Special teams anything but for Oilers

PK league’s worst at home and PP 0-16 in last eight games

The Edmonton Oilers penalty kill at home is 59.5 per cent, worst in the league by 12.6 percentage points.

They’ve given up at least one power-play goal in 11 of the 12 home games they’ve been shorthanded in.

How much has that hampered them this season?

“Immensely,” said Oilers head coach Todd McLellan, whose team was short-handed four times against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, surrendering a power-play goal by Jordie Weal in the process.

“We seldom come out of a home game clean, which puts you down 1-0 to begin with. That puts a strain on the mental part of the team, and unfortunately we’re taking more penalties than we’re drawing,” McLellan said.

Too many passes are getting through, and too often players lose the puck and never get it back, as with the first Flyers power play on Wednesday, when Philadelphia held possession in the Oilers’ end for the full two minutes.

The rule of thumb is allowing a pass coming through the box is a team mistake.

“You have to give the other team some credit for some threatening saucer-type passes that get through skates and onto sticks, but when it consistently happens, we’re either out of position or we’re getting a wrong read,” McLellan said. “It’s a lot easier to be a goaltender when the puck stays on one side of the ice.”

Mark Letestu knows it’s a crippling stat.

“There’s been meetings ad nauseam in here. We’re searching for answers,” he said. “We’ve liked our kill lately with the structure and the pressure, but we’re giving up a goal. We’re limiting shots better than last year, but when we give a shot on goal it’s a tap-in, a layup.”

IT GETS WORSE

While the Oilers’ penalty kill has been terrible at Rogers Place, and teams hold a 82.7 per cent success rate against the PK on the road, the Oilers power play is zero for 16 over the last eight games.

It’s become far too predictable and stagnant. The first unit with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Milan Lucic and Letestu up front isn’t working.

The second unit with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Patrick Maroon and any combination of Ryan Strome, Jesse Puljujarvi, Mike Cammalleri or Drake Caggiula at forward has looked better in a lot of cases.

It’s hard to believe that Draisaitl has 20 points but not a single one on the power play.

With a power-play chance with 3:54 left against the Flyers, only McDavid had a shot on a quick rush, faking backhand and going forehand on goalie Brian Elliott. Otherwise, there’s been way too much perimeter passing.

The Oilers have the eighth-most five-on-five goals with 57, but the third-fewest on the power play with 12.

CHANGES COMING

In practice Thursday, Brandon Davidson was with Yohann Auvitu in a third defence pairing, so he could play his first game in Montreal after the waiver claim a few days ago. Eric Gryba was paired with injured Andrej Sekera as the No. 7 and 8 guys, so he could be out. Three of the lines from the Flyers game looked intact, with the only one up in the air the unit centred by Draisaitl. Anton Slepyshev and waiver claim Nathan Walker got reps on the wings along with Drake Caggiula and Ryan Strome.