Couldn’t have predicted that.
Very rarely does a two-time waiver pickup join a team midway through the regular season, sit for nine playoff games, and score the series-winning overtime goal while on ice with one of, if not the best goal-scorer in the NHL. Much less be the only goal-scorer that game.
Alas, Kasperi Kapanen lives to come in clutch and chalk it up to luck.
“It was kinda just laying there,” according to Kapanen post-game on the overtime winner. “I was just trying to get it in. Lucky it was me.
“Last game I think it was pretty obvious I had a lot of energy there and tonight I just got lucky.”
Lucky to have been by the net.
Lucky Adin Hill hadn’t covered the puck.
Lucky a Vegas Golden Knight decided to be in the worst possible spot.
Perhaps it’s simply the hockey gods at work?
All reasonable things to assume for the now 13-point scorer in 57 games.
Ask his teammates though, and they’ve got their own ideas.
“Guys like that step up for us,” added Leon Draisaitl.
“A guy that didn’t start the series playing is asked to come in and play in a big role, and finds a way to get a huge goal,” according to Connor McDavid.
“Kappi wasn’t in at the beginning of the series, comes in and makes an impact two nights in a row and brings energy into the group,” explained Darnell Nurse two feet from Kapanen. “In playoffs, everyone’s going to have their moment.”
Truer words have never been spoken.
But when Kapanen was blowing bodies in game four we were all resigned to assume the checking role was it for him — and that maybe he’d feed a goal or two to Draisaitl in the process, if he was lucky.
After all, he’s not out here setting any records or anything.
You could go as far as to say Kapanen’s overtime winner was a one-off, never to be repeated, and we’d believe you. But consider his 2016 overtime winner at the World Juniors to win Finland gold, and then circle back to that idea.
He doesn’t score often, but when he does…
“Obviously it’s something pretty special. So, pretty happy right now,” added Kapanen. “But it doesn’t really matter who scores as long as somebody does, and we don’t want to prolong the series anymore.”
Straight to business — just the way Knoblauch likes it.
Kapanen’s series winner not only helped salvage Stuart Skinner’s reputation, but added another checkmark in the Oilers’ depth department right as they head to the Western Conference Finals against a scary Dallas Stars or less likely Winnipeg Jets.
And to think, it was unclear if he would even play in the playoffs.
“It was not the most fun — doing those skates after practice. But the team’s playing outstanding so we’re not going to change up our lineup,” explained Kapanen on the forward lines prior to game four. “And I just knew once I get that opportunity, just try to play simple and give it my all, and so far it’s pretty good.
“There’s so many good players on this team that I understood when Knober told me I wasn’t going to start and that was fine. I knew eventually that I was going to get the chance, and just being patient and being ready.”
There were a couple of other players in Kapanen’s shoes, looking to fill any role in exchange for some time on ice — Troy Stecher, who’s been adding a physical element to the game while complementing Nurse. Skinner, who knew he would be used in round two, just not when. And players that will inevitably return to the lineup, like Victor Arvidsson.
It’s impossible to rule anyone out, when everyone is proven to score.
Kapanen was the hero tonight, but there have been several in this long list of playoff wins.
Still, you gotta think that this goal was one of the best of his career.
Right?
“It’s certainly up there.”
