Their special team was really good but then they proceeded to basically get rid of everyone that was on their PK last year?
Except they didn't? Pretty sure Ekholm, Nurse, Kulak, Brown, Janmark, Henrique, Nugent Hopkins, Ryan, are still on the team.
PK is a finnicky thing, you can get into a good groove if you've been playing together for 90+ games but if something is a half second off, it can change things in a hurry. It would help if the goalie's would make a freaking save too, your best PKer has to be your goalie.
Oilers start a lot of season's slow anyway, it's not like this year is breaking news, they were even worse to start last year at 2-9-1. Previous year they started 2-3, the Canadian division year 3-6. There was one year in there where they were 5-0 but then simply moved the losing streaking into late November.
I'm pretty sure Broberg asked for a trade last year. Despite him being injected into the lineup during the 2nd round of the playoffs and his sparkling play in the 10 games or so that he played bolstered the Oilers defense and he single handedly prevented them from imploding in the 2nd round vs Vancouver.
He didn't play in the 2nd round against Vancouver, lol.