Stars impressed after falling to Oilers: ‘That Edmonton team is better than we played last year’

The Edmonton Oilers are back where they were last year — heading to the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers — but something feels different this time around.

Maybe it’s because they’ve been here before, maybe it’s because they have home-ice advantage this time. Both of those things certainly contribute to the confidence, but how the Oilers plowed through the Western Conference during the first three rounds has the team looking like a determined juggernaut.

“That Edmonton team is better than we played last year,” Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer said following his team’s loss in Game 5.

The longest series for the Oilers thus far came in the first round against the Los Angeles Kings, who had their best regular-season showing in team history. The Kings capitalized on home-ice advantage with wins in Games 1 and 2, but Edmonton battled back with four consecutive victories to finish the series at home in Game 6.

After that, the Oilers slayed the Pacific Division-winning Vegas Golden Knights in five games in the second round, a considerable change from when they fell to Vegas in six games two years earlier. The Oilers took six games to beat the Stars in last year’s Western Conference Final. This year, it took them only five games, and Edmonton outscored Dallas 22-to-8 in the process.

“We should definitely be proud of what we’ve accomplished,” Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch said on Thursday after Game 5. “We should feel happy about what has gone on. Our [mindset] hasn’t been just be the best team out of the West. All summer, we weren’t thinking about that. We were thinking about the ultimate prize. This is a mature group. They’re older, they’ve seen a lot of playoff hockey. They know what they need to get it done. I liked how we played throughout the game.”

The Oilers had to watch the Panthers lift the Stanley Cup last spring after losing in Game 7 in Florida. Though it was the third year in a row that Edmonton had been knocked out by the eventual Cup winners, being that close to the ultimate prize and having to watch somebody else celebrate leaves behind an especially bitter taste.

There was a decent amount of turnover in Oil Country after last year’s run. Warren Foegele, Dylan Holloway, Vincent Desharnais, and Phillip Broberg left the team as free agents, while Ryan McLeod and Cody Ceci were moved in trades. The Oilers added Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, Vasily Podkolzin, and Ty Emberson in the summer, and then acquired Kasperi Kapanen, John Klingberg, Trent Frederic, and Jake Walman during the season.

Though we’ve never actually seen this version of the Oilers fully healthy, what we have seen is a flexible group capable of making changes on the fly and navigating injuries to key players. Top-pairing defender Mattias Ekholm didn’t make his debut in the playoffs until Game 5 against Dallas, but the entire blueline stepped up in his absence. After Zach Hyman was knocked out of the playoffs by a hit from Mason Marchment, Jeff Skinner suited up for the first time in over a month and scored a goal.

Gone are the days of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl trying to drag a middling team through the playoffs. The Oilers have all the pieces in place around their two stars to win the Stanley Cup. Having only four losses through the first three rounds is a testament to the strength of this team.

“I think it’s possible to be two things at the same time,” DeBoer said about losing to the Oilers for the second time in as many years. “I’m really proud of the resiliency of our group through the first two rounds. We scratched and clawed and found a way to beat two really good teams. And I’m also disappointed that we didn’t find another level, another gear here, another way. Getting back here to this point, how hard it is to get back here. I would say I’m both those things. I think that’s OK, and I think our group, both coaches and players, need to go and and reflect in the summer on what we can do better when we get to this point against the best teams. But there’s no doubt the two best teams are playing for the Stanley Cup.”