“Oh, come on.”
Probably the Edmonton Oilers after letting in three first-period goals.
Likely Mattias Ekholm after taking the Oilers’ third stick penalty in the opening 20 minutes.
Definitely the Florida Panthers after giving up a 3-0 first period lead to the most penalized team in the Stanley Cup final — two high-sticking penalties to the Oilers’ 13, allowing a goal against by Vasily Podkolzin, and getting outplayed by the Oilers’ backup.
Three of several reasons for the Oilers’ stunning comeback in game four, after the vast majority of viewers were ready to call it a game and move on.
But as always (most of the time), the Oilers bounced back.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch made several changes up and down the lineup in preparation for game four, but elected to make no changes in net. From his perspective, Stuart Skinner was 6-0 in game fours, and Calvin Pickard had not played since the Vegas Golden Knights series.
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and Pickard sparked some life into the Oilers group who, with a soul sucking need to clean up their own mess, desperetly needed it.
“Not our best. We gotta get moving,” began Leon Draisaitl as he gave the locker room debrief during the first intermission. “We’re a hard team to play against when we’re skating, working up the ice, and making it difficult for opposing teams.
“Our first isn’t what we wanted, and then we started to get our legs, and then we started to get going a little bit, and that’s the intensity we have to play with when the puck drops.”
Ya think?
Two games plus one period of questionable performances and unacceptable stick infractions does not a Stanley Cup team make. But the comeback kids? Yeah, sure, why not?
“That’s what we do,” agreed Draisaitl. “We’re a resilient group, and we’re never going to quit, no matter what. So we’ll take it and go home.”
It started with a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins power-play goal early in the second period—the Oilers’ first power play of the game.
Continued with Darnell Nurse and Vasily Podkolzin.
It almost ended with Jake Walman, who had a quiet game until he didn’t.
And it ended, for real this time, with Draisaitl nine minutes and 42 seconds into overtime.
Make no mistakes, though, it would have ended the other way in 60 minutes if not for Pickard.
“We have extreme confidence in both our goalies, and Calvin coming in, I couldn’t be happier for him,” began Walman. “That’s a tough position to come into. The game’s 3-0, he’s gotta grind, he’s cold, and it just shows that anybody at any time can make an impact.
“We’re pumped for Calvin and proud of him.”
“He’s a beauty,” added Podkolzin, who reintroduced the depth scoring that took the Oilers to the final. His perspective on it, though?
“That’s probably one of the best feelings, to be playing for this team,” began Podkokin. “And to still be playing hockey in June.
“We’re an older team, we have so many old guys, (so) we’re pretty calm.”
These are exciting games to play in, and bought-in players such as Podkolzin and Pickard are key to winning such games that start so poorly.
Fans saw this in Vegas when the Oilers swept games one and two. They saw it again during the series-winning game of the Western Conference final. And we were all reminded of these key Oilers’ abilities on Thursday night.
Unleash Pickard (now 7-0, excluding game three, which he could not save), come from behind, and rely on Draisaitl and Connor McDavid to do what they do best—score in OT, among other things.
Why is Draisaitl Mr. Clutch? We asked Podkolzin.
“Cause he’s one of the best players in the world, that’s why.”
File that under silly questions, right next to potential concerns for game five.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows: Evander Kane needs to take a serious look in the mirror, tape his stick to his body, and acknowledge that if he goes to the box again, the words Mathew Tkachuk and fight better be involved.
Nugent-Hopkins, while playing hurt, left the game for a short period of time, but spoke of nothing that could keep him out of game five to the media.
Minor-ish issues, I suppose, if Nugent-Hopkins does indeed continue to play for the remainder of the Stanley Cup final, and continues to push the Oilers to an “oh come on,” level comeback as he did in game four.
“I know that we can come back, with the group that we have, we can do it,” explained Knoblauch post-game. “We just have to dig in, be smarter, and the guys didn’t quit.
“We just needed some confidence to get us going.
“It’s exhausting, a roller coaster, but I appreciated the level of hockey.”
