How can the Oilers improve their offense in Florida?

The Edmonton Oilers have certainly struggled against the Florida Panthers when they’re on the road. While this year’s Stanley Cup Final has had just the 6-1 blowout loss in Florida, last year, the Oilers lost three of the four games, scoring seven total and only two in the three losses. Across both years, the Oilers are 1-4 in Florida, and have just eight goals in five games.

So how can the Oilers improve on their offense against the Panthers on the road? Jason Gregor joined Daily Faceoff Live to talk about what Edmonton needs to do to score more in Florida.

Jason Gregor: Well, 5-on-5 it’s like a desert. They’ve got two goals at 5-on-5 in 5 games. Connor McDavid has four points. He was unreal in Game 5 last year. Everybody remembers the play made to set up Corey Perry to make it 3-0, and it was a great play.

But I think overall, Florida has done a good job in shutting Edmonton down. Edmonton in Florida has to do a better job of getting traffic in front of Bobrovsky. You look at it in this series, even in the last game, high-danger chances on both teams are fairly similar. I know people look at shots on goal, and they say, “Oh look, Edmonton’s got more.” Yeah, but it’s because of the defense. Bouchard has 24 shots himself. The Panthers defense core has 31 total. The Oilers forwards actually have two fewer shots than Florida’s forwards.

And so if you have guys who naturally crash the net, then point shots are going to increase your goal chances. But the Edmonton Oilers, especially without Zach Hyman, outside of Corey Perry, they don’t have a lot of guys who are a natural net-front presence.

So I think a big reason for their lack of scoring in Florida is two-fold. They’re behind too often, that’s number one. When Florida gets the lead, they will just slowly choke the game out. So I think Edmonton’s got to have better starts. And they got to get a little bit more traffic in front. They’ve only had two layered screens this series, and one of them has resulted in a goal. So I’d try to do that a bit.

You can watch the full episode here…