3 keys to the Oilers’ road trip

After a successful 3-1-1 homestand, the Edmonton Oilers head east for the first time this season. They’ll face the New York Islanders and New York Rangers Saturday and Sunday in the Oilers’ first back-to-back of the year, then take on Connor Hellebuyck’s New Jersey Devils in Newark on Tuesday.

The Islanders come into Saturday’s matinee off of a three-game Central Division road trip. It began with a loss in Dallas on Sunday before back-to-back extra-time wins. The Isles won Tuesday in Nashville in a shootout after defenceman Matthew Schaefer played every second of the overtime frame before scoring the overtime winner in Minnesota on Thursday.

The New York Rangers will enter Sunday coming off a bye week as they have not played since Monday. The Blueshirts are skidding, having lost three straight in regulation, giving up 18 goals in the process.

New Jersey has been on a strong run of late, winning four of their last five games, including Hellebuyck’s first start as a Devil. He shut down the Stars in a 5-1 win in Dallas, before New Jersey dropped a game in Colorado the following night. The Devils will conclude their three-game Western Conference road trip on Friday night in Vegas.

Edmonton is undefeated on the road to begin this season, entering the New York area with a 5-0-0 record. If they want to keep that unbeaten record intact, they will need to do the following:

Get the penalty kill on track

The upcoming road trip presents a solid opportunity for the Oilers to continue to improve their penalty kill. They currently rank 25th in the NHL, and if they want to continue their strong run, that ranking will need to improve.

The Rangers, Devils, and Islanders are all currently middle-of-the-pack teams on the power play, ranking at 15th, 22nd, and 23rd. These teams certainly have some skill, but should not be torching Edmonton’s PK units. If the Oil can limit the damage while shorthanded on this road trip, they’ll be in a good position to win the special teams battles and the hockey games.

Expose the Rangers’ goaltending

Since Igor Shesterkin went down with a season-ending leg injury, the Rangers have understandably struggled, going 3-4-1. Dylan Garand initially performed admirably when thrust into the starting role in Shesterkin’s absence but has faded since, and Joonas Korpisalo, who New York acquired over the summer as insurance, has only just begun skating with the team as he also rehabs an injury.

To offset these injuries, the Rangers recently signed veteran James Reimer after he was on a PTO with the Rangers farm team in Hartford. Reimer was pulled after allowing three goals on eight shots against Los Angeles and has since been listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Whether the Oilers face Garand, Reimer, or current third-string netminder Spencer Martin, the offence needs to expose this weakness.

Keep up the depth scoring

Over the last few games, the depth scoring has begun to improve. Colton Dach’s move to his natural left-wing position and Jason Dickinson’s return have created a more natural alignment up front, even though the team isn’t fully healthy.

Over the last couple of games, Dach, Kasperi Kapanen, Ike Howard, Alex Formenton, Mattias Ekholm, and Mathieu Joseph have all chipped in with goals. This supplemental scoring, combined with the incredible offence from Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard, gives Edmonton a chance to do some serious damage on this road swing.