With their season on the line, the Edmonton Oilers managed to stave off elimination in their first-round series against the Anaheim Ducks with a resounding 4–1 victory.
Connor McDavid and Jason Dickinson were both game-time decisions, but they did end up playing. The team got out to a fast start, with Vasily Podkolzin opening the scoring just 2:22 into the first period. The Oilers then scored another two goals in just under eight minutes to take a 3–0 victory. Those three goals in 10:13 were their fastest three goals to start a playoff game since 2017, when they did it in just 8:25. Ironically, that was also against the Ducks in Game 6 of their second-round matchup.
The Ducks tallied a power play goal in the second period, but the Oilers responded just two minutes later with their own man-advantage marker. They then managed to hold on for the rest of the way to take the victory.
Here are some takeaways from the game heading into Game 6 on Thursday.
The big boys came to play
For the first four games of this series, one of the bigger stories was that the Oilers top players were not looking like the playoff beasts they usually are. While the counting numbers were there, the eye test was not good. That underwhelming play was a pretty big factor in the team going down 3–1 in the series.
Well, they showed up in Game 5 in a big way.
Evan Bouchard started things off with an absolutely beautiful saucer pass to Vasily Podkolzin (who finished it with an amazing snipe as well).
Bouchard didn’t stop there. He later assisted on Leon Draisaitl’s first goal of the game to give the Oilers a 3–0 lead. Bouchard wound up for his patented Bouch Bomb, but then saw Draisaitl alone off the side and sent a perfect slap pass for Draisaitl to tip past Lukas Dostal.
His third assist, on Draisaitl’s power play goal to re-secure the three-goal lead, was arguably his best of the night. Bouchard walks the blue line after a slight bobble, with Ryan Poehling right on his back. He faked a back pass to McDavid (which Poehling bites on hard), then pivoted back to the forehand and into the zone. Because of the fake-out on Poehling, Bouchard was able to send a much easier pass over to McDavid. McDavid then had plenty of time and space to walk in and zip the puck to Draisaitl, who was in his power play office and uncorked his usual one-timer.
Draisaitl and McDavid were linemates again, due in no small part to lingering injuries. The McDrai magic was on full display, with the McDavid assisting on both of Draisaitl’s goals as well.
Two other players who were major factors in the previous two years also stepped up in the win. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins assisted on two goals, bringing him up to five points this series.
One of those goals was Zach Hyman’s re-direction off of Nuge’s shot to give the Oilers a 2–0 lead. That is just Hyman’s second point of the series, so seeing him get that goal at a crucial time was a welcome sight.
The Oilers have played the most hockey of any NHL team in the last three years. For the first four games, it looked like that was catching up to them, especially the big five. Last night, that experience looked to be the difference maker instead.
There was also some history made, as these players are wont to do in the playoffs.
Leon Draisaitl tied Wayne Gretzky for the most playoff power play goals in franchise history, while also becoming the fourth fastest player in NHL history to score 150 playoff points.
Evan Bouchard also tied a franchise record last night, with his 67 playoff assists bringing him in step with his coach, Paul Coffey.
Meanwhile, Connor McDavid tied Patrick Kane for the most points in elimination games among active NHLers.
The Oilers will need them to continue their high level of play with there being no margin for error, but Game 5 was certainly more than encouraging.
The Oilers are still sitting back on leads
The team had an outstanding first period. In addition to the three goals, they outshot the Ducks 12–6 and looked to be overwhelming them. However, the Ducks would go on to outshoot the Oilers 24–8 over the last two periods.
There has been a trend in this series of the Oilers sitting back once they take a lead. They have scored the first goal in every single game, yet Game 5 was the first time the Ducks were not able to tie the game. In the first four games, the Ducks came back from a deficit to tie six times, including twice in each of Games 3 and 4.
Over the first four games, the Ducks outscored the Oilers 9–4 in the second period alone. So it is understandable that many an Oilers fan held their breath after the Ducks scored yet another second-period tally.
Sure, the Oilers did score another goal shortly thereafter and did not allow any further goals. But the fact remains that the team once again played a completely different style of hockey over the final 40 minutes.
That would appear to be a coaching issue, although head coach Kris Knoblauch said post-game that even he thought the team was sitting back too much, which goes against that narrative.
Maybe the team really is sitting back more than the coaches want. One reason for that could be related to the health of the players, who perhaps are trying not to re-injure/aggravate themselves when the team has what they feel is a comfortable lead.
Regardless of the reason, that strategy simply cannot continue if the Oilers want to win this series. Both the Oilers and the Ducks are offensive-minded teams, so the winning strategy is to keep pushing them and making them spend more time in their own zone, not vice versa.
Preparing for Game 6
The Oilers need to come out strong again on Thursday and once again try to get that early lead. If they can do that, they can plant that seed of doubt in the Ducks’ players’ minds. Part of playoff hockey is mental, and it is very possible that the McDavid game-time decision announcement was some psychological warfare. That would appear to be the case with McDavid saying that it was never close to him not playing.
McDavid also mentioned that while there is pressure on the Oilers, given they are still one loss away from elimination, there is pressure on the Ducks as well to win a close-out game at home.
Is that another attempt at playing some mind games against a team that hasn’t seen playoff hockey in eight years? Probably, but it is also a fact that there is going to be just as much pressure on the Ducks in Game 6 as there will be on the Oilers. So if the Oilers can go out and play the way they did in the first period last night, that will be huge.
But the biggest thing will be continuing that play throughout the game. The Oilers have put themselves in this situation due to not playing a full 60 minutes in any of the games and letting the Ducks claw (wade?) back into every game. Given Knoblauch’s comments on the team sitting back, here’s hoping that even with the win, the team has, in fact, learned that lesson finally.
