The Edmonton Oilers yet again saw their penalty kill fail them in a heartbreaking, last-minute 4-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night.
Just like many games before this one, it was a game that was well within reach for the club, one that they even had a lead with 10 minutes left in regulation. Yet, an ill-advised offensive zone penalty by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put the team shorthanded and once again it resulted in a goal against to knot things up.
From there, it seemed like it was almost fated that the Oilers would find a way to lose and with less than a minute left in the game, Vegas defender Noah Hanifin zipped home the game-winner and Mark Stone cemented things with an empty-netter on the next shift.
And it all stemmed from yet another failed PK for a group that now finds itself in a historically bad position this early in the season. Sportsnet pulled up a stat during the broadcast showing that Edmonton’s 59.5% PK success rate is the third worst in NHL history through the first 14 games of the season.
Oilers are the 4th team in NHL history with a sub 60% penalty kill through the first 14 games of a season pic.twitter.com/lISpqtrJkC
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 7, 2024
It’s no secret that this is a facet of the game that needs to be corrected fast if this Oilers team wants to get back to the level they were at last season. Defenceman Mattias Ekholm is a key piece of the team’s PK group and was very blunt when discussing its failures.
“It has to stop. It has to stop right now,” Ekholm told reporters after the game. “We’re working hard to fix it… There’s things in the game that we can do better and that’s what we gotta learn from.
“Hockey is not that easy, we all know that it’s a sport of small details and it’s the little lapses and the little mistakes that you got to get on your side and not give up too easy goals or whatever it is.”
“There’s some good, some bad. We’re early in the season, we gotta try to build towards something that’s gonna be great.”
Mattias Ekholm following the #Oilers loss to Vegas tonight. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/lIfJ9PfLVA
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 7, 2024
It should come as no surprise that the team is dead last in the NHL right now when it comes to the penalty kill and it’s miles away from the stalwart group we saw in last year’s playoff run. It’s something that was woven into the identity of the team last season and has suddenly gotten away from them in a short amount of time.
When it was early in the season you could chalk it up to new players getting used to a new system, but as the games roll into mid-November and things seem to be getting worse, alarm bells will start ringing far louder.
The only way to silence them is to find a solution.