And bam, the second period started, and the Edmonton Oilers came back.
Oh, wait, no, that was game four.
The third period started and just like that, the Edmonton Oilers made yet another comeback of the century.
Wrong again. Evan Bouchard sumersalted into his net as Brad Marchand scored his second goal for a 3-0 lead with 15 minutes left, instead of 15 minutes in.
They can’t always come back from a 0-3 deficit, just most of the time.
“It’s not the way you draw it up. It’s not the way you want to play every night (and) sometimes it’s harder than others,” began Ryan Nudgent-Hopkins post-game. “But we’re never gonna quit on each other and always gonna try our hardest to get back in the game.
“We know that we can get it done. It’s just a matter of going out there and finding a way to do it.”
At least they care. What more could fans ask for?
(A win).
The Oilers, including Nudgent-Hopkins, Mattias Ekholm, and head coach Kris Knoblauch, were less frustrated about being unable to come back, but more that they were forced to do so again.
It’s been a long time since the Oilers found themselves that desperately needed first goal of the game, and it’s about time that changed.
“It’s just insane,” agreed Nudgent-Hopkins. “We gotta figure out our first period here, and we’ll look to correct that. It’s finding a way to do it. It’s simplifying things as much as we can.
“We talk about it, playing with speed, but at the end of the day, you just got to go out there and do it.”
We asked around. The sentiment didn’t change.
“I can’t agree more,” deadpanned Ekholm. “We’ve come out flat now, most of the series. I think it’s a mindset. They’re obviously a good team for a reason, and they’ve come out and shown that early in the game.
“So, we’ve got to find a way to be better than that at the start.”
The only question that remains is, why haven’t they?
You could look at the forecheck, a Florida Panthers area of excellence and an Oilers not. Or venture towards defence, which despite more than a few rearrangements, the Oilers have not gotten right.
Perhaps even a walk towards depth—an area that the Oilers used to excel in, but now need Corey Perry to fill in where others cannot.
“It was a tight checking game all the way through,” agreed Nudgent-Hopkins. “And they took advantage of some opportunities, and at the end of the day, we didn’t.
“That ends up being the difference.”
It’s been the difference between overtime winners and overtime losses or lopsided results.
Of course, it doesn’t have to stay that way.
The Oilers could battle it out for 60 minutes in Sunrise, Florida, drag it home for game seven, fix the issues so significant that even an extreme fan couldn’t blame it all on reefing, and maybe, win themselves the Stanley Cup.
We’d all certainly like to think they can, just as the Oilers would like to think themselves capable of finding that first-period lead.
“It’s gonna be the hardest challenge yet,” continued Nudgent-Hopkins. “We look forward to it. But we have confidence in ourselves that we can get the job done.”
“Knowing that we’re in a difficult situation,” agreed Knoblauch. “Winning our last two games is something that we’re confident that we can do. We’ve been through difficult situations before.
“It’s just another one that we’ll overcome.”
It’s one of those, if this doesn’t get you out of bed, game, I don’t know what will.
For the fans, and for the Oilers.
They’ve always played their best while the most desperate—a record of five straight come-from-behind wins and likely one or two more before this is all said and done and the Stanley Cup is in one hand or another.
If the Oilers could crack the code to the first period and not the third, maybe it’ll be theirs.
“We talked a little about our backs against the wall,” concluded Nugent-Hopkins. “This is the ultimate (test), so we’ll prepare to play and make sure that we’re ready to go.”
