The Edmonton Oilers have lived and died by the comeback throughout franchise history. For every “Miracle on Manchester” or “Comeback on Katella,” there’s the Oilers rallying from 3–0 down against the Dallas Stars in 1997, from 3–1 down against the San Jose Sharks in 2017, from 3–0 down against the Los Angeles Kings in 2023, or from 3–1 down against the Kings in a Game four earlier these playoffs.
However, we might never see another rally quite like this, as after a horrible first period that saw the Oilers barely manage anything against the Florida Panthers and saw Stuart Skinner get the rare “mercy pull” indicating no fault of his own. The Oilers roared back with four consecutive goals, plus the Overtime winner. What was 3–0 Panthers after one period, was tied 3–3 after two periods, and 4–4 at the end of regulation. Leon Draisaitl continued his season of “Mr. Overtime” with the winner, and the Oilers escape Florida with the series evened up, and the Stanley Cup still very much within reach.
Instead of the traditional three takeaways, we’re going to do this period-by-period, as this was truly three different games rolled all into one. Such is the madness of this Stanley Cup Final.
The dreadful, forgetful first period
Comebacks have to start with falling behind, and fall behind the Oilers did to start this one. Anybody who says the first twenty minutes of this game was Skinner’s fault is greatly deceiving themselves from the core of the issue, as in this one, he kept the game scoreless through the opening ten minutes. Nobody really showed up on the Edmonton side of the rink but Skinner. The shots were 10–2 Florida before he finally let one in, on the five-on-three power play the Panthers were gifted thanks to an obvious Darnell Nurse tripping penalty.
That Nurse penalty was one of four the Oilers took in the first period, continuing a run of undisciplined play to start games being paired with the officiating calling a lot of what they saw the Oilers commit. It would bite them again later, and once again, it was old nemesis Matthew Tkachuk converting on the advantage. This is why you stay out of the box, boys.
The Oilers as a whole did not have a very good first period, and one player in particular who did not see the ice much after that stanza was Troy Stecher. Inserted into the lineup in hopes of helping Nurse get his game back on track, Stecher wound up being directly culpable for the third goal against, not reacting in time to pressure coming his way and turning the puck over. Ironically, Nurse had a lousy first period, but played better the rest of the night after Stecher was benched.
The carnage resulting from the atrocious Oilers play in the opening frame was a 3–0 Florida lead, a 17–7 gap in shots on goal favouring the hosts, and the Panthers owning an 11–7 hits edge to boot. Catastrophic. No pun intended.
Some changes (and a Perry speech) turn things around
Corey Perry needs to be brought back for next season at all costs, especially so if Jake Walman’s postgame comments were any indication. A Perry rallying speech, coupled with some benchings (Stecher atop the list) and a swap of Skinner for Calvin Pickard seemed to ignite the Oilers. Aided by what some might consider a fortunate call from the referees, the Oilers converted on an early second-period power play to instantly make a game of this.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is clearly battling an ailment and may be a game-time decision for the rest of the series (and would briefly head down the tunnel in the third period), but he’s still got enough game left for that brilliant shot that beat Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky up high. After being held largely off the scoresheet since his heater against the Stars, he got back on it in a big way tonight.
Edmonton carried some much-needed momentum from that goal throughout the rest of the period, with the peak coming two-thirds of the way through the frame. Nurse made up for his first-period errors by following Nuge’s lead, and going upstairs in-tight on Bobrovsky—a shot selection the Oilers might be looking at a lot more often moving forward. Make it difficult for the goalie to make a save, “too tight to the body, up over the shoulder” as Ray Ferraro would note in NHL 15 commentary.
Vasily Podkolzin would tie things up the old-school way, with a net-front drive, and backhanding the rebound over the outstretched arm of Bobrovsky. 3–3, heading to the third. When all was said and done, the Oilers outshot Florida 17–10 in the second stanza, and started to take an edge in face-offs won after a break-even first frame. What an incredible single-period turnaround.
The third period where it was won, but not so fast
One thing was for certain heading into the third: we were not going to see another 3–0 separation in the goals department like we did in the first and second periods. Things were going to tighten up, whistles would be put away, no more egregious mistakes could be made. And pretty much, that’s what ended up happening.
Perry, he of the sage speech during the first intermission, almost backed up his talk with a goal for the second straight game, in the same way he’s done all season: take away the entirety of the goalie’s vision, get a rebound chance in tight. If Bobrovsky were two inches shorter, this would have been the go-ahead goal:
Instead, we got Walman coming in clutch with a heater of a shot. Mattias Janmark and Kasperi Kapanen drew assists, sent out on a line with Nuge, and they earned every bit of those apples. Janmark with the heavy forecheck and force of a Panthers mistake, Kapanen by completing the turnover and setting it on a tee for Walman to unload.
It would have been poetic enough if that was the game-winner; alas, Sam Reinhart completed a three-point night with a tying goal just inside of 20 seconds to go in regulation time. A failed clear leads to a tie game, which leads to… overtime. Once again. This became the first Stanley Cup Final with three overtime games in the first four since the 2013 “Original Six” edition between Chicago and Boston.
A familiar overtime ending thanks to Draisaitl
The Panthers had several opportunities to end this game, and on more than one occasion it initially looked like it for sure was over. Sam Bennett’s chance was the best of them all, forcing a very difficult save from first Pickard, and then the crossbar. At the other end, Trent Frederic nearly “guided” the puck in, but it bumped off the post before a flailing stick forced defenceman Gustav Forsling to make a “save.”
That kind of bounce went against the Oilers, but foreshadowed how the game would ultimately be won:
This was meant to be a one-handed pass from Draisaitl. Panthers defenceman Niko Mikkola, for his part, had the right intention—slide to break up the pass, and snuff out a scoring chance or at least let Bobrovsky focus on the shooter. Inadvertently, he beat Bobrovsky where very few can beat the Florida goalie: five-hole.
They don’t ask how, they ask how many, and after six OT winners in the regularseason, Draisaitl has now set a Stanley Cup Playoff record with four OT tallies in this postseason. He has had a clutch playoff performance that will go down in history, regardless how the series ends.
This comeback was nearly snuffed by the Oilers themselves
Of note, late in the second, Evan Bouchard was hit hard from behind by Florida forward Carter Verhaeghe late in the second period. The hit itself didn’t make contact with the head, but on a stage other than the Stanley Cup Final, it would be a sure boarding call.
To Edmonton’s credit, they didn’t overreact, or over-retaliate, which ended up being huge because they took another penalty anyways less than a minute later. A second Panthers five-on-three might have been game over for the Oilers’ comeback hopes. They were able to kill the five-on-four, divided by the second intermission.
What’s next for the Oilers
The Oilers come home for the standard Saturday-night Hockey Night In Canada game, 6:00pm at Rogers Place. Thanks to this win, the Oilers have home-ice advantage back in their favour, meaning even if the Panthers win Game 6 next week, all Edmonton has to do is take care of business at home.
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