Key Changes Needed for the Oilers to Turn the Tide in the Stanley Cup Finals
As the drama moves north of the border for Games Three and Four in Edmonton beginning tomorrow night, the Florida Panthers have seized a 2-0 series lead after winning the first two games of the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals. With players like Evan Rodrigues, who scored two goals in Game Two and three goals in the series, contributing from all angles, the Panthers have emerged as the superior team to start the series. The Panthers have demonstrated their ability to perform well on the biggest stage for the second straight season thus far. The Oilers need to wake up and rediscover the spark that carried them to their first Stanley Cup Finals in 18 years, as they trail 0-2 going into Game Three at home in just over 24 hours. The Oilers need to implement these three crucial changes in order to regain momentum in the series.
Power Play
The Oilers' electrifying power play unit has shown the most evident need for improvement during the first two games against the Panthers. With their strong power play, which led the NHL in power play success rate through the first three rounds of the playoffs at 37.3 percent, and fourth-best power play percentage at 26.3 percent in the regular season, the Oilers have been able to rely on it. However, the Oilers have gone 0-for-7 with seven shots on goal on the power play in the first two games against the Panthers. Even though the Oilers are applying strong pressure to the Panthers' defense, they have so far in this series been denied their preferred seam passes, which has frequently resulted in one-timer opportunities for Leon Draisaitl when Edmonton is playing at its peak. In order to increase shot attempts on Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and create more traffic in front of the net, the Oilers must rely on their top three scorers in the playoffs, including captain Connor McDavid, Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard.
Forechecking
The Oilers' forechecking strategy when they don't have the puck has to be adjusted as well. As the Panthers move the puck into the offensive zone, the Oilers' defense has had difficulty getting the puck back. When the Oilers are attempting to flip the puck out of their zone and into the neutral zone, they must rely on their quick speed and use it to counter the Panthers' excessive aggression in specific situations. If the Oilers keep concentrating only on moving the puck out of their zone in order to get a line change, they won't create many opportunities. The Oilers will, however, start to see a sharp increase in their quality shot attempts and breakaway situations if they alter their game plan and concentrate on applying more pressure to the Panthers' defense by generating more odd-man opportunities by racing toward the puck when regaining possession of it and getting it out of their own end.
Face-Off Win Percentage
With a face-off win rate of 53.2 percent during the regular season, the Oilers were fifth in the league. However, the Oilers haven't won the face-off win percentage battle in their opening two games versus the Panthers. The Panthers won 54.4 percent of the face-offs in Game Two after winning nearly 60 percent of them in Game One at 59.6 percent. In closely fought NHL postseason games, the team with superior face-off matchup and execution is frequently well-positioned to emerge victorious. Both of the Oilers' finest face-off players, McDavid and Draisaitl, have performed worse in the face-off circle during the postseason than they did during the regular season, winning fewer than half of their face-off chances. The Oilers should start to find success in getting more puck control in the offensive zone and having the opportunity to flip the puck out of their own end if they can turn the tide in the face-off win percentage for the remainder of the series, beginning on home ice in Game Three.
