'A scary idea': Mike Babcock's penalty kill strategy on the hot seat

This in from TSN Overdrive, Got Yer Back podcaster and ex-Oilers d-man Jason Strudwick and former Leafs player Jeff O’Neill discussing exactly what’s going wrong with Mike Babcock’s hard pursuit penalty kill of the Edmonton Oilers.

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Edmonton’s penalty kill ranks 27th in the NHL. It has successfully killed off just 64.3 per cent of opposition power plays.

The new penalty kill sees Edmonton players relentlessly pursuing the puck carrier, but getting pulled out to the perimeter and leaving the front of the net open for five-alarm shots, the most dangerous of scoring chances.

Said Strudwick, “What’s keeping me up at night if I’m Mike Babcock is the PK. They’re changing it up, much more aggressive. It hasn’t worked out yet. That still has me pumping in the Tums early in the year here.”

And O’Neill: “An aggressive PK that doesn’t work and you keep at it is a scary idea. Like, if you just keep getting pumped and they zip it around an aggressive box, that’s stupid.”

O’Neill added that he loves the aggressive Carolina penalty kill, where Canes players harass puck carriers until they panic and make a mistake. “It’s a great philosophy, but if you’re getting torched on it, you got problems.”

Strudwick concluded the segment, saying: “Well, the details really matter on the PK when you’re aggressive. You can’t be missing little cues, and it takes a little while to figure that out.”

1. Most importantly — and as wretched as the Oil’s PK has looked — it’s still early days. Maybe Babcock and his PKers will figure this out. Maybe the aggressive style that other teams employ with such success can work for the Oilers.

2. The early returns are rancid. Edmonton is giving up about the same number of Grade A shots on the PK as in recent years, but a far higher percentage of those Grade A shots this year, 10 out of 11, are the most dangerous of all shots, five-alarm slot shots. There’s been five goals against on those 11 Grade A shots, 45% of them.

In comparison, the opposition scored on just 21 per cent of its Grade A power play shots last year, when just 108 of the 236 Grade A shots were five-alarmers.

3. Right now with each Edmonton defender charging about in reckless pursuit of the puck, I’m reminded of the infamous Dallas Eakins’ “swarm” strategy, that also saw relentless pursuit of the puck, but ended up with all kinds of Oilers bunched up and getting beat in the corner, and all kinds of opposing forwards alone in the slot with golden scoring opportunities.

4. After Edmonton gave up two ugly, ugly, ugly power play goals in the first period against Anaheim, it seemed like Babcock and/or the team adjusted and played a more conservative box formation in the second and third periods. That worked a bit better. At least the team didn’t get scored on again.

Babcock has said he will try different strategies and see which ones work and which ones don’t work.

That is what is happening now with the high pursuit PK. It’s an interesting strategy, for sure, and it’s worth a try.

Clearly, though, it’s got some major kinks at this point that need working out.

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