The New York Rangers will be continuing their road trip on Monday night against the Edmonton Oilers.  With New York playing some better hockey of late, the team will be hoping to keep it going. 

Following a 4-3 win on Saturday against the Seattle Kraken, the Rangers have now won three games in a row, and all of a sudden things are looking up. New York was a team that hit a rough patch, losing six of seven games, which included a four-game losing streak. 

Adjustments following the injury to Igor Shesterkin certainly played a part, and the team lost their way a bit. However, it has been a much better effort of late, and it is no surprise to see them performing better. 

The Rangers are going to need to be at their best on Monday if they want to beat one of the best teams in the Western Conference on the road. The Edmonton Oilers have been off to a hot start, and they have already beaten the Rangers once this season. However, New York features one area that could help combat the talented Oilers, and that is their penalty kill unit.  

Rangers PK Has Been Elite 

A major reason for the success of the Rangers so far this year has been that their penalty kill unit has been exceptional. While the team has had some games where they have taken a lot of penalties, credit has to go to their ability to kill them off. 

So far this season, they have allowed just six power play goals and are 49-for-55 in terms of killing them off. With a success rate just a touch under 90%, they are second in the league in the category. 

This is a major reason for the success of the team early on, and being a strong defensive squad is certainly in the identity of New York, even without Igor Shesterkin. 

On Monday, this penalty kill will be tested going against the Oilers. With Connor McDavid playing on another level right now, the team will have to make sure they don’t put a great power play unit on the man advantage. 

These two teams met just eight days ago to kick off the November part of the schedule, and the Oilers were one of the few teams to be able to get a power play goal off of New York. Edmonton went 1-for-4 on the man-advantage, but a goal from Evan Bouchard helped extend the lead at the time for the Oilers to 3-0 in that game.