PREVIEW: Oilers at Canucks

The Edmonton Oilers visit Rogers Arena on Saturday night for another Pacific Division clash this week against the Vancouver Canucks.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet & Hockey Night in Canada at 8:00 pm MT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 880CHED.

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PREVIEW: Oilers at Canucks

VANCOUVER, BC – There was the first 50 minutes, and then, there was everything else.

Beyond giving up a last-minute winner on Wednesday night, the little mistakes that contributed to Edmonton’s 4-2 defeat on home ice to Vegas can all be traced back to the midway mark of the final frame, when an otherwise positive performance from the Oilers through two-and-a-half periods was spoiled after giving up a power-play goal to the Golden Knights that inevitably changed their entire outlook on the contest.

“We win that 2-1, and we’re happy with the effort we put in,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said after Thursday’s practice. “But we made some very costly mistakes in the last 10 minutes.”

The Oilers were leading by a goal with 11:28 left in the final frame when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took a holding penalty in the Golden Knights zone, giving their Pacific Division rivals, who’d scored 31 goals in their previous six games (5-for-14 on the PP), the opportunity to equalize on their second power play of the night.

Noah Hanifin tallied the tying goal just past the 10-minute mark with a wrist shot that found its way through Stuart Skinner’s five-hole from distance, undoing what the Oilers thought had been a positive first 50 minutes defensive by keeping one of the NHL’s highest-scoring teams to only one goal.

“We have to be careful on how we assess what was good and what was bad,” Knoblauch said. “In the first 50 minutes, we would’ve been happy if that game had ended there, but in the last 10 minutes, we weren’t very pleased.”

For the second straight game on Wednesday, the Oilers lost the special teams battle after going 1-for-2 on the penalty kill while failing to score on their only power-play opportunity. Edmonton's PK is ranked last in the NHL (59.5 percent) and has seemingly failed to find the necessary stops at critical moments, allowing a PPG in five straight games with at least one against in 11 of their 14 games this season.

The Oilers have scored two goals or less in eight of their 14 games, with their struggling power play that ranks 27^th this season (14.3 percent) contributing to that downturn in offence. Edmonton’s combined special-teams percentage of 73.8 percent sits last in the League, significantly trailing the next closest team in the New York Islanders (79.7 percent).

“Coming in, I never thought that [scoring goals] would be the problem,” Knoblauch said. “That’s five-on-five, that's the power play, that's a little bit of everything. I don't foresee it going for an 82-game cycle, but definitely, we need to address it and get better if we're going to win hockey games because we can't play a perfect defensive game every single time.”

"When you only score two a game, it's tough to outscore a mistake you make in the game."

On Wednesday, that critical error came in cruel fashion during the last minute of regulation when it looked like the Oilers would at least earn a point.

The Golden Knights took advantage of a lost assignment by Evan Bouchard late in the game, resulting in Hanifin being left wide open to score the winner with 48.4 seconds remaining, putting the stamp on a disappointing finish for the Oilers after Mark Stone ended up adding a late empty-netter to seal the 4-2 victory.

With an overall record of 6-7-1 this season, the Oilers aim to win more battles starting on Saturday night when they face another Pacific Division rival in the Vancouver Canucks.

"I think every division game obviously brings a little bit more importance," Zach Hyman said. "Every game is worth two points, but the divisional games – if you win, you get two points, and the other team loses two points. So divisional games are more important."

Hyman is starting to pick up offensively, scoring goals in three of his last four games, and believes that the Oilers have shown signs of breaking out similarly to how they turned the page following the appointment of Kris Knoblauch behind the bench last season – almost a year ago to the day on Nov. 12, 2023.

"I think we're getting opportunities," Hyman said. "We gotta start finishing on our chances, and it was similar story to the beginning of last year. You kind of just gotta get to the net. I think we gotta score in those dirty areas. We haven't done enough of that, and it's amazing when you start going to the net how many more opportunities you get."

Leon Draisaitl has scored nine of Edmonton's 33 goals this season, but only one of them has come with the man advantage, which is low when you consider the fact that 147 of the German's 356 career goals have come on the power play.

It's an area that the Oilers know is synonymous with their goalscoring, and their power-play group knows there needs to be more of a killer instinct when it comes to converting their opportunities.

"I don't think we're holding back. I think we have the same mindset every game," Draisaitl said. "We played a solid game last night until the last 10 minutes or so, then we gave up two big goals, and the game's over. So it's going to have to be a little sharper."

In addition to getting more puck touches on the power play, Hyman mentions that they need to do more at even strength – moving their feet and keeping opponents hemmed in their own zones – to help draw more penalties and get more chances to put the puck away.

"I think that goes with being hard to play against just on all facets of our game," he said. "I think if we're hard to play against in the O-zone, we do a much better job of holding onto the puck. If they're tired in their D-zone, they're more likely to take a penalty. I don't think we've done that enough with other teams regarding holding onto it and wearing them down and then forcing them to draw a penalty, so we can do a better job of that."