It hurts. The Edmonton Oilers lose yet again in the Stanley Cup Final to the Florida Panthers, but somehow this time felt worse. Last year, the Oilers rode Connor McDavid right to the end of Game 7, and somehow just couldn’t will their way to victory when they needed it. However, this year, the Oilers were the second best team for much of the series. While they had chances and they picked up wins in overtime, they broadly looked weaker and more vulnerable than the Panthers ever did.
It’s not entirely their fault. It’s worth noting how poor the officiating was this series. It felt as though the Oilers were penalized for looking at the Panthers the wrong while the Panthers could get away with murdering an Oiler and a call wouldn’t be made. Not one but two missed too-many-men calls led to goals against the Oilers, and when the calls consistently go the other way, it’s hard not to get frustrated.
But even if you think the refs were at fault (spoiler: they were), at the end of the day, it was the Panthers who were the better team, and the Oilers need to look themselves in the mirror as to why again they couldn’t get it done. Here’s what went wrong.
Where were the big boys this series?
The Oilers have two of the greatest players in the game right now. Both will be in the Hall of Fame when they retire, undoubtedly, but both left a very small mark on this series. Combined, they had five goals for this series, four of which came off Leon Draisaitl’s stick.
For your captain to have just one goal in six games is partially a defensive masterclass by the Panthers, but more than that it is a huge problem for the Oilers. They simply could not muster up the offence that they needed to win.
And while the scoresheet is one thing, their underlying numbers reflect similarly. Connor McDavid finished second in the series in icetime with 165 minutes, but finished 13th in high danger chances per 60 minutes of icetime this series according to Natural Stat Trick. Each player on the Panthers’ fourth line put up better relative numbers than McDavid.
Draisaitl meanwhile finished 20th in the series with 1.61 high danger chances per 60 minutes, which is abysmal for a player of his calibre. Even among just scoring chances per 60, McDavid finished ninth with 7.28 per 60 minutes, Draisaitl finished 28th with 2.68. Mattias Janmark was the only Oilers forward to finish below him in this category. Sam Bennett led the way in the series, averaging over 12 scoring chances per 60 minutes.
The Oilers needed their best players to elevate their game this series and whether it was injuries, exhaustion, or simple inability, the Oilers’ two stars simply couldn’t get them over the line this year.
The Oilers needed more from their depth
The Panthers ran a juggernaut this playoffs, getting scoring from up and down their lineup, and the Oilers were built this year to match that strength. Adding Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen plus another year of veteran leadership in Corey Perry should have given this team enough to win, but the depth pieces simply did not pull through.
The Oilers got three combined points from Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and while you can understand the latter being injured, to only get three points from them is far from ideal. While Perry had four points, all of them came on the power play and he was completely pointless at 5v5. Jeff Skinner had zero points at all this series, and ditto that for Jake Walman and John Klingberg, the latter who was specifically brought in to add offence from the blueline. (NB. Walman had one goal in the series- apologies for the oversight).
Whether it was the Panthers neutralizing the Oilers or just the Oilers doing this to themselves, the fact of the matter is that they weren’t good enough down the lineup to pull off the win.
Goaltending continues to be an issue
We say this every single year, but every year we convince ourselves that goaltending doesn’t matter and that league-average netminding is good enough and then we end up right back here again talking about how our netminder let us down. Whether it was Stuart Skinner or Mike Smith or any of the goalies that have been on the carousel since Dwayne Roloson’s time, the outcome has been the same. This team was let down by their goaltending.
In fairness to Skinner and Pickard, this series was not completely on them. There were too many odd-man rushes against. The team did not clear the Panthers from the front of the net effectively, and Bennett was able to push, pull, and prod as he pleased till the puck was in the back of the net.
But the difference between the Oilers and Panthers was that when the Panthers needed their goalie to bail them out, they could bank on Sergiei Bobrovsky to be there for them. It was on display clear as day on the two-on-one chance when McDavid fed Perry right in front and Bobrovsky stretched out to save a sure goal in game six.
However, when the Oilers needed a save from Skinner, it didn’t come. An unexpected shot off the halfwall that Skinner mismanaged landed right at Sam Reinhart’s feet and the Team Canada man made no mistake putting it past Skinner. While it’s hard to blame him for the goal, being able to get the big highlight reel saves matters to a team that needed something, anything to believe in. They just didn’t have it from their goalie.
It’s time to take a long look in the mirror
Where do we go from here? Can the Oilers run it back again next year? Almost certainly. They performed well above most other teams in the regular season, and their big guns could afford to take it a bit easier in the regular season.
This team had a small scare against the Los Angeles Kings, but broadly walked through the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars like they weren’t even there on route to the finals. But, when it comes to getting over the hump, this team needs to really think about whether the right voices are in the room to get them there.
Is it time to find a coach who can push this team into the next gear when things are going wrong? Is the personnel on the ice right up front- especially in the top-six? Who is the goalie that this team needs, that they can rely on to give them the big saves?
It’s going to be on the Oilers’ management group to think through all of this over the summer and make moves to make this team better, because whatever this team is right now simply wasn’t enough to get it all done. Refs or no refs, the Oilers were the weaker team this series, and moves are needed for them to finally win it all.
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Err, Jake Walman (with one L) got a goal in game 4 and that was 5v5 but the article says he didn’t get any goals
Blame the Panthers for playing so good. Edmonton had no answer for Florida’s offense and Bobrovsky was lights out.