Keys To Success: What The Oilers Need To Do Come Playoff Time

With only thirteen games left in the season for the Oilers, they have precious little time to fix the aspects of their game which need improvement terribly.

Their power play and penalty kill need to improve drastically for any chance of success, but even more importantly, the Oilers need to play to their capabilities for a full 60 minutes.

The Oilers special teams have been anything but special. The Oilers power play is functioning at a 16.6 percent rate, 23rd in the league. The Oilers seem content to stand still in the offensive zone and not take advantage of their power play.

If the Oilers don't move, they make the job of penalty killing that much easier for their opponent, and instead of helping the Oilers gain momentum, they end up losing much more due to their stale power play.

The Oilers need to be more creative when they have the puck, rather than the standard Horcoff cross-ice pass, or pass to Souray at the point, because the opposition knows those plays and adjust to it.

High movement and high creativity will help the Oilers improve their power play, even if by just a little.

Head coach Craig MacTavish was well known during his playing days as a fierce penalty killer, and Oiler fans saw that during his first eight years coaching in Edmonton.

However, in the 2008-2009 season, the Oiler penalty kill is 28th in the league, only better than Atlanta and Toronto, both teams that are not even close to the playoff hunt.

The biggest struggle the Oilers seem to have on the penalty kill is the balance between aggressiveness and passiveness at the point.

There have been countless occasions where the forward, in an attempt to knock away the puck, gets caught far out of position, leaving the point open to take a shot and cause havoc in front of the net.

Don't be as aggressive at the point, and staying in the lanes will help the Oilers as they push forward.

Ultimately, the Oilers need to be able to play a full game of hockey to their highest capability. While that has been a rarity this season, other teams and fans alike have seen what the Oilers are capable of when hitting on all cylinders.

And if the Oilers hope for any kind of success, they need to play to their highest capability. If they do that, we can only imagine what kind of havoc the Oilers can create come postseason time.