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Edmonton Oilers fans arrive for Game 6 of the Western Conference finals of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs against the Dallas Stars in Edmonton, Sunday, June 2, 2024.<\/p>\n
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Jeff McIntosh<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile Edmonton’s power play revived with a roar by going 4-for-5 in back-to-back victories to close out the conference final \u2014 captain Connor McDavid’s first period goal in Game 6 was a work of hand-eye-toe-drag art \u2014 the Oilers’ penalty killers deserved a bow.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t“I thought that was one of the determining factors in the series,” defenceman Mattias Ekholm said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tBoth Ekholm and head coach Kris Knoblauch credited assistant coach Mark Stuart’s handling of Edmonton’s kill.<\/p>\n
\n\t“The penalty kill, when I got here, was struggling,” said Knoblauch, who took over for fired Jay Woodcroft in November when the Oilers were 3-9-1.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t“I’m not taking any credit on the penalty kill. It’s not my responsibility. It’s Mark Stuart, who has done a tremendous job on that. The only think I’ll take credit for is giving him responsibility to do the penalty kill.”\n<\/p>\n
\n\tKnoblauch said he initially “wasn’t sure” about handling the penalty kill to Stuart.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tREAD MORE:<\/strong>\u00a0How to watch and what to expect in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs\n<\/p>\n \n\t“He’d never run the penalty kill. I didn’t know him as a coach,” Knoblauch said. “I knew he was fairly green and hadn’t been doing this very long, but there weren’t many options and we gave him that responsibility and he has done a fabulous job of it.\n<\/p>\n \n\t“I don’t think we’d be here today if our penalty kill hadn’t been as strong as it had been through all the series.”\n<\/p>\n \n\tEdmonton heads into the Cup final with a power-play clicking at 37.3 per cent and a kill operating at 93.9 per cent.\n<\/p>\n \n\tFlorida’s is running at 23.3 and 88.2 per cent respectively.\n<\/p>\n \n\tStuart, a former defenceman who played 673 NHL games with Boston, Atlanta and Winnipeg, is in his second season as Edmonton’s assistant coach.\n<\/p>\n \n\tHis work has helped Edmonton break the opposition’s “will with our kill” in the post-season so far, Ekholm said.\n<\/p>\n \n\t“He is hard, but humble,” Ekholm said. “I really enjoy working with him on it.\n<\/p>\n \n\t“It’s never ‘what the heck are you doing?’ It’s more ‘OK, let’s look at this. What are you thinking? Here’s what I’m thinking.’ He works with us in a really good way.”\n<\/p>\n \n\tEdmonton’s goal differential 5-on-5 is plus-1 after 18 playoff games, so the Oilers’ special teams will likely factor into whether they hoist the Stanley Cup for the first time in 34 years.\n<\/p>\n \n\t“It’s always a new challenge with who you’re playing next, so looking forward to that,” said Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “We take a lot of pride in it and we’re going to keep getting better.”\n<\/p>\n \n\tGame 2 is Monday in Sunrise before the best-of-seven Cup final flips to Edmonton on June 13 and June 15.\n<\/p>\n \n\tA Game 5, if necessary, would be June 18 back in Florida, Game 6 would be June 21 in Edmonton and Game 7 is June 24 if the series goes the distance.\n<\/p>\n
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