I was just checking the line combos for the Oilers and happened to see that Vincent Desharnais has now worked his way up to the first-unit PK. Smart decision by Jay Woodcroft who knew the player from Bakersfield and knew he had this in his toolbox.
I knew Desharnais had PK ability in his toolbox but didn’t anticipate him coming to the top unit so soon, or even skipping the second unit altogether. As of late the Oilers have been having more success on the PK, which at the time of this writing is sitting tied with Colorado at 22nd in the league which doesn’t sound like much but is much better than 30th in the league as it was at the beginning of the season. I can’t find a link but IIRC I saw a stat that read the Oilers actually had one of the best PKs in the NHL from Jan. 11 onward.
A lot of that is due to the big man pictured making his way regularly on the unit – and why not? If your PK is bad, why not try a farm team callup on it? So far it’s paying dividends for Woodcroft and his staff. Impressive for a guy only 11 games into his NHL career.
Fun fact – Ryan Mcleod, a regular on the second PK unit, currently leads the Oilers in Shorthanded goals with two and is tied with Connor Mcdavid for Shorthanded points with three.
Speaking of Desharnais, did you see that part of the Detroit game where Desharnais got in a scrum, grabbed a Red Wing by the back of the jersey, and tossed him around like a rag doll? Good times. Hope to see more of that, especially in the playoffs.