Connor McDavid’s line might have combined for a single point on Thursdays game six finisher, but Connor Brown’s rallied for six.
A tip off Adam Henrique to tie the game just two minutes in.
Trent Frederic’s first as an Edmonton Oiler to secure a comfortable 5-2 lead.
And the unassisted empty netter off Brown’s stick when no one else pleased to put it in.
Just one more, why not?
The series was starting to look doubtful when Brown and his line — not yet formed — returned home for games three and four with the intent line matching as difficult for Jim Hiller while performing like a top three line in the bottom six.
It’s called depth scoring. As anyone in Edmonton would recognize.
The Oilers used theirs to capitalize on the Kings rolling rotation of three lines, two D-pairings, and little depth to send Hiller — later lost in Rogers Place on Thursday night — wishing for the days where Brown sat in the press during this particular series.
Not that it went any better last time.
As fans will remember, Brown watched the Oilers three-peat another Kings series while recovering from a lingering ACL injury that took him our for the 2022-23 season and 2024 first round.
“That was tough, there’s no other way around it,” commented Brown on how disappointed it was to sit during that series. “Last year was a tough one. Between the years coming off injury, I felt like I battled really hard to have a good end of the regular season and to not play that first round, it’s obviously tough.”
It was perhaps a test of perseverance, or toughness.
“But, the boys rolled and I just tried to stay ready and build off it. (It’s) the adversities that give you strength moving forward.”
It’s the “no quit” mentality Brown was so quick to label the Oilers with after round one, that could be applied to the free-agent pickup of 2023, now an integral part of this unit.
If “there’s a high sense of belief (that) we’re never out of a game,” it’s cause the guy leading in depth scoring is as confident as the guy leading in goals.
There were moment’s of such confidence trickled into games one-to-three, eventually packed into a game four overtime winner, and smooth sailing since.
“I think in game four overtime, we really started to gel, and we’ve been building off it ever since,” agreed Brown.
“I think Big Boy Freddie (Frederic) is really starting to find his game. He’s got soft hands, big fella, he’s fun to play with. And you know I love playing with Rico (Henrique). So there’s something good there. We just got to keep building on it.”
If by “building on it,” he means preparing for a Las Vegas Golden Knights series, who’s serious defence and penalty kill that’s on the mend has become a touch to concerning. Then yes, he should.
Like the Oilers, the Knights went to game 6 and unlike the Oilers, struggled against a wild card team, making them the underdog on the betting market. +105 to win the series as of Saturday morning.
But it all comes down to the power play.
Vegas climbed their way to a second place power play during the regular season (28.3 per cent) while the Oilers settled in at mid-range 12 (23.7), and watched their penalty kill struggle to do anything but let goals in for those first few games against LA.
“I think we took it pretty personal,” added Brown on the change in special teams from games one to six. “There’s a lot of pride in that penalty kill room, and we were getting embarrassed.”
So where were we?
Oh right, Brown’s been leading in depth scoring off a line that’s coming in clutch when a series doesn’t look so great, or when it does. And just when the penalty kill was starting to dig the Oilers’ grave, and the embarrassment was clawing away at the special teams unit, the general sentiment seemed to be, “not today.”
Tomorrow, they’ll worry about starting a Vegas series in the same lack luster manner that opened the Oilers playoffs in LA, while Brown’s third line continues to gel like the first.
