Here’s another one involving Stuart Skinner and Connor McDavid. This puck comes to Skinner, and he can either freeze it or play it to one of his players. McDavid is gliding here instead of gathering the puck or getting ready for a quick pass. Skinner plays it off to the corner right where Barkov is waiting to gather it up.

Here’s another one that can be scored as a win for the Panthers’ forecheck, but it was also as much about the Oilers helping Florida.

In this one, the Oilers are in great shape in the neutral zone. All the players are marked. As the puck carrier slides outside, Kapanen gets drawn to him and leaves his man in the middle of the ice. This is an absolute no-no.

You backtrack through the middle of the ice, marking a player. Only if there is no one should you go to the puck. Kapanen misses the assignment. Guess who comes up with the puck down in the corner? Kapanen’s check.

Then there’s this play with Brett Kulak. In this instance, he scans the ice as he goes back to retrieve the puck. He knows he has a player behind him, and he sees the Florida check coming to cut him off in the corner.

Instead of stopping on the puck and making sure he can make a play with it, he tries to skate through and bat the puck to the weak side. The puck jumps, and because he keeps skating, Florida retrieves the puck.

Finally, the Panthers’ third goal was the icing on a really gross cake.

In this one, Troy Stecher retrieves the puck and fails the reverse. I don’t love Nurse’s positioning here. He isn’t wrong to be off the flank, but ideally, he’s in at the dot so that he can cover the net front on an emergency. In addition, if he is off the wall, he can round into the puck with some momentum.

This is all magnified because every Edmonton forward got beaten back to the slot by one lonely Panther. 3-0.

This was the first period. I have five more clips I could show. I’ll spare you the pain. The Oilers deserved to be down 3-0 at the end of one, and they were.

The Long Change And The Patient Game

As we’ve highlighted before, the Oilers have struggled consistently with the long change, not necessarily in overtime, but definitely during regulation, where the Panthers have dominated.

Coming into the second period down three goals and facing another long change seemed like a tough challenge for Edmonton. Yet, the Oilers flipped the script completely. They simplified their game, remained patient, and seized control.

Take a look at this pivotal play that turned the momentum decisively. The Oilers regain control and quickly move the puck up the boards. Podkolzin and Draisaitl battle hard, successfully retrieving possession and feeding it back to Walman. Walman swiftly moves the puck cross-ice, opening up crucial space for a breakout.
One clear vulnerability for the Panthers is how quickly they can lose defensive positioning.

Here, their defender aggressively jumps towards Perry. It’s too late, as Perry has already moved the puck to Podkolzin. This leaves Bouchard with open ice and space to attack, directly resulting in the penalty that sparked the Oilers’ first goal and ignited their comeback.

Here’s another simple play that led to a goal. This play was just a series of wall wins for the puck by the Oilers. Watch them all.

Here was another really simple play that created a goal. The Oilers have been quite good at causing chaos at the Florida net when they are in the zone. This play is another example. In this case, Podkolzin and Perry both go to the net hard. Nurse gets the puck to the net, and Podkolzin is just stronger than his check on this play. 3-3.

When the third period came, the Oilers did not change their game. The Oilers’ fourth goal was just another example of hard-on-the-puck perseverance. Watch this play by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Single-handedly beats two Panthers on the puck. Kapanen and Janmark come in a seal the play with a nice forecheck. Walman gets the goodies.

Again and again, the Oilers were better when they put the puck into the zone and won their battles. It was refreshing to see them challenge a Florida defence group that can be exposed in-zone.

Notes heading into Game 5…

The Troy Stecher experiment didn’t last very long. A total of 4:18 seconds of ice-time. The goal against was tough, but there were a few mistakes on the shift. I’ll be curious what happens to the pairings on Saturday. My bet is that John Klingberg is back in after having a watch of the game from up above.

The Oilers might have a third line with Adam Henrique, Trent Frederic and Jeff Skinner. Skinner was really good in his first Stanley Cup Finals game. Very responsible defensively and won his share of battles on the wall. An interesting quirk is that this line dominated the Barkov line over three shifts. I cannot explain it, but they did. Time will tell if this is a trend.

The goaltending decision will be interesting for Game 5 . I probably go with Calvin Pickard, but it’s close.

That’s it for the breakdown of Game 4. See you all here next Sunday morning. Have a great Friday.