Three goals against Edmonton's penalty killing unit against San Jose on Saturday, proves the penalty kill is the single biggest issue that is hurting Edmonton this season.
After opening the season going a perfect nine for nine killing penalties against Calgary and Florida, the Oilers now are having problems killing penalties.
They’ve surrendered five goals against Minnesota, one against Calgary and three on the weekend to San Jose.
Nine power play goals against in the last four games and it's no wonder the Oilers have lost four in a row, thanks to a penalty kill that is tied for last in the league with a 66.7 percent success rate.
The penalty killing has been a long standing problem for Edmonton.
Last year they were 26th, the year before that 27th. If you go back to the 2007-2008 season, Edmonton finished fifth on the penalty kill. The year they went to the Cup final they were 8th.
I don't think it's any coincidence that in those days Ethan Moreau, Fernando Pisani and Shawn Horcoff were the heart of the penalty kill and the soul was Jason Smith and Steve Staios.
Moreau and Pisani weren't injured and were healthy.
Smith and Staios were in the prime of their stay at home and sacrifice the body type careers.
Those players suffice for Horcoff, have moved on or retired and Edmonton hasn't been able to fully replace them.
Killing penalties is hard, tireless and painful work that only in recent years has seen any contract numbers increase, for those that do it.
It's about paying the price because if you don't, your team will end up paying the price on the scoreboard.
