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Knoblauch shouts out underrated stat after big Edmonton Oilers win

Preston Hodgkinson
Preston Hodgkinson
|
Mar 17 2025, 12:00 pm
Knoblauch shouts out underrated stat after big Edmonton Oilers win
Danny Wild/Imagn Images

The Edmonton Oilers have found a way to end their East Coast road trip on a positive note.

Last night’s 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers made it two straight victories and helped the Oilers jump over the LA Kings for second place in the Pacific Divison. It was a close game, and one that was tied 1-1 heading into the final frame, but a couple of goals from Viktor Arvidsson and Connor McDavid tilted things in Edmonton’s favour.

Stuart Skinner, who has been a lightning rod for criticism lately, was also solid as he turned away 21 of the 22 shots he faced which included a few big ones in the third period.

While Knoblauch was happy with all these things, he seemed particularly interested in another stat following the game: blocked shots.

“The story in the third period was how many blocked shots we had,” Knoblauch told reporters after the game. “We had [Jeff] Skinner and [Vasily] Podkolzin, [Jake] Walman had I think five or six tonight.

“It was just a lot of guys digging in and doing the right thing.”

Edmonton did hold the edge in blocked shots during the game by a 19-16 margin over the Rangers. 12 of those came in the third period as the team was trying to defend the lead. Knoblauch was correct in his assessment of Walman, who had six blocked shots on the evening.

This helped limit Skinner’s workload in the Oilers net, who also recognized the amount of rubber being turned aside by his teammates.

“The guys played really well in front of me,” Skinner said after the game. “Especially at the end where we were six-on-five, up two, with a few seconds to go, we were still blocking shots.

“That’s a huge credit to the guys. They don’t have to do that with 10 seconds left so it’s huge.”

It’s easy to get lost in the offensive star power of the Oilers, but it’s obvious that this team is starting to emphasize their defensive game. When Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was describing the type of game that the team wants to play, he deliberately made a point to mention the defence first before the offence.

“It was the way we wanna play,” Nugent-Hopkins said of the win. “Frustrate teams, lead with our defence, and our offence follows that.”

The win marks the end of a four-game road trip that Edmonton found a way to get a 50/50 split on. They’ve looked much better in the pair of wins in New York City and now the challenge will be to carry that over on their upcoming four-game homestand.

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