The Oilers Can't Keep Ignoring This...

The Edmonton Oilers have been off to a great start, but there is one area of their game that I feel is holding them back from being legitimate contenders. And this has been the issue that's held the team back for the last few seasons. Welcome back to Oilers Digest. I'm your host, Joseph Greco. And in today's video, we're going to be taking a look at their game against Utah Mammoth yesterday in which the Oilers suffered a 4-2 loss in one area in the game in particular that's held the team back and that is their penalty kill now very quickly i do want to just quickly touch on the results of the game the oilers suffered a four to two loss against the Utah Mammoth as i indicated heading into the game the mammoth were going to be the oilers toughest test so far this season and very much so were we saw yesterday their team that's got some great offensive talent up front as well some great depth that are both skill and size as you go down the bottom of the lineup i thought logan cooley was far and away the best player for both teams yesterday he was very noticeable both on the puck showcasing his skill and his ability but I thought he was very physical and he battled all night long which is something that I don't really think of when I think of Logan Cooley but he really impressed me additionally I think Vemelka solid performance in net but in his own regard I thought Devon Levi was solid for the Oilers at the end of the day only gave up three goals so he still gave the team a chance to compete I think all in all the biggest battle that the Oilers lost yesterday was the battle of the specialty team so as I mentioned the penalty kill has been an issue for the Edmonton Oilers early into the season and dating back to last year it was a big issue I thought the team just hasn't done well in the penalty kill regard and I think Connor McDavid would agree he said yesterday that the biggest reason that they lost was because Utah was able to convert on the specialty team's opportunity and the Oilers were not so no power play goals for the Oilers and they gave up quite a few on the penalty kill so very early into the season I know it was very early and yesterday was the only regulation loss on the season for the Oilers but since that game against Anaheim I can't help but notice one area excuse me one area that the Oilers have been struggling in that is penalty kill it's been very very tough going for the penalty kill started through before yesterday's game they were ranked 26th in the National Hockey League with a 73.7% success rate through the first six games and then yesterday they only had one kill on the first three opportunities and then that drops them down to a 68.2% rate through the first seven games of the season which is giving up seven goals on 22 power play opportunities and this is something that's been carrying over since last season specifically the postseason so if we take a look at last season's results again we'll find the Oilers towards the bottom 10 to 12 of the National Hockey League throughout consistent stretches last season and early on in the season this year same situation the Oilers are just not good enough on the penalty kill and this is kind of disappointment disappointing considering you know very rough start for DJ Smith in that regard in terms of trying to improve the penalty kill but Stan Bowman Mike Babcock all the coaching staff all the players indicated that the penalty kill was an area that the team really needed to improve on in the offseason and in the early going we haven't really seen that I think considering how successful the team was in the 2024 playoffs as we can see here 94.3 percent penalty kill rate in the 24 playoffs that was a magical run for the Oilers where they almost came back and won it against the Florida Panthers in a seven game series but their penalty kill was one of their best aspects of their game was almost better than the five on five game at certain points in that postseason run and it's kind of disappointing to see the consistent regression for the Oilers obviously in the 24 postseason 67 percent kill rate and then a 50 percent penalty kill rate in the most recent postseason with eight goals on 16 opportunities they really really struggled against the Ducks power play last postseason and a lot of the issues are continuing to kind of trickle down for the Oilers and it's not very positive again especially because of how much emphasis was placed on needing to improve this aspect of their game i think if you want to be a legitimate legitimate cup contender you need to have a reliable penalty kill that can go up against some of the best power plays in the league and so far Anaheim one of the best power plays in the league Utah one of the best power plays in the league and they fell short costing them some points in that regard yesterday so i think for the Oilers the biggest issue this season is they're trying to embody a man-on-man coverage And they're trying to bring an aggressive approach that you see very often from the Dallas Stars. I always reference the Dallas Stars for having an aggressive penalty kill They play very much so in your face, chasing the puck down. And I think the Oilers are trying to bring that to their game And it just has not worked early in the season So this is the first goal for the Oilers yesterday. And pretty much when you take a look at this you have one two three players who are all going up they're all going north now the issue with this is you got former Oiler Kyler Yamamoto who's in alone behind three of these guys who are kind of gliding towards center ice as opposed to committing on a back check and when you take a look at the defenseman his eyes are very much so clearly indicating a forward pass trying to spring Yamamoto and what happens is the late trailer here right here Barrett Hayden he collects a rebound from Yamamoto resulting in a goal on the power play for the Mammoth now i don't want to over analyze it but because it is a zone entry but the term is called gapping the issue is the Oilers not doing a very good job of retreating and holding the line so obviously you want to hold the blue line as effectively as possible and the Oilers have not done a very good job of understanding when to retreat and clog that line and went to just kind of have maybe one or two forwards do the chasing outside of the the inside the neutral zone as the puck crosses the line so right away already i was not very happy with the way that they handled that trying to overly push against the second power play unit in the mammoth but i think the second goal the mammoth scored on their second power play their second power play goal excuse me was where you saw a lot of these aggressive penalty kill issues so as you watch the plane it kind of progress you have two defensemen so ekholm and murphy these two defensemen are very much so out of position and this is because both these guys are chasing the puck way too often so you have Murphy here who's trying to close in on the attacker and you have the reason Ekholm is up here is because he had just chased the puck and forced a forward out of the zone I believe the forward was Logan Cooley in for the mammoth before they forced the player outside the zone now the issue with that is now you are leaving one and two players seemingly alone with no one really covering any distance of the net obviously that forward is now responsible for covering the net as well as those two forwards in alone which is a lot of coverage of ice you're already down a player and now what you're doing is you're creating this chaos where you have three players clogging the front end of the ice i understand that's where the play is happening i understand that is where the puck is but the problem is it then results in miscommunications and guys being too late to get back to their position so as the play continues on what happens is you see Murphy and you see Ekholm both chasing the single puck because of a miscommunication so both these guys were chasing the ended up chasing the puck carrier resulting in Logan Cooley to be in alone as well as Clayton Keller and all in all just a great play by Logan Cooley to kind of just tap that puck straight to Keller I don't want to take anything away from Logan Cooley but it was a it was a very very impressive play by by Cooley to kind of just one tap that puck and get Devon Levi frantic but again not take anything away from Cooley but you can't have two guys especially your defenseman circling to the top of the zone to do this man-on-man coverage a lot of times what you see from the penalty kills you see a box formation you see guys kind of sit maintain their position position and wait for the pucks to kind to come to them and try and jam the play. So you don't want to make it easy for teams to make that cross crease pass or get shots on net. You want to either put yourself in position to block the pass, block the shot, or if you're not going to block the shot, make sure at least your goaltender can see it to try and make the save. I think what's happening with the Oilers is they're trying to do this man-on-man coverage. So again, if we take a look at this first screenshot here, they're trying to embody this man-on-man coverage. But the issue is when you have two of your defensemen pushing upward and then you're expecting them both to get back to the net as we can see in this next screenshot there was very clearly a miscommunication so if you watch the the goal back Ekholm tries to tell Murphy to kind of back off and switch but both players end up chasing the puck carry and it results again in a great play by Logan Cooley to one tap it towards the open forward but you cannot expect to be a successful penalty kill when you're always kind of looking frantic and you're always chasing chasing chasing the puck I think the Oilers would be better off just maybe maintaining their shape and just sitting back a little more in the penalty kill just to see if the result can come obviously being an aggressive penalty kill is the goal very early for the Oilers and it's clearly the way they want to play but it's not something that I'm a fan of not just for the Oilers but from any teams I think Dallas is the only team I've seen really successfully pull off that super aggressive penalty kill approach moving on I do want to quickly touch on one injury that the Oilers got last minute so adding another injury player to the list and that is Dickinson was ruled out of the game down to five forwards now on the injured list with Jason Dickinson, Colton Dock, Matt Savoy, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and obviously I would say those first three names are extremely important for the Oilers but Jason Dickinson is a very important role player for this team especially down the middle it's been a rough season for Jason Dickinson but unfortunately it's been a reoccurring issue for Dickinson and that as just being unable to stay healthy. So we take a look at his injury history here. February 2025, missed 11 games with the Chicago Blackhawks due to an ankle sprain. And then the following season, season-ending wrist injury. Following season, difficult ankle recovery, which was early this year. And then he made his season debut delayed after missing the first few games and right away, pretty much after, like, what, two or three games, he's already missed a game against the Utah Mammoth. And this time, it has no relation to that ankle injury that's been kind of nagging him since training camp. so very very interesting situation to monitor I do feel for Jason Dickinson it was very much so a long summer for him because he hasn't been able to feel 100% but between Dickinson and Wallman these are two guys who are never really available for the Oilers and it's starting to get a little frustrating because those are two players that can add some juice to the lineup especially Dickinson his penalty killing abilities his ability to win draws ability to help solidify a solid third line or yesterday he would have been the second line center but really caused of the lines to scramble especially with the already long list of injuries the Oilers have but ultimately yesterday was a better game than what I saw against the LA Kings despite the Oilers walking away without a victory yesterday it is a very long season yesterday first regulation loss no need to really panic they just need a few guys to come back from injury to kind of help the penalty kill help the depth of the team and I think all things will be okay in Oilers land they'll be facing off against the Mammoth again on Saturday in Utah so stay tuned for that as well with that said that's all I have for you guys today if you enjoyed the video give it a thumbs subscribe if you're new i'll catch you next video toodles