Edmonton Oilers: Three things to watch for against NY Rangers

2. Rangers penalty kill versus Oilers high-octane powerplay

The Oilers’ powerplay has been off to a great start this year, and that’s putting it modestly if we’re being honest. Edmonton is converting at an insane 46.4 percent clip, with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid pacing the team with four goals on the man advantage apiece.

Draisaitl had an outstanding powerplay goal in the dying seconds in Wednesday’s game against the Predators. McDavid cycled the puck from right to left before dishing the puck to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the high slot, sending the puck over to Draisaitl at the right dot, who fired one of the most precise shots past Predators’ netminder Connor Ingram.

“Our main goal, besides creating chances and scoring goals, is to give our team a little bit of momentum,” Draisaitl said after Wednesday’s game. “Create chances, get the crowd into it; that’s our main goal and focus, to do that. Every power play wants to score every single time they go out there and that’s impossible, obviously, but we know what we want to do. We’ve been together for a long time now and we’re pretty dialed in with what we want to do.”

Zach Hyman, who was signed to a lucrative seven-year contract over the summer, also has three powerplay goals through the first nine games.

However, the Rangers penalty kill has been great in the early goings of the 2021-22 season, ranked ninth at an 86.1 kill-off rate entering Friday’s matchup.