What makes the Edmonton Oilers’ power play so dangerous?

The Vegas Golden Knights took Game 1 in a 6-4 high-scoring affair over the Edmonton Oilers, doing an excellent job of responding quickly whenever it looked like the Oilers had any momentum in the game to keep them out of it.

The one thing the Golden Knights didn’t slow down was the Oilers’ powerplay. They stayed somewhat disciplined and only took three penalties, but the Oilers still scored on two of those powerplays, showing the hockey world that it’s a tough one to stop.

But what makes it so dangerous? Cape Breton Eagles coach Jon Goyens joined Frank Seravalli and Colby Cohen on Daily Faceoff Live to break down the strategy of the Oilers’ powerplay and explain why it’s hard to slow down.

Jon Goyens: Especially now with Evan Bouchard with the downhill one-timer, if you don’t have someone fronting him when the puck is below the hashmarks, it just opens up the whole zone, and he’s got a heavy shot. You saw that on one of the goals yesterday where Draisaitl sneaks to the net.

But you look at a lot of these types of plays, they want to seam pass, but when Connor McDavid comes exploding out from behind the net, they do this little cycle play. Nugent-Hopkins, who was not in the bumper spot, now he is, and now they draw two guys’ focus on McDavid, and it opens up the seam pass. So everybody’s saying to just cut off the seam pass, it’s that they do these little things that just suck you into being attracted. Even here [on the Oilers 2-0 goal in Game 2 against Los Angeles], L.A. Kings F2, all he has to do is hold that spot, that key intersection and cut it off, but it’s easier said than done.

Here [on the Oilers 1-0 goal in Game 1 against Vegas], everybody’s wondering why everybody’s rushing upside dot. At any point, McDavid can find Hyman in front. He does such a good job checking guys with his backside and being available that you have to collapse, you have to respect that, and then they get Nugent-Hopkins leaving, it draws Chandler Stephenson out of position, and you see Nuge just even lifts his foot for that pass East-West.

They don’t overhandle pucks. The guy that has the puck on his stick the most is going to be McDavid, but you see that they get you up, down, around, and now they’ve brought this element ever since moving out Tyson Barrie with Evan Bouchard in heavy bombs. And again, he doesn’t overhandle it too much. So this little play [on the Oilers 5-2 goal in Game 5 against Los Angeles], Draisaitl likes to drive through and just move guys out of the way, opening up the middle one-timer from almost the top of the slot.

Again, back to Evan Bouchard [on the Oilers 3-3 goal in Game 1 against Vegas, he slings pucks East-West, he doesn’t walk with them, and you can see McDavid playing a little hide-and-go-seek behind the net, everybody’s got to respect what’s going on in front because of Hyman, and what does Bouchard do? He slides and he’s virtually on the top of that home plate area and just letting bombs fly. Here’s that cycle play again [on the Oilers 3-3 goal in Game 4 against Los Angeles], again he’s just going to sling it across. There is no bumper, no traditional 1-3-1 bumper, but again, what Draisaitl does is he goes and finds space. He sucks you into areas, Nugent-Hopkins delivers pucks just as well as anybody else on that team.

Then when you think you’ve got them figured out, then you’ve got to deal with the fact that Connor McDavid wants to shoot the puck as well, and he can shoot it through you. On that one [on the Oilers 1-1 goal in Game 3 against Los Angeles], he pulls and shoots through the defender, and on this next one [the 2-1 goal in Game 3 against Los Angeles], you’re thinking that the goalie’s got to worry about the first post, well the reality is he shoots it through Doughty upstairs, and you’ve got to go mano a mano against one of the best players in the world that we’ve seen in the last 20 years.

So, as predictable as it is in terms of their movement, their little deceptions, their little plays with a guy like Hyman in front that just rolls off guys, they aren’t one of the teams that has one of the most deflected goals on the powerplay, not even close. However, he does these little things that opens up seams and then sometimes the fact that they don’t have a bumper throws teams off because most teams are playing the same type of power play these days.

You can watch the full episode here…