BLOG: Oilers power play remaining collected despite early adversity

EDMONTON, AB – ‘Have you tried turning it off then on again?’

For the Edmonton Oilers, powering up their power play this season hasn't been as simple as flipping the switch, as the age-old adage goes. But for the players who’ve helped this club reach historic levels in recent seasons with the man advantage, it’s only a matter of time before things start clicking.

“It's just about sticking with it,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said after Monday's practice at Rogers Place. “We can shoot the puck a little more and win battles. I thought we did some really good things on the power play the last couple of games, and it just hasn’t gone in. But obviously, you want to break through and help the team out, and we take a lot of pride in that.”

“I wouldn't say anything's wrong with it,” defenceman Evan Bouchard added. “We’ve just got to bear down when we get our chances, whether it's creating momentum or even putting the puck in the net. We know what we're capable of. We know eventually it's going to click, but we’ve got to get to it sooner rather than later.”

The Oilers have converted only one of their 15 power-play opportunities in six games this season, leaving their man advantage near the bottom of the NHL (30^th) at 6.7 percent – a far cry from the success they experienced two seasons ago when they set the new NHL record with a 32.4 percent efficiency. Last season, it dropped to a still-impressive 26.3 percent, which was good enough for fourth in the League.

Additionally, the Oilers have recorded only 17 shots on the power play this season for an average of 2.83 shots per game, leaving them third-last in that category behind the Ducks (2.8) and Blues (2.0). Only two spots ahead of Edmonton are Tuesday night's opponents in Carolina (3.25), who have a league-low 13 shots this season with the man advantage but three PPGs to show for it.

Edmonton's PP frustrations were felt on Saturday in a tough 4-1 defeat to the Stars, failing to convert on either of two power plays in the first and second periods that could've given them a deserved goal.

Instead, Matt Duchene scored only seconds into Dallas' only man advantage near the end of the middle frame, and despite a 21-10 shot advantage for the Blue & Orange in the first 40 minutes, they couldn't grab the momentum back in the third.

Nugent-Hopkins remembers their power play having cold spells during those successful years, and the longest-tenured Oiler says this season is no different as the Oilers navigate a slow start to their season overall (2-4-0) and regain their scoring touch with only 12 total goals scored over six contests.

“I think at different times throughout the season, we've definitely gone through stretches like this,” he said. “Even to start last season, our power wasn't where we wanted it to be, and it's about sticking with it. But also, just upping the work rate and thinking of it more as five-on-five.

“You just got to get pucks back and you make plays when they're there. And teams, they adjust to what we've done over the years, so they're coming at us hard right now, but we got to find ways to break that down.

The Oilers have the most scouted power play in the NHL, boasting a regular PP1 of Evan Bouchard, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Leon Draisaitl, and Connor McDavid. As penalty kills around the NHL evolve to deal with that kind of firepower, the power play also understands it’s intrinsic upon themselves to do the same.

“They're changing how much pressure they put on, how many guys they have up top, and different little adjustments,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “So I think something that our power has been good at over the years is being able to adjust on the fly and make plays. We call it road hockey – you're just playing and finding things that are there and available. Of course, we want to sharpen up and if teams are going to put pressure on us, we’ve got to be sharper and faster.”

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch picked out pre-scouting as one of the key factors in the power play’s struggle early this season, but the greatest detail for him has been their execution – having shots blocked, passes intercepted and finding it difficult to generate chances.

Still, the bench boss is hesitant to make any changes to the power play that's consistently got it done under Assistant Coach Glen Gulutzan, and patience should be preached when it comes to keeping the PP1 of Bouchard, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman, Draisaitl and McDavid together to work through an early slump.

"We expect more from them, and they expect more from themselves," Knoblauch said. "There are things that we can maybe address and get better at, but I think we just have to be a little patient and not be thinking about blowing things up.

"There are stretches where power plays just don't go well, and if you look around the league right now, there are some power plays that have been typically really good and they haven't got off to a good start. Ours is one of them."