Last night the Edmonton Oilers earned the right to play at least one more game this season. The boys in orange and blue blew out the Florida Panthers 8–1 in the biggest game and biggest win of the season so far. As many mistakes as the Oilers made on Thursday night they made twice as many gorgeous plays tonight. This was exactly what the Oilers needed—an over-powering surge of momentum, incontrovertible proof of what they are capable of, and the spark of defiance that shows itself in every human in the face of adversity and proliferates until it is a roaring fire that sears the word “comeback” into the hearts of those in which it burns.
The fall of Bobrovsky
The Oilers have finally solved the problem of Sergei Bobrovsky. What seemed like an impossible task this morning has finally been accomplished. What is it that changed for the Oilers and allowed them to plot eight on one of the most unshakeable goalies in the playoffs? The answer is high danger shots and clean looks. This morning it was the case that Bobrovsky had a better high danger save percentage than medium danger save percentage. Although the stats aren’t yet available at the time of writing, that is likely no longer the case.
All of the goals last night were either from within six feet of the net or were perfectly uncontested shots. Even though Boborovsky was pulled it would be difficult to blame the loss on Bobrovsky or Anthony Stolarz. The Oilers simply put too much pressure on the Florida defence and they crumbled.
McDavid nets a record
One of the biggest stories of the night is Connor McDavid breaking the all-time record for most assists in the postseason; what’s even more impressive than this is that the great Wayne Gretzky was the previous holder of the record. Breaking any record on Gretzky’s is news worthy but this is actually a big deal. Gretzky is well known for his astounding, unreproducable point production, so breaking any points record of Gretzky’s is incredible.
McDavid now sits at 32 assists and 38 points this postseason, nine behind the Great One’s 47 points. The truth is that, in order for Edmonton to win this series, McDavid will have to break that record.
The depths unleashed
The most encouraging storyline of last night was the three goals and six points Edmonton got from players on their bottom two lines. If you include players who weren’t in the bottom six last night but have spent significant time there this year, those numbers change to five goals and 10 points. Warren Foegele, Dylan Holloway, and Adam Henrique led the 5v5 individual expected goals category for the Oilers and they and Mattias Janmark all featured highly in 5v5 Corsi For. With the excellent play of Stuart Skinner, this was truly a team effort.
From the net out
Perhaps flying under the radar considering the dominant offence and record breaking, is the performance of Stuart Skinner. Skinner faced 33 shots last night and stopped 32 of them, only relinquishing on a difficult tip from Vladimir Tarasenko. There was a point when the game was 2–1 that Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe broke out on a two-on-one and Skinner made a gorgeous, sprawling left arm save on Verhaeghe. Florida had made it a one goal game only minutes before and if they would have tied the game at that point, then there is no telling how it would have turned out. This was not the only save that Skinner made of that style and irreproachable quality either. Skinner deserves a huge piece of the credit for this win.
Goals of the night
The first goal belonged to the Oilers and it was just what the doctor ordered. It’s not too often that you escape a penalty kill not only not down a goal but up a goal and up a whole cartload of momentum. Connor Brown beat the defenceman to the puck in his own zone, passed the puck off the boards to himself and flew into the zone on a two-on-one. It looked like he was going to freeze but instead waited out Bobrovsky and passed it to Janmark in front of the net who had nothing but net to shoot at and didn’t miss.
Edmonton made it 2–0 halfway through the first period on a terrific display of hard work. Janmark beat Mikkola to the puck and forced his way to the net with Niko Mikkola draped all over him. Despite that, he was able to send a pass in front to Adam Henrique, who also outworked his man, and tipped it neatly over the shoulder of Boborovsky.
Florida answered on a nice tip by Tarasenko on a Gustav Forsling shot from the point.
Edmonton put an exclamation mark on the period and regained their two goal lead on a beauty. Brett Kulak sent a stretch pass to Leon Draisaitl who stormed past Aaron Ekblad and passed across to Dylan Holloway. Holloway received the trailing pass at pace and beat Bobrovsky’s outstreched glove.
In the second period, Edmonton took a 4–1 lead on McDavid’s sixth goal of the playoffs. As was a theme last night, the Florida forwards were not helping out on defence and McDavid was left alone, streaking in on goal to receive a pass from Zach Hyman and fire it home.
Edmonton opened up a hefty 5–1 lead on Darnell Nurse’s first of the playoffs. The Oilers were again allowed to enter the offensive zone four-on-two. McDavid cut to the middle of the ice and dropped a pass for Nurse who was free to fire a laser beam bar down on Bobrovsky, the last shot he saw as he was pulled afterwards.
The sixth Edmonton goal came thanks to the Edmonton PP and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. In a textbook play, McDavid sent a no-look pass to Draisaitl a few feet above the goal line. His shot ricocheted from the shoulder of Stolarz, off the post, then down the net-minders back, coming free for Nugent-Hopkins to pounce on the easy goal.
The second last goal of the night was the second for Holloway. Corey Perry entered the zone only millimetres ahead of McDavid before sending a pass to the latter low in the zone. McDavid immediately passed in front to Holloway who was bearing down on the net for an easy tap in.
Finally, the last goal of the night was at the tail end of a broken two-one-one after the initial shot from Holloway was blocked. The puck was wide open for Ryan McLeod to fire a slap shot bar down on a dejected Stolarz.
Anything is possible
It would be an understatement to say that the future of the Edmonton Oilers post-season is still a rocky road but this is a huge win. The morale boost to Janmark, Henrique, Brown, McLeod, and Perry, all having made contributions, cannot be understated. They have heard all year long that they are playing seventh fiddle to the McDavid soloist but this is a much needed dose of confidence.
More important than the bottom six emergence though, is the self-assurance Nurse will get from this game. It was not a perfect game from him but he made no blatant or costly mistakes, and there is nothing like a goal to bring the joy of hockey back to a player who has been ruthlessly abused by the hockey media for the past week.
The Oilers took the first step on the long path to a comeback last night but you can bet that Florida will be galvanized on home-ice, they’ve now seen first hand what Edmonton is capable of and will be looking to end the series then and there. If Edmonton plays like they did last night, though, there is no one who can beat them.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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