going on with the man advantage, and another goal would have gone a long way in stopping the Hurricanes’ comeback, which started two goals in the third period before Sebastian Aho scored with seven seconds left before overtime.

After goaltender Stuart Skinner did his job, making 30 saves, another special teams contribution – a PK or PPG stop – could have turned the game around against Carolina. For a team that has benefited greatly from historic power play success in recent seasons, this isn’t necessarily an area where they expected to struggle with just two PPG in 19 power play games.

“During the season, there are always things that need to be addressed. When things aren’t going well, something usually slips out,” Knoblauch said. “Right now, given how their season is going, there are a lot of things to talk about: power play, penalties, goal scoring. (Power play) is one of the things I didn’t expect to achieve. have trouble doing.

“I think there are two things that are important to win games: special teams and goaltending. We had an outstanding goaltending game last night and then throughout the regular season our special teams weren’t what we expected. You look at our play in the playoffs, and the biggest reason we survived that playoff run was our penalty kill and our power play. With this team, you know who it is – to be successful, our special teams needs to be there now. they are not.”