One Obvious Area there has to be significant improvement

[CornKicker]

We can all agree that there needs to be improvement in virtually every area of the oilers team game but one area that needs improvement no question, as well as being relatively attainable is the Power Play. For all of our defensive problems and positioning the one thing with this group that has to improve and has no reason not to is the PP.

Lets look at some numbers.

Oilers PP was 17% on 271 opportunities last season - good for 46PP goals which is 21st in the league.

The oilers should and could be able to attain a 20.5 to 22% Power play percentage this season.

20.5% would give us an extra 9 goals over the season
22% would give us 13 more goals over the season

the Oilers lost 16 games by either 1 goal or lost in OT/Shootout.

Obviously you cant pick and choose when you get PP goals in which games but assuming we had a 22% PP and scored half in 1 goal games we could have potentially have 26 more points. lets say we get 50% of those points. 13 more points put the oilers up 4 spots in the standings and out of the bottom 5 in the league.

With all this offensive fire power there is no reason not to have a top 5 PP in the league.

Aside from the PP if we assume Dubnyk/Lolobarbera cost us at least 7-13 wins just off their atrocious play. again if we assume we get half of those lost point we accumulate another 13pts which leave us in the top 16 and fighting for a playoff spot.

2 easily correctable issues not even taking into account our hopeful improvements on defense and defensively as a team it is not unrealistic to look at the possibilities we could be fighting for a playoff spot.

Click to read more...

 

[McShogun99]

So if we lost 16 games by 1 goal, how many games did we lose by 2 goals with the 2nd goal being an empty net goal? It seemed like we got scored on every time we pulled our goalie.

 

[Joey Moss]

Indeed, the PP was one of the biggest reasons we were so brutal last year. Ramsay should be able to make some improvement with the players he's working with. From what I saw in the home game against CGY there was lots of movement and D shooting.

 

[Mowzie]

Look at what Ramsey did with the Panthers PP, there's definitely room for optimism given the amount of talent we have.

 

[CornKicker]

So if we lost 16 games by 1 goal, how many games did we lose by 2 goals with the 2nd goal being an empty net goal? It seemed like we got scored on every time we pulled our goalie.

i thought about that as well but didnt have the time to go into each 2 goal game but i felt the same way you did. the idea of optimism for this team is not completely offbase.

 

[nexttothemoon]

There's absolutely no logical reason that the PP on this team should have been THE SUCK last season.

In 2011/12 the Oilers PP was 3rd in the NHL under Renney. 8 Shorthanded goals against.

In 2012/13 the Oilers PP was 8th in the NHL under Krueger. 1 shorthanded goal against.

In 2013/14 the Oilers PP was 21st in the NHL under Eakins. 13 shorthanded goals against.

No matter how piss poor the defense of this team is... they should have the talent to run a decent PP.

Renney did and Krueger did as well.... yet the team has regressed in that area under Eakins... in addition to letting in far more goals against overall as well.

You can blame the poor defense on the goaltending to some degree... but the inept regression in the PP points directly at Eakins not being able to get close to the amount of coordinated offense out of the roster as previous head coaches.

Do we need to get back the likes of Whitney, Horcoff, Potter and Hemsky to make the PP good again?

Sad if that's actually the difference between the Oilers current mediocre PP compared to the good units of the past few years. I don't believe that's the difference... I believe it's directly on Eakins head.

This roster should easily be top third in the NHL of the PP... and instead it's bottom third and when you count in the shorties against... close to dead last in effectiveness.

 

[McDeathbyCheerios*]

There's absolutely no logical reason that the PP on this team should have been THE SUCK last season.

In 2011/12 the Oilers PP was 3rd in the NHL under Renney. 8 Shorthanded goals against.

In 2012/13 the Oilers PP was 8th in the NHL under Krueger. 1 shorthanded goal against.

In 2013/14 the Oilers PP was 21st in the NHL under Eakins. 13 shorthanded goals against.

No matter how piss poor the defense of this team is... they should have the talent to run a decent PP.

Renney did and Krueger did as well.... yet the team has regressed in that area under Eakins... in addition to letting in far more goals against overall as well.

You can blame the poor defense on the goaltending to some degree... but the inept regression in the PP points directly at Eakins not being able to get close to the amount of coordinated offense out of the roster as previous head coaches.

Do we need to get back the likes of Whitney, Horcoff, Potter and Hemsky to make the PP good again?

Sad if that's actually the difference between the Oilers current mediocre PP compared to the good units of the past few years. I don't believe that's the difference... I believe it's directly on Eakins head.

This roster should easily be top third in the NHL of the PP... and instead it's bottom third and when you count in the shorties against... close to dead last in effectiveness.

Acton was in charge of the pp I believe, now we have a guy who knows how to run the pp in Ramsay. It'll be a night and day difference

 

[McDoused]

I remember how deflated the team looked last year after our goaltender let in a soft goal or when the powerplay failed to register a scoring opportunity. It's not just about how bad our PP was but it being bad at the worst possible times.

 

[thadd]

I agree on the PP totally. There's no excuse for us to not be a top 5 team. Our 2nd PP should be scoring well too.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Hall, Eberle, Hopkins, Perron and Schultz--we should not be made on the PP

 

[Up the Irons]

Agree with the OP. Overall defensive play, team toughness/nastiness, and heightened competiveness may take some time to improve on, but an improved PP and G should translated into 10 more wins, alone, and they both should be easily attainable.

 

[joestevens29]

Sure the PP has to be better, but banking on a better PP doesn't necessarily equal more wins. PP is out of your control and really depends what the other team gives you. If you are constantly losing close games to teams that don't give you a lot of PP chances you have to find other ways to win.

5 on 5 goals being 28th is a bigger concern for me.

 

[The Human Torch]

One Obvious Area there has to be significant improvement

"Being good at hockey" is one obvious area that the Oilers could definitely stand to improve upon.

 

[Musashi]

Sure the PP has to be better, but banking on a better PP doesn't necessarily equal more wins. PP is out of your control and really depends what the other team gives you. If you are constantly losing close games to teams that don't give you a lot of PP chances you have to find other ways to win.

5 on 5 goals being 28th is a bigger concern for me.

Agreed

 

[Up the Irons]

Sure the PP has to be better, but banking on a better PP doesn't necessarily equal more wins. PP is out of your control and really depends what the other team gives you. If you are constantly losing close games to teams that don't give you a lot of PP chances you have to find other ways to win.

5 on 5 goals being 28th is a bigger concern for me.

Good point. Generally, u need to control the puck and be forcing pressure to be awarded PPs.

 

[joestevens29]

It's also worth mentioning

12-13th 8th rank PP

11-12th 3rd rank PP

 

[Horseradish]

I'm not sure it's obvious, frankly. I suspect that it will be improved but who knows by how much. There are a lot of very good defensive teams and a lot of well-coached teams in the west. Any adjustments made with the intangibles of injury and predominantly young players, in addition to coaching variables, could lead to some surprising and less-than-intuitive results.

I think an improvement is probably predictable. Whether that's 2 spots or 8 spots is a lot more unpredictable.

 

[McArthur]

It's also worth mentioning

12-13th 8th rank PP

11-12th 3rd rank PP

as I recall the percentage was a lot higher in 12-13 till the end of the season and an epic collapse in everything hockey related.

 

[AlowlyMcOilersfan]

looking at last season's stats, it seems like we need to improve our road PP specifically, since it was abysmal. It was third last behind Buffalo and Florida(go figure).

http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.ht...LL&sort=homePowerPlayGoals&viewName=powerPlay

 

[EnthusiasticYak]

I agree with the OP in that there is no way the Oilers should have a struggling power play with the amount of hockey talent that they have. I think it is acceptable to expect a massive improvement in that area based solely on the progression of the players talent and, hopefully, their learned ability to fire off more shots. The struggle last season was absolutely due to a sub par amount of shots generated with the man advantage.

There are a multitude of workable PP models currently in use in the NHL and with the variety of talent on the Oilers there is no reason that they can't implement a viable strategy. A Pittsburgh model, a Washington model, a Philadelphia model, or a San Jose model are all extremely achievable for the Oilers.

Tyler Dellow wrote a great piece, which i unfortunately can't link, that dissected the WSH PP and essentially showed them creating a 4v3 on the right side of the ice with Ovechkin stationed in his usual spot on the left side. As soon as the 4v3 got the puck cycling they worked to pull the 4th defender onto the right side and as soon as he moved far enough over the puck was passed across to Ovechkin for the one timer ; more often than not the shot was already gone before a player could get in the lane or before the goalie could slide across.

Now with that said, the Oilers obviously don't have Ovechkin but they do have a player with a world class shot and should utilize it. Last season Yak didn't get nearly enough PP time and while i agree with the notion that players need to earn their ice time, Eakins cheated himself out of success by not using the best shot on the team for exactly that. As a fan of the team i can only hope that they improve their PP numbers and if they don't improve i think it irrefutably becomes a matter of coaching.

 

[CornKicker]

I agree with the OP in that there is no way the Oilers should have a struggling power play with the amount of hockey talent that they have. I think it is acceptable to expect a massive improvement in that area based solely on the progression of the players talent and, hopefully, their learned ability to fire off more shots. The struggle last season was absolutely due to a sub par amount of shots generated with the man advantage.

There are a multitude of workable PP models currently in use in the NHL and with the variety of talent on the Oilers there is no reason that they can't implement a viable strategy. A Pittsburgh model, a Washington model, a Philadelphia model, or a San Jose model are all extremely achievable for the Oilers.

Tyler Dellow wrote a great piece, which i unfortunately can't link, that dissected the WSH PP and essentially showed them creating a 4v3 on the right side of the ice with Ovechkin stationed in his usual spot on the left side. As soon as the 4v3 got the puck cycling they worked to pull the 4th defender onto the right side and as soon as he moved far enough over the puck was passed across to Ovechkin for the one timer ; more often than not the shot was already gone before a player could get in the lane or before the goalie could slide across.

Now with that said, the Oilers obviously don't have Ovechkin but they do have a player with a world class shot and should utilize it. Last season Yak didn't get nearly enough PP time and while i agree with the notion that players need to earn their ice time, Eakins cheated himself out of success by not using the best shot on the team for exactly that. As a fan of the team i can only hope that they improve their PP numbers and if they don't improve i think it irrefutably becomes a matter of coaching.

exactly how i feel,

when you see PP's like washington and Tampa there is a very specific objective going on. Get the puck to the elite shooter. other teams know it and everyone watching knows it. The oilers almost have too many elite shooters so maybe they arent being coached to use the one shot player to avoid buthurtness? The reality is we have an elite shooter in Yakupov and another close to elite one timer in Hall. Both shoot from the same side so you can essentially have a mirrored PP with both your 1st and 2nd units. Eberle and Perron are both one shot scorers as well but at the same time both are excellent with the puck in close quarters (perfect for gobbling out rebounds and burying them.

our PP units should be
Eberle - Nuge - Hall
xxx-Schultz

and
Perron-Cxxx-Yakupov
xxxx-Petry

 

[Up the Irons]

I agree with the OP in that there is no way the Oilers should have a struggling power play with the amount of hockey talent that they have. I think it is acceptable to expect a massive improvement in that area based solely on the progression of the players talent and, hopefully, their learned ability to fire off more shots. The struggle last season was absolutely due to a sub par amount of shots generated with the man advantage.

There are a multitude of workable PP models currently in use in the NHL and with the variety of talent on the Oilers there is no reason that they can't implement a viable strategy. A Pittsburgh model, a Washington model, a Philadelphia model, or a San Jose model are all extremely achievable for the Oilers.

Tyler Dellow wrote a great piece, which i unfortunately can't link, that dissected the WSH PP and essentially showed them creating a 4v3 on the right side of the ice with Ovechkin stationed in his usual spot on the left side. As soon as the 4v3 got the puck cycling they worked to pull the 4th defender onto the right side and as soon as he moved far enough over the puck was passed across to Ovechkin for the one timer ; more often than not the shot was already gone before a player could get in the lane or before the goalie could slide across.

Now with that said, the Oilers obviously don't have Ovechkin but they do have a player with a world class shot and should utilize it. Last season Yak didn't get nearly enough PP time and while i agree with the notion that players need to earn their ice time, Eakins cheated himself out of success by not using the best shot on the team for exactly that. As a fan of the team i can only hope that they improve their PP numbers and if they don't improve i think it irrefutably becomes a matter of coaching.

This. The coach is on the hot seat. He's got the talent to work with. No excuse for a bottom 3rd PP and sub .500 season.

The Oilers had the weakest coaching in the league last year; along with goaltending, he was the weakest link (and his Swarm had something to do with Dubnyks demise)

 

[s7ark]

The PP will be better this season. Ramsay has a good track record with that. Our PP was very good in the seasons before Eakins. So long as Eakins let's Ramsay do his thing, I have no doubt the PP will definitely improve this season.

Hopefully they will figure out that Yakupov's one timer could be an absolutely lethal weapon for them. His shot on one PP and Nuge's passing on the other should result in a lot of Oiler goals.

 

[EnthusiasticYak]

exactly how i feel,

when you see PP's like washington and Tampa there is a very specific objective going on. Get the puck to the elite shooter. other teams know it and everyone watching knows it. The oilers almost have too many elite shooters so maybe they arent being coached to use the one shot player to avoid buthurtness? The reality is we have an elite shooter in Yakupov and another close to elite one timer in Hall. Both shoot from the same side so you can essentially have a mirrored PP with both your 1st and 2nd units. Eberle and Perron are both one shot scorers as well but at the same time both are excellent with the puck in close quarters (perfect for gobbling out rebounds and burying them.

our PP units should be
Eberle - Nuge - Hall
xxx-Schultz

and
Perron-Cxxx-Yakupov
xxxx-Petry

That's a good distribution of talent for both units right there and there's no reason they can't have a sustained attack for a full 2 minutes. I think barring anything extreme that Draisaitl is going to stick so he can be the pivot on the second unit. His vision and passing are his greatest assets at this point so for him to play on the second unit and be looking to pass to a one-timer like Yak's, the goals should come. His passing, while not quite as good yet, is akin to RNH's except that they think the game differently so you're really going to end up with two elite passers on both units who can make anything imaginable happen.

Throw Fayne and Marincin or even Pouliot on the remaining point slot and you have a sound PP unit. With that said, Yakupov was tried on the point last year and it didn't have a hope in working. I hope that doesn't get tried again but if it does i won't even be mad because it'll just be a laughable misuse of talent at that point.

With the proper coaching these players will be able to wow any hockey fan with the clinic that should be put on with the man advantage.