Edmonton Oilers Thoughts: Finals, Game 6

Have you slept okay? Have you been pacing around your house and scrolling through Twitter on an hourly basis? This time of the year was never meant to be easy, but the Edmonton Oilers always find a way to make it harder than anyone else. The other day, I heard one Oilers fan on YouTube compare the Game 5 loss to when a parent says they aren’t mad at you, but just disappointed. He had perfect timing for that analogy since it was Father’s Day. Back in your own rink with a chance to take a 3-2 lead in the Finals in front of a loud and electric crowd of fans. But we instead watched the second ugly loss of the series and now, like last year, find our team in a Do-Or-Die sixth game. But this time, it’s on the road. The team that won it all last year in front of their fans in 7, much to our chagrin, can repeat in front of their fans in an earlier game. The Oilers aren’t looking for a Game 6 win at Rogers Place to force Game 7 on the road after being down 3-0 in the series. They’re looking to come up with another series-tieing win at Amerant Bank Arena so that they can attempt to make amends on Friday night for an unpleasant Saturday night. Had Florida taken one or both of our side’s Overtime wins instead, the series would’ve already ended. Having it be this close is a positive. Playoff hockey doesn’t always make sense, and this team loves having a flair for the dramatics.

We all remember that clip of the quiet anguish and heartbreak in the Oilers locker room after losing last year’s Game 7. Before getting ready to leave the rink, they sat with frowns and tears while listening to the Panthers’ home crowd, players, and announcers celebrate their top of the mountain moment. Tonight, why not make a new memory from that rink? Erase the negative ones and make one about how you got a crucial win that may lead to something even greater. They already have the memory of tying the series last week by coming back from 3-0 after the opening 20 minutes. Connor McDavid finally scored his first goal of this series on Saturday. I expect him to be fired up and all over the ice for his career’s most important time.

Calvin Pickard’s undefeated streak was fun while it lasted. Is Kris Knoblauch circling back to Stuart Skinner? The latter has a history of bouncing back after a lengthy period out of the net. If he’s taking over now, this is the most important time for him to do that again and not falter. Personally, it doesn’t matter to me who starts in net. I don’t blame Pickard for Game 5, nor did I blame Skinner for the first period of Game 4. One point made by the Sportsnet panel during intermissions was that the Oilers looked too afraid to generate offense through the neutral zone, so they just kept ramming the puck around the boards, even though that’s a specialty of the Panthers rather than one on our side. The goalie tandem we have isn’t elite or perfect, but not many other tandems can say they’ve gone as far in the Playoffs as ours. The team in front of them needs to be more responsible and not duplicate the last couple of games. Bob Stauffer was a guest on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast and said, “I’d block slapshots in the nude to see the Edmonton Oilers win”. Someone should’ve said that when the Sportsnet commercials were still playing Lay It On The Line.

In NHL Finals history, eight teams have won after trailing the series 3-2. Three teams have won after losing Game 5 at home. Edmonton looks to be the ninth and fourth team to accomplish such feats. They once again have to “drag ’em back to Alberta”. It’s not impossible to do, so how do they? The keys to the game are…

Edmonton Oilers Thoughts

My Kingdom For A Lead: The Edmonton Oilers have led in this series for 33 minutes, while the Panthers have led for 200. The Oilers have scored just four first period goals, while the Cats have scored 11. Game 2 was Edmonton’s only normal game so far, and they still needed a really late tying goal. It’s not that the goals they allowed on Saturday were soft; it just gets taxing for the league’s oldest roster to always play catch-up. As much as we all talk and hear about our team being resilient, not every single game has to be about heroics or adversity. We get it, they’re good at that and are not quitters. Play properly, start on time, go up, and try to stay up.

Face-Off Ready: Kevin Bieksa used this term to describe Brad Marchand’s two goals in Game 5. He went on rushes and scored after the puck was dropped, once at center ice and the second time in his own zone. To the five Oilers players not taking the draw, each of them should look for which Panthers winger will charge for the puck. See if Marchand will attempt that again, and I wouldn’t put it past him. Perhaps Edmonton can also test Florida on being Face-off ready. All those years watching Marchand in other rounds with the Bruins, and other fanbases hating him, I finally get it now.

Know Your Surroundings: In Game 4, I can’t remember which Panthers player it was, but Craig Simpson made an observation of what they did in their zone. The puck bounced off the boards behind Sergei Bobrovsky’s net, and the Panthers player batted the puck away as if he knew where it would go afterwards. It wound up being a really good defensive play. The Panthers obviously take note of their own rink’s odd spots. Can the Oilers remember off-the-radar moments like that and use them to their own advantage?