BLOG: Oilers power play serving as their secret weapon

EDMONTON, AB - The best power play in National Hockey League history has somehow been even better in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Oilers prolific man advantage finished the regular season at 32.4 per cent -- toppling the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens long held record of 31.9 per cent - but it has been a completely different beast in the postseason. In the first five games against the Kings, the Oilers have scored 8 of their 14 attempts in the series, operating at a mind-boggling 57.1 per cent.
In a series against the notoriously stingy Kings where space has been at a premium, the Oilers power play has been their trump card in taking over momentum and amassing a 3-2 series advantage.
"Yeah, it's huge. I think the power play is a big part of playoff special teams. If you can kill the momentum, kill their confidence with the PP and PK, that's a huge thing," Evan Bouchard said. "I think when you get the opportunity, you got to make them pay.
Mattias Ekholm has had a first-hand look at what it's like being in a coaching meeting and trying to game plan ways to stop the quartet of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
"I mean, it's incredible. Probably the nightmare of every PK coach in the league. Everyone knows what they're doing but they still can't stop it and that's just the ultimate goal for a power-play unit," Ekholm said. "It seems like we've played LA now for a bunch of games and I feel like their PK looks different every game. They're obviously trying something different because it's not really going their way. It's just a testament to our unit where they could just go out there and they just play hockey and it's so hard to defend. I have been on that other side of it and now it feels really good to be on the right side of."

The fact the Oilers power play has been so lethal has been a major turning point in the series. Down 2-1 to the Kings in the matchup and trailing 3-0 after the first period of Game 4, it was the PP that got the Blue & Orange back into the contest. An early second period bomb by Evan Bouchard got the Oilers goalscoring going, before a Leon Draisaitl onetimer with 10.5 seconds left in the frame completed the Oilers three-goal comeback.
The Oilers out shot Los Angeles 20-8 in the second period of their Game 4 resurgence, but it was the power play that helped kick-start the wave of momentum. It is a trend that Ekholm saw when playing against the Oilers prior to his Feb. 28 deal to Edmonton.
"I know playing against them, that was one of the keys. You can't put them on the power play because you know that when the skill guys get to feel the puck, feel good about themselves and get the touches in, that usually doesn't go in the right way for your team," Ekholm said. "I'm sure that was the mindset when I played (the Oilers), but I can't tell or speak for (LA), but they're a good unit."
What has made the Oilers power play so successful in their first-round matchup against the Kings? Los Angeles had a fair bit of success snuffing out the Edmonton advantage during the regular season, killing 11 of 13 Oilers opportunities in the four games the two sides went head-to-head.
The Oilers captain believes the biggest contributor has been the team's doggedness to get to loose pucks and keep the power-play zone time in their opponents end.

"Yeah, I think they had some success against us in the regular season. They work us hard. They work us hard. Their PK works hard," McDavid said. "The strength of our power play is winning battles and it always has been. It's not structure, it's not anything fancy, although it may look fancy, but it's nothing fancy. It's winning battles and making the plays that we can make."
Another area that has helped the Oilers power play keep clicking has been their faceoff prowess in the post season. So far Edmonton is third among Stanley Cup Playoff teams in winning the draw at 53.8 per cent, but that percentage jumps to 60.8 per cent while on the PP.
Leading the way has been Leon Draisaitl who is sitting at 53.4 per cent in the series and an impressive 63.2 per cent on the power play.
"He's been (winning) a lot and that's huge," McDavid said. "He's going up against some big men in Kopitar and Danault, so he's digging in and it's obviously huge."
Now that the series is on the line on Saturday in Game 6 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, the Oilers know the Kings won't just lay down their arms. The Pacific Division rival has been a resilient team all season and will look to pull the same trick the Oilers did last season, when they came back down 3-2 to win the series in seven games.
"I would suspect that they're just going to ramp up their effort level and their pressure. That's what they do in the regular season, so I would suspect that to go up," McDavid said. "With that being said, it's nothing that we haven't faced before. We know it's going to be difficult. They're not just going to try to let us score, so we're going to have to on and earn it."