EDMONTON, AB - It was the second special teams unit that got the better of the first at Wednesday's practice.
With the Oilers coaching staff breaking up the primary and secondary power play and penalty kill units into teams of blue and white, the energy was ramped up with the burden of a bag skate on the line.
Goals with the man advantage and stops by the penalty kill yielded a number of cheers and screams from players. In the end, it was the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Oscar Klefbom pulling extra skating duties.
"We made those guys bag skate today, so it was fun for us," Ryan Strome said following day 11 of Main Camp on Wednesday. "Obviously they're some of the best players in the world and are going to score 75 percent of our power-play goals, but if we can pitch in here and there that's important."
On the second power-play unit with Ty Rattie, Jesse Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto and Ethan Bear, Strome paralleled the intensity of practice with the team's competitiveness as a whole coming into this year's camp.
"As a team, you want to push each other in all aspects, especially as a second unit we want to push them and show the coaches we can get out there too," Strome said. "It's fun and I think that's a little bit of the spirit our team has brought this year - a lot of competitiveness in practice and hopefully we can carry it over to the regular season."
BLOG: Special teams units compete
"As a team, you want to push each other in all aspects, especially as a second unit we want to push them and show the coaches we can get out there too," centre Ryan Strome said
