Edmonton Oilers Playoff Thoughts: Round 3, Game 4

Over the last few years, it’s been a running joke for Edmonton Oilers fans that an afternoon game is always a guaranteed loss for the team. A 6-1 victory is certainly no joke, however. At the same time, people were perplexed that the NHL would give a Conference Final game a 1 pm Mountain Time/3 pm Eastern Time start. I remember watching a game that early in the second round a decade ago, but the third round? That’s a new one for many. Though, as someone who lives in Ontario and has stayed up till 12:30 am or 1 am after most Oilers games, I can’t say I myself had an issue with it. I enjoy going to bed at a reasonable hour. What can I say?

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins continues to be red hot in this series. With a three assist performance, he became the second Oiler, alongside Wayne Gretzky, to have a multi-point game in the first three games of a Conference Final. I’m surprised that neither Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, nor Paul Coffey did that in the 80s, nor did either Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl in the last 4 seasons. Evan Bouchard could even give himself a challenge for that someday. But whatever, everybody loves Nuge. 97 and 29 have combined for just 18.3% of their team’s Playoff goals scored. That percentage was 20.9 last year and 47.7 the year before. The secondary scoring on this team has improved so drastically, yet some still believe it’s a one or two-man group.

So 8 out of 9 periods in this series have belonged solely to Edmonton, even at times in the winning periods when Dallas looked to be getting back into it. Were it not for a total third period collapse in Game 1, the Oilers should be up 3-0. But all you can do as a team is control what happens in the present moment, and the Oilers have done a great job of that thus far, all Playoffs long. They can go up 3-1 with a win tonight, but the Stars have to be hungry for a better showing as well. The keys to the game are…

Edmonton Oilers Thoughts

Timely Errors: In Game 3, before the Oilers scored the first and second goals, Brett Kulak should’ve gotten a delay of game penalty for putting the puck over the glass. It was a missed call that the refs couldn’t go back and review. We’ll never know whether the Stars would have scored on that power play, but they wouldn’t have allowed two goals in 36 seconds. Then, in the final seconds of the first period, Kasperi Kapanen was called for high-sticking Mikko Rantanen. But on the replay, Rantanen got hit by his own stick. That powerplay was killed off, but that mistake could’ve also turned the game around. How does each team respond to these moments when/if they happen again?

Too Quiet: Mikko Rantanen and Jason Robertson have combined for only 4 points in this series. Robertson has just 3 points throughout both rounds he’s played, he finally scored a goal on a deflection from a Lian Bichsel shot. Rantanen had three great chances to score on Dallas’s power play that continued to start the second period. The first chance hit the post, the second was blocked, and the third was gloved. I celebrated Edmonton’s depth scoring moments ago, but McDavid had just 3 goals coming into Round 3. He had a big afternoon with 2 goals on Sunday, he broke out. Both Rantanen and Robertson will look to find their breakout moments.

Keep Riding High: Stuart Skinner mistook Games 2 and 3 for his usual Games 4-7 performances, because he came up big once again. He’s now the fifth goalie in NHL Playoff history to allow just 1 goal or less in his first four wins of a single postseason. The other four goalies were Felix Potvin(1994), Patrick Lalime(2002), Ed Belfour(2004), and Ilya Bryzgalov(2006). Jake Oettinger has, statistically, not looked good in this series. But he has an 18-7 record following a team loss in the Playoffs. He’s going to need a big goalie game of his own, and Stu can’t mistake these next couple of nights for his Games 1-3 performances.