Pre-Scout: Oilers look for mature ‘special’ team in Game 3 |
Few teams can withstand their best players underperforming and win playoff games. In that sense, the Edmonton Oilers being tied 1-1 with the Anaheim Ducks isn’t so bad.
It’s a good wager that Connor McDavid, shutout in back-to-back games, and uncharacteristically poor with puck decision and execution, will turn it around. His ankle is fine, he says.
It’s a good wager that Evan Bouchard will be more effective and raise his urgency level, although this has been a trend that’s carried over from the conclusion of the regular season.
It’s a good wager that the Oilers power play will start to click, as it muffled momentum in Game 2, and even allowed an inexcusable goal against to finish minus-3 in special teams for the contest.
But what is frustrating is the lack of maturity in the Oilers game.
Learning the same ol’ lessons
For a series with a major storyline being “Experienced” Oilers vs “Inexperienced” Ducks, the lack of maturity shown throughout the regular season reared its head.
Instead of Game 1 being the baseline for mistakes and self-inflicted wounds, the Oilers made more mistakes in Game 2, forcing pucks through sticks, creating danger for themselves where it didn’t exist.
Now, here’s the requisite credit to the Ducks. Game 2 might’ve been one of the best games in terms of active sticks, puck disruptions, that have been played against Edmonton in years.
That’s hard to do and isn’t typically sustainable, but it was excellent. Anaheim didn’t create a ton of their own, but took advantage of point shots with screens, holding pucks in the offensive zone, and creating danger where they didn’t appear to be.
But those are areas that tend to level out. For the Oilers to be successful, they need to apply the lessons they’ve learned from the past few years, or be forced to re-learn them the hard way.
What bodes well is that even with sloppy puck play, the Oilers have the puck an awful lot five-on-five and are getting the better of it. Edmonton has a 4-2 goalscoring advantage five-on-five in each game for a total of 8-4 for the series.
It’s been their disconnected specialty teams, a path I discussed in my series preview in how each team wins this series. Anaheim is 7/17 on the power play against the Oilers this season, allowing just two total Oilers PP goals, and adding a shorty into the mix on Wednesday night.
“I think we’re obviously a little bit rusty,” said Zach Hyman, who’s second period tip jumpstarted a comeback again.
“It’s the first time we’ve been back, all five of us, in a little bit, and sometimes you just........