Lifeless Oilers put forward embarrassing effort at home in Game 5

Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals in your home barn on a Saturday night, only 48 hours after mounting a once-in-a-century comeback against the team that stole Lord Stanley’s Mug from underneath you last spring.

Surely this is a game that you’d expect a team to get up for, right?

If you were hoping to see an inspiring performance from the Edmonton Oilers, you were unfortunately left disappointed.

Their performance on Saturday night was nothing short of unacceptable, as they were unable to do anything but watch as the Florida Panthers put them on the brink of elimination. And while the Oilers had a good start to the game, for the first two minutes or so, they seemed to forget one important thing — Games, at least ones that don’t go to overtime, are 60 minutes long.

Those remaining 58 minutes were, to put it kindly, lifeless. No juice. No jump. No jubilation.

You can only tip your hat to the opposition so many times before you need to look in the mirror, and that’s what the Oilers will need to do if they hope to do anything but fall in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year. But they know that.

It’s one thing to know it, but it’s another thing to show it.

Connor McDavid and Corey Perry were the only Oilers who were able to get on the board. The former finally broke through and found the back of the net for the first time in this series; the latter was able to make the score somewhat close in the third, though it was all for naught. Those are the two bright spots from an otherwise forgettable night.

Mattias Ekholm, who has been the Oilers’ best all-around defenceman since he arrived in February 2023, had arguably the worst game in the Blue and Orange, making costly mistakes that the Panthers were able to capitalize on. Look no further than Brad Marchand’s game-opening goal.

It was one in which the Oilers won the faceoff, but with Ekholm playing on the right side of the blue line, he instinctively took his first step to the right, only to part the Red Sea for Marchand to streak down. A save would’ve been nice, but the truth is that Calvin Pickard was hung out to dry.