Through five games in their first-round series, the Anaheim Ducks have three wins to the Edmonton Oilers’ two. However, the second of those Oilers victories came in Game 5, to extend the series. Edmonton has gone on winning streaks in the playoffs before; is this shaping up to be one of them?
The plainest stat, so far, is that the Oilers are 2–0 when limiting the Ducks to three or fewer goals. Conversely, they’re 0–3 when Anaheim gets four or more. Even more simply put, Edmonton cannot out-track-meet Anaheim like they managed to do in Game 1. Game 5’s 4–1 victory, though, presented a crack in the Ducks’ armour that the Oilers, should they rally to win the series, must keep exploiting.
It’s possible, it turns out, to mitigate the Ducks’ potent offensive attack. How did the Oilers manage to do it? The proof is in the pudding.
A total shutdown of the slot area in the defensive zone is a must
Game 3 was particularly the Oilers’ worst defensively, which says something when Games 2 to 4 were all terrible. All you need to do is look at the first three Ducks goals that night to see what set the stage for the putrid final 20 minutes. Mason McTavish’s goal was a slot-area redirect. Mikael Granlund’s power play tally resulted because he was in the slot unattended. Alex Killorn also snuck into the slot without a white sweater nearby.
Connor Ingram gave up six goals, yet when play-by-play man Jack Michaels said it was hard to fault Ingram on the vast majority of those, he’s not wrong. The Oilers were not even close to good enough defending the slot and net-front areas in their own zone. That was why Anaheim was able to score at will in the first four games of the series.
Fast-forward to Game 5, and one thing that stood out is how the Ducks were largely kept to the perimeter. Even on the Troy Terry chance a minute into the third period, every passing lane was eliminated, and Terry was forced to try a tough-angle shot, which Ingram saved into the goalpost. Earlier, Terry tried a cross-seam pass that was annulled. The same clear-lane passing and redirect plays that Anaheim feasted on in the first four games were erased two nights ago.
A team as young and skilled as the Ducks will dominate the slot if you let them. That should be obvious. The name of the game has to be to force them to the perimeter, and allow Ingram to take away whatever reduced angle remains. Not too many of the Ducks’ goals this series have been greasy ones. At least, not nearly as many as the fancy goals.
Once in a while, the defencemen (and goalie) must come up clutch
Most of the time in Games 1 to 4, if you noticed an Oilers defenceman, it wasn’t for good reason. Either they gave seemingly feeble efforts to neutralize a Ducks player in front, or they were out of position. See, again, the examples above.
Game 5, by contrast, provided two instances where Oilers defencemen sold out to prevent goals against. Connor Murphy negated an earlier Terry chance, paying the price in the process with his hand. In the third period, Mattias Ekholm prevented a goal by splaying out to take away the Ducks’ shot opportunity.
Ingram provided some quality saves of his own, but with the level of talent in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, sometimes more is required. Your defencemen also have to be heroes on occasion. The Oilers got both in spades in Game 5, and they’ll need more efforts exactly like that.
Stay out of the (insert cuss word) penalty box
On the second night of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, we all watched and marveled as the Montreal Canadiens’ Juraj Slafkovsky took ownership of the Tampa Bay Lightning exclusively through power play goals. He’s naturally a solid all-around player, though, and hasn’t replicated the feat since. Meanwhile, the Ducks have overtaken Slafkovsky to become this year’s ultimate power play merchants.
A contributing factor, even if not the main reason the Oilers won Game 5, was they did a far better job avoiding penalty calls. This observer won’t say their game was squeaky-clean. Rather, Edmonton got a better feel for what calls the referees would make (when not concerning disputed overtime winners), and toed the line far better in Game 5 than past contests.
Leon Draisaitl’s penalty in the first period was negated because he maintained distance from Mikael Granlund, who got rung up for embellishment. The second home-team penalty came during an Oilers power play, and left the Ducks with not much power play time of their own. That left one full man-advantage for Anaheim, where their only goal of the night came from.
Take away their man-advantage chances, and suddenly the Ducks look a lot easier to handle. As long as the Oilers play the same way in Game 6 (and a potential Game 7), they have a better chance of winning. Love it or hate it, less infractions get called deeper into a playoff series. That can be to Edmonton’s benefit if they avoid egregious actions.
Apparently a three-goal lead is still insurmountable in this series
In the regular season series, Edmonton scored two wins over Anaheim, both on home ice. The common characteristic between the two wins was they both featured three-goal leads. And although the Ducks nearly rallied from 3–0 down in the second one, it became clear that that size of a margin is where you can feel more confident against Anaheim.
The Oilers’ 3–0 and 4–1 leads were their first three-goal bulges of the series. Sure enough, they were able to play a less frantic, more assured brand of hockey. Mindset-wise, there’s distinct differences between defending up by two, and defending up by three.
This is why both getting to the Ducks early, and “pouring it on,” to borrow from Michaels, is imperative. Give yourself a large enough lead; it makes the path to victory a much more straightforward one. In this series, it’s the ultimate confidence boost that the Oilers have often lacked.
Score early, score often, then close out the Ducks. As cliché as it is, that’s the game plan to defeating the Anaheim Ducks.
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