Oilers let Stanley Cup dreams fizzle away

Put it however you please.

The well ran dry.

Goaltending caught up to them.

Zach Hyman left, and so did Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

Or the Edmonton Oilers were outplayed and outclassed by a deeper lineup in game six of the Stanley Cup final.

Likely all of the above.

“They tilted the rink. They were able to stay on top of us all night,” began Connor McDavid post-game. “(We) were never really able to generate any momentum. We kept trying the same thing over and over again, just banging our heads against the wall. Credit to them, they played well.

“We lost to a really good team, nobody quit, nobody threw the towel in, (and) the Panthers are a heck of a team, they’re back-to-back Stanley Cup champions for a reason.”

Let’s break that quote down.

We kept trying the same thing over and over again: The Oilers never really found their game, and for those rare glimpses that they did—likely the first few shifts of each game—they couldn’t sustain it.

The Florida Panthers were a powerhouse all season long, and for a team fighting tooth and nail, trying to prove everyone wrong, attempting the same thing over and over again was a pretty bad strategy.

Nobody threw in the towel: They just let it fizzle away.

Whether it was egregious turnover, weak shot attempts, disappointing defence, or players that didn’t show up, the Edmonton Oilers let the Florida Panthers steamroll them in one less game than last year.

The Panthers are a heck of a team; they’re back-to-back Stanley Cup champions for a reason: Florida deserved to win, and Edmonton did not.

Look back to rounds one, two, and three, and even a little bit of round four when the Oilers had eight come-from-behind wins, and instead of looking at this as a stat as remarkable or record-breaking, look at it this way instead—how sustainable was it long term?

Clearly, we know the answer.

We know that the Oilers could only find a way to win one game when they didn’t score first in the Cup Final, and because hindsight is well, you know, it was simply subtle foreshadowing.

Playing desperate was enough to get through the West, but the Panthers are a different breed.

“We just found a way to get here, (but) we didn’t find a way to get enough,” added McDavid. “They’ve got great players. How many guys had 20-plus points in their postseason? They’re as deep as it comes.

“There’s still a lot of confidence and belief. I don’t think people thought we were going to make it this far. We believed and came up just a bit short again.”

There are lessons to be learned, and Stuart Skinner put it best.

“There are lessons to individuals, how you can show up better, how you can react better to certain situations, also as a team,” explained the netminder. “We need to learn from this right away, we need to learn from this right now.

“Letting it happen two times in a row is devastating.”

Props to the Oilers for handling this crushing blow with class, but even a little honesty has shown through these post-game interviews, one being how you can show up better?

McDavid had one goal, five assists, and a minus-7 over six games against the Panthers.

Leon Draisaitl had four goals, three assists, and a minus-7.

Together, their post-season stats are remarkable and lead the league, but they did little to represent the Stanley Cup-contending Oilers for the second year in a row.

It wasn’t the only reason, but it was, unfortunately, a significant cause for the Oilers’ slow death in their final six games, even if not everyone would agree.

“They’ve got a good team,” began Panthers head coach Paul Maurice. “Those two guys, I think people in Edmonton get used to them, but we’re not used to them. They are elite players. We had to handle them by committee.

“I’ve never seen players move that fast at ice level.”

At least someone was impressed.

No one can say that without McDavid and Draisaitl, the Oilers still would have made it to the Stanley Cup final, but had Draisaitl and McDavid pumped more life into the team instead of fizzling away into the background, perhaps they would have won it.

Alas, sometimes, there just isn’t enough to give.

There’s no looking back on this cup run and finding silver linings in the sea of missed chances and wasted opportunities. There is only looking into the mirror, and seeing what should’ve been done differently.

“There is no silver lining to this,” agreed Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “It’s heart-wrenching. It hurts right now, and it’s not going to let up for a while.”

“We battled, but we’re not leaving here as winners,” added Draisaitl.