How you feel about the PK?

[thadd]

I was looking at our PK % on NHL.com today.

We're at 22nd at 78.9%.
Boston is the worst at 71.7%.
Anaheim is the best at 90.5%.

So we're 7.2% better than the worst and 11.6% worse than the best.
The best and worst are seperated by 18.8%
81.1% would be right smack in the middle of the best and the worst.

I think it's fair to say we need to at least be doing a little bit better on the PK.

Do you guy think we have the right group of players to have a good PK?

Taking a look at who's played big PK minutes for us so far.

Lestesnu has played 49:11 on the PK so far.
1 giveaway
1 takeaway
2 shots on goal
1 missed shot
2 blocked shots
22W/32L in the faceoff circle (40.07%)

Ignoring the faceoff stats, that looks incredibly unproductive for our leader in minutes on the PK. Add that in with his horrid faceoff win % and he's looking like a gong show.

Klefbom is second at 45:55 on the PK.
9 blocked shots
1 giveaway

When Klefbom was in the AHL people talked about him a hard hitter and I think we need the coaching staff into getting him into being a little more aggressive.

His 9 blocked shots are best on the team... but I think that's a given considering he plays so many more minutes on the PK than all of the other d-men.

guys below Klefbom for blocked shots:

Gryba - 5
Fayne - 4
Hendricks, Hopkins, Schultz, Paka(Has only played 1:14 on the PK) and Davidson (Has only played 11:15 on the PK) - 3

Short handed shots leaders are Mcdavid, Lander and Hendricks at 3. Amazing Mcdavid is only 18 years old and he's tied for the lead in shorthanded shots while playing 8:23 on the PK over 8 games. He's also got a hit and a takeaway. 0 for 2 in the faceoff circle. Pretty sure we're going to get used to seeing him on the PK a lot in the future.

Gryba leads our team in hits on the PK. 2 hits over the course of 26:32. I can understand that you want our d-men to stay in position most of the time on the PK, but there's a chance to hit guys when the PK has yet to set up and you'd think that someone would have more than 2 hits by now.

Hopkins leads the team in takeaways on the PK with 4 over the course of 24:15. He's also got 3 blocked shots and he's got 3 wins and 4 loses in the faceoff circle. I'm willing to live with those numbers considering all of the situations that Hopkins plays in.

We don't have anyone who's been a wiz in the faceoff circle, and I'm sure an improved faceoff winning percentage would lead to our PK percentage being significantly better.

I hope Nurse can come along in the defensive department a little faster, because he's only played 8:31 over 8 games on the PK and he's got the size and athleticism to become a valued asset on the PK.

Sekera has only played 31:58 on the PK. For a guy with his level of experience and also taking his positional play into account you'd think that he'd be playing more on the PK.

Taylor Hall has played a whopping 34 seconds on the PK. I'm not blaming him for anything, but it would mean a lot to the team if he learned how to put his speed to use on the PK. Same goes with Yakupov.

I think our biggest problem is on the face-off circle. Nobody at 50%.

How might you fix the PK (assuming you believe it to be broken.)

Click to read more...

 

[Stud Muffin]

It was good untill injuries started happening.

 

[thadd]

It was good untill injuries started happening.

It was better. That's for sure. There are are a handful of guys right now who've got a chance to prove that we need them by doing something like playing super effective on the PK, but for some reason they don't seem motivated to take the bull by the horns.

 

[Fourier]

It's pretty tough to do an in depth analysis on such a small sample size. The Oilers have been short handed 57 times and have given up 12 goals. At this point the statistical difference between them and a top ten team or a bottom team could be attributed as much to a couple of bad bounce as it is to any individual's play. But if you want to look at who the best pk'ing teams are it is no coincidence that most have top flight goaltending

 

[BarDownBobo]

It was good untill injuries started happening.

This. IIRC we had a top 5 PK earlier in the year, and it has gone downhill at the same time as the teams health has. Guys like Korpikoski and Hendricks are really key parts of the PK, and bot have missed significant time. Once those guys are fully healthy I think we'll see the PK numbers rise.

Side note: I think Draisaitl could be a very good PK guy in the future. I believe he played there with Kelowna last year and was very good in that role.

 

[LTIR]

Seemed to be overpaid but is proving his worth so far this season

 

[bone]

I also don't recall many games where the PK is what really let us down. They seem to make the kill when they most need it most of the time. I'm sure there are exceptions but getting healthy and improved goal-tending would easily move it back to middle of the pack.

Soft goals, the momentum swings from said late penalties and poor start are the bigger issues.

 

[Stoneman89]

The PK would be much higher with better goaltending, since that is the key to a good PK. I think we have the right skaters to get the job done.

 

[nabob]

Harder to win faceoffs when you have one less man battling for the loose pucks on draws that are 50/50. Also a hit on the PK usually means it goes from 5 on 4, to 4 on 3 for a short term.

Korpi and Hendricks are probably our best PKers and they've been hurt. Which dies t help either.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Phil Kessel's alright.

 

[Supermassive]

I think he needs to treat cabbies and women better.

 

[PaPaDee]

Of the games I've watched, I thought our PK has been decent. But as was already mentioned, good goaltending is critical to having a good PK, and we haven't gotten a lot of it so far.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Interesting stat...

The Oilers have scored 12 PP goals on 57 power plays and they've let in 12 PP goals against on 57 penalty kills... no shorthanded goals for or against this season.

That's exactly dead even for the combined specialty teams when you add it all up so basically they are average when you take into account the PK + PP.

It would be nice to see them improve the PK but I'm glad to see the PP at least doing reasonably well.

 

[Dorian2]

I think he needs to treat cabbies and women better.

Took me a couple of seconds to get that one. As well as GreatKeith's response.