GENE'S BLOG: Advantage Edmonton

The Edmonton Oilers have historically been an organization built on offence. I don't mean they didn't have great goalies or defencemen or great all-around teams. If I say Edmonton Oilers, you say goals, Stanley Cup titles, the game's greatest player, end-to-end action and so on. It's hard not to think about the epic offence the team put up in the 1980s.
They would average five goals a game and had multiple 400-plus-goal seasons as a team. Numbers never before or never since seen again. Part of what they did was accomplished when the team had the power play. They did it then and now they are doing it again with their modern-day work on the man advantage.
What happened then was ground- or, shall I say, ice-breaking, and now it's even reached new heights. I still remember talking to Wayne Gretzky in Las Vegas at the start of the 2020-21 season and the Great One saying it wasn't fair what the Oilers power play was doing. That's like Michaelangelo saying hey, that guy is a pretty good painter.
This is the greatest player of all time, who himself had 890 career power-play points, stepping aside and taking Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey and Craig Simpson with him, replacing them with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Tyson Barrie, Evan Bouchard and others. As someone who witnessed as a fan what happened in the 80s, it's hard to imagine in my lifetime the Oilers could have an even better PP 35 to 40 years later, but they do.

From 1982 to 1986, in each of those seasons, the Oilers had a top-three power play. From 2019 to 2023, the Oilers once again have a top-three PP. In fact, they are currently scoring when up a man or two at a 31.86% clip. That is just .02 off the NHL record set by the Montreal Canadiens in 1977-78 (31.88%).
Edmonton has 72 power-play goals this season. The next closest team is Ottawa with 58. The numbers are absolutely mind-boggling and leading the charge are McDavid and Draisaitl.
I know records are made to be broken, but there are some records I just didn't think would be touched, let alone surpassed. Yet it's happened not just once but twice. On Saturday night in a game that looked straight out of the 80s, McDavid and Draisaitl did their thing on the man advantage.

Let's start with Leon, who broke his own record and a record he originally broke by surpassing Wayne Gretzky and Ryan Smyth in PP goals in a season, which once sat at 20. He surpassed their totals (24 in 2021-22) to set the new record. Now he has surpassed his own lofty standards. Two goals against Winnipeg's penalty kill and he has 26 man-advantage markers. Unbelievable. The German Gretzky is flirting with the NHL record for PP goals in a season, which is 34 set by Philadelphia's Tim Kerr in 1985-86.
Not to be outdone, McDavid has his own record achieved on the power play. While he has a none-too-shabby 18 man-advantage goals of his 52 on the season, he's actually often been the set-up man. Throw in 40 assists and his 58 power-play points broke a franchise record of 57 held by the Great One. Wayne held the top four team spots for man-advantage points. He also had seasons of 54 twice and 53.
Unbelievable really what these two are doing with the man advantage. I should mention Leon has 49 PP points this season. I think Wayne got it right when he said it wasn't fair. It sure doesn't seem like it on many NHL game nights. Edmonton disproving the theory that a good man advantage is hard to find.