BLOG: Oilers thinking offence on the PK

At 74.3% and ranking 29th in the NHL in penalty kill, the Oilers are still working their way through improvement on that aspect of their special teams. One way they've found to improve on the PK is to gain more shorthanded opportunities and even score some shorthanded goals.
"We're focused on the defensive side of the puck, of course, because it hasn't gone well for us. But it has been a steady improvement over the last little bit. And we've gone up against some top power plays as well," said Oilers head coach Todd McLellan.
The Oilers now have two shorthanded goals on the season, with both coming in the last three games (against Vegas and Dallas). Drake Caggiula scored the shorthanded goal on Saturday against the Stars.
"You've got to be smart and pick and choose your chances and make sure you're not cheating but if there's an opportunity you've got to make sure you take it," said Caggiula of taking offensive chances when killing penalties, often with Connor McDavid.
"We both like to play with a lot of speed. Every now and then, you can catch a team off guard. Dallas has some pretty high offensive guys. In the pre-scout we kind of noticed that you can catch them a little bit off guard on defence so we were able to get a couple of chances. Especially later in the game and we're down a couple of goals we were pushing it a little bit."