How the Flames can exploit the 3rd guy high in the Oilers PK
The Oilers employ a "one F high, three low" strategy on their penalty kill. On paper it should work well - the aim is to funnel the puck to the outside as much as possible and prevent high danger scoring chances from inside the slot. One forward pressures while the other shrinks back to protect the slot, and they switch spots when the puck moves to their end of the ice.
The problem is, your PKing forwards need to be fast(yes), and have good enough defensive acumen (hell no) to recognize when to switch spots.
If they fail to do so, which happens fairly often because they're the Oilers, an entire side of the ice opens up.
It's bad enough for them that Tenderness has lost his stick here (effectively making him close to useless in this role), but Khaira also doesn't even start moving his feet until the puck is already in motion. Once he does that, the slot opens up.
Last night, Eichel was able to use this to his advantage. He baited Kassian to overcommit to him and get it to Ristolainen with all the time in the world, leaving Letestu in no-man's-land acting as nothing more than a screen as the puck squirts past Talbot. If Ristolainen felt that he didn't have a good shot, Reinhart was wide open as well.
Later that game, Ristolainen returns the favor and dishes to Eichel for a nicely sniped goal with plenty of time for a look... while The Tenderness has no clue what to do, Pakarinen overcommits as usual, and Nurse is in no-man's-land screening his goalie.
Once in a while, both forwards just completely lose their #### and BOTH overcommit, turning a 5 on 4 into a 5 on 2, and this happens. Immensely satisfying to see who the culprits were.
