The Edmonton Oilers’ poor penalty killing reared its ugly head again in a 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
The Rangers were 2/3 with the man advantage as the Oilers’ penalty kill dropped to 71.1 per cent on the season, last in the NHL.
Rick Nash opened the scoring 12:19 into the first when he converted a Rangers two-on-one. Jesse Puljujarvi, freshly called up from the Oilers farm team in Bakersfield, tied it four minutes later when he snapped a shot past Henrik Lundqvist. It was Puljujarvi’s first goal of the season and second of his career.
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The Oilers’ power play gave them the lead in the second frame with Connor McDavid swiping the puck home during a goal mouth scramble. However, the Oilers took two penalties late in the period and the Rangers scored on both power plays, getting tallies from Pavel Buchnevich and Nash.
Head coach Todd McLellan said those two penalties blew an otherwise close game.
“Obviously one was a delay of game, you don’t want that,” McLellan said. “And then one in the offensive zone, so that’s not good. But we should be able to get one of those two penalty kills, in my opinion. And that was probably the difference. They were able to get two quick ones on the power play, that sets you back. And then they do such a good job in the neutral zone of clogging things up. It’s hard to come from behind against them.”
Goaltender Cam Talbot made 30 saves in the loss.
He also lamented the special teams.
“I thought we played a pretty hard game and it came down to special teams tonight. We lost that battle and it cost us two points,” Talbot said. “The penalty kill had been doing pretty well on the road here and hopefully, we can get back to that tomorrow.”
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The Oilers couldn’t muster many scoring chances in the third. Michael Grabner scored an empty-net goal in the dying seconds.
The Oilers will conclude their four-game road trip on Sunday in Washington. The game will be on 630 CHED with the Face-off Show at 3:30 p.m. The game will start at 5 p.m.
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