Oilers killing it: Penalty killers holding up their side of special teams

Move over, Edmonton Oilers power play. The penalty killers are in the spotlight.

The Oilers reached their first Stanley Cup final in 18 years in no small measure to a stingy penalty kill that hasn't given up a goal in their last 10 playoff games, and kept a clean sheet in 28 straight short-handed situations.

The Oilers and Florida Panthers open the 2024 Stanley Cup final with Saturday's Game 1 in Sunrise, Fla.

When Edmonton's vaunted power play went quiet the first four games of the Western Conference final against the Dallas Stars, the grunt work of foot soldiers like Mattias Janmark, Derek Ryan, Connor Brown and Cody Ceci complemented goaltender Stuart Skinner's efforts to protect the defensive side of the special teams ledger.

Holding the Stars' power play to 0-for-5 in a Game 1 double overtime win in Dallas was pivotal.

While Edmonton's power play revived with a roar by going 4-for-5 in back-to-back victories to close out the conference final — captain Connor McDavid's first period goal in Game 6 was a work of hand-eye-toe-drag art — the Oilers' penalty killers deserved a bow.

"I thought that was one of the determining factors in the series," defenceman Mattias Ekholm said.

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Both Ekholm and head coach Kris Knoblauch credited assistant coach Mark Stuart's handling of Edmonton's kill.

"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.

"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 thing I'll take credit for is giving him responsibility to do the penalty kill."

Knoblau