The Oilers’ penalty kill has let them down during the playoffs

The Edmonton Oilers are out for revenge in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, but their penalty kill could prove costly against the Florida Panthers. 

Through the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs so far, the Oilers have struggled shorthanded, with their penalty kill operating at a dismal 66 percent clip, after facing the Los Angeles Kings, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars through the first three rounds. 

Now, they come up against a Panthers team that has a 23.2 powerplay percentage, and will be looking to win back-to-back Stanley Cups for the first time in franchise history. 

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, former QMJHL head coach John Goyens joins Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli to break down the Oilers’ penalty killing issues ahead of Game 1. 

Yaremchuk: John, let’s start with the Oilers’ penalty kill, because the numbers are eye-popping for all the wrong reasons. If you’re an Oilers fan, last year, the PK was so good… this year, it’s 66 percent. Can the Panthers take advantage of that?

Goyens: Well, they can. They can because they score in different ways. They’re not always necessarily in a set stance or a certain formation. Edmonton is going to have to figure this out, because it did get better as the series went along against Dallas. When you look at it, it was really the first couple of the first game where they scored a couple of goals. 

Then, as the series went on, it got better and better. But you cannot be going into a final with a 66 percent penalty kill and think that that’s good enough. Nobody thinks that is good enough, and it is a far cry from where they were last year. 

But, you’re going in the Stanley Cup final, throw out all the existing numbers and focus on just the Florida Panthers, and we’ll see how that goes when it shapes up. But there are areas of their penalty kill, and areas of Florida’s powerplay, that could either really expose the Edmonton penalty kill here. 

You can catch the rest of Goyen’s segment, including his film breakdown of Edmonton’s penalty kill and Florida’s powerplay, and the rest of the show here…