Here’s How Penguins Hope to Deal With Lethal Edmonton Power Play

CRANBERRY — The Pittsburgh Penguins won’t be facing the NHL’s most efficient power play when Edmonton visits PPG Paints Arena Thursday evening.

Not even close, really.

Nonetheless, the Oilers might have the most scary man-advantage unit in the league.

On paper.

As long as that paper isn’t a printout of the league rankings.

The Oilers have converted 23.8 percent of their chances with the extra man, good for just 11th place in those rankings, even though their roster features some of the most volatile offensive talents in the game.

Edmonton sits a full half-dozen slots behind the Penguins, who have scored on 26.2 percent of their opportunities with the man-advantage.

And they’ve done it without having anyone likely to overtake, say, Oilers forwards Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid in the scoring race anytime soon.

Or ever, for that matter.

Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch can send a top unit featuring the likes of Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard, as well as McDavid and Draisaitl, over the boards when the other club commits a penalty.

“They have a lot of threats,” said winger Matt Nieto, one of the Penguins’ primary penalty-killing forwards. “It’s not just 97 (McDavid) and 29 (Draisaitl).”

When that No. 1 group is in synch, penalty-killers have approximately zero margin for error. Maybe a bit less.

“When you have that many weapons that can score from anywhere in the zone, you have to take that into consideration,” said Noel Acciari, who leads Pittsburgh Penguins forwards in shorthanded ice time per game at two minutes, 35 seconds. “You can’t really look at the (uniform) numbers. You have to look at who’s out there and just know they’re dangerous at all times.”

True enough, although McDavid and Draisaitl are a different kind of dangerous any time they step onto the ice.

“You’ve seen Draisaitl score from behind the goal line and McDavid can just go around the zone and skate,” Acciari said. “There’s a lot to cover.”

Indeed, McDavid’s skating adds a dimension to a power play that would be quite lethal without it.

“They attack off the rush a lot,” Nieto said. “It’s hard, when they drop it to McDavid and he’s coming a million miles an hour, weaving in and out of guys. So we have to be sharp on the rush coverage.”

Doing damage-control against Edmonton’s power play can be challenging under the most ideal of circumstances, and the Penguins’ current situation while shorthanded is far from that.

Although they came out of the NHL’s holiday break last month with a middle-of-the-pack success rate of 82.4 percent on the penalty-kill, after denying the New York Islanders on both New York power plays during a 6-3 Islanders victory Dec. 28, they have given up five goals in 11 shorthanded situations over the past four games.

Opponents have been able to breach the Pittsburgh Penguins’ blue line with relative ease, move the puck around almost at will and routinely establish a net-front presence without fear of physicality. All too often, opposing forwards have been able not only to set up near the crease, but to operate without having their stick tied up, which makes it infinitely easier to capitalize on rebounds and deflections.

Acciari cited a number of other factors that have affected the penalty-kill adversely of late.

“Maybe some failed clears,” he said. “Maybe running around when we should probably stay a little tighter.”

Nieto pointed to the importance of maintaining sound defensive structure and effectively executing other details of effective penalty-killing, like getting the puck down the ice whenever possible.

“We have to get back to pressuring and making sure our clears are good,” Nieto said. “If we have some failed clears, they’re going to make us pay for it.”