‘Everyone just dug in’: Oilers lean on experience, guile to earn series-tying win
How much belief can you afford the veteran, experienced Oilers, a team that doesn’t look as good as it has in past years, but is suddenly starting to feel like a force again, after crawling back into this series with a stunning 4-3 overtime win on Sunday?
EDMONTON — How many times can you let your opponent up off the mat, before you’re the one — as the old boxing adage goes — selling ads on the bottom of your shoes?
How many bad challenges, like the one that cost the Los Angeles Kings so dearly in Game 3, can you give the Edmonton Oilers?
How many unbothered opportunities to clear your zone — with 45 seconds left in regulation and the Kings leading 3-2 — can Quinton Byfield ask for, after Evan Bouchard relieved him of the puck and Bouch Bombed Game 4 into overtime seconds later?
And how much belief can you afford the veteran, experienced Oilers, a team that doesn’t look as good as it has in past years, but is suddenly starting to feel like a force again, after crawling back into this series with a stunning 4-3 overtime win on Sunday?
“People doubting us, putting ourselves in bad spots,” began Connor McDavid, after notching three assists between the 7:51 mark of the third period to Leon Draisaitl’s OT winner with 1:42 left in the first overtime. “We’re working. We’re digging our way out, trying to find ways to win games, and we found a way tonight.
“I’m proud of everyone and how we found a way tonight.”
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The Oilers forwards had 10 shots on goal through 40 minutes — and the ageless Corey Perry had three of them. But trailing the Kings 3-1 and at risk of falling behind in this Round 1 series by the same count, the Oilers grabbed hold of this game and ripped it from the Kings’ failing hands.
“That’s our identity in here. We’ve built that years ago — it’s a mentality that we’re never going to quit, no matter what,” said Draisaitl. “We’ve shown that in the series so far, maybe a little bit too much.
“We’ve got to find a way to play with a lead,” he said of their second straight third-period comeback. “It shows a lot of character, and we can be really proud of that. But you don’t want to do that every night.”
Success has come easily at times for Edmonton, versus a Kings team that they’ve eliminated the past three springs. But this Kings team is better, with an upgrade in goal and scoring power, and a tangible hunger to finally slay their Pacific Division dragon.
Meanwhile, the Oilers aren’t as quick as they once were, they’re a tad older, and they went to their backup goalie just three games into this series. The Oilers don’t win on straight-up talent the way they once did.
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Now, on their tenth playoff series in the past four springs, Edmonton is tapping into its experience and guile. Their own fans are teeming off the bandwagon tweet by tweet during long stretches of L.A. dominance, but experience has taught these players to “understand that things change,” said McDavid.
“We could have easily gone out there, mailed it in and headed to L.A., and tried to dig our way out. But I thought everyone just dug in. I’m sure there’s lots of people doubting us still, but we like it that way. A lot of people counting us out, but we’re fighting to beat a good team.
“They’re a great team, they really are, and we’re fighting,” said the Oilers captain.
Evan Bouchard had another wild and wonderful night in this series, scrawling his name all over the scoresheet — in all kinds of categories — with eight shots on net and another seven attempts.
He and defence partner Darnell Nurse were minus-3 after two periods, but Bouchard became the dominant offensive defenceman that he is in Period 3, scoring the 3-2 goal and then ripping home the tying goal with the goalie pulled and only 29 ticks left on the clock.
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He preceded that 3-3 goal by stripping Byfield of a puck that surely had to find its way out of the zone, in a situation where one more clear might have sealed the game for the Kings. It was a brilliant check by Bouchard, who rocketed a puck through the maze and past Darcy Kuemper to send the game into OT for the first time in this series.
“This team is doing a good job getting into shooting lanes,” he said of a Kings team that blocked 32 shots on the night. “We were outworking them, we kept the puck in, we were winning 50-50 battles…
“When that puck came up, I knew I had to hit the net and give us a chance to get the rebound if there was one.”
A growing subplot in this series: The Kings are playing four defencemen and three lines, and as the game went on, the Oilers tilted the ice, outshooting L.A. 18-7 in overtime and 33-13 from the start of the third period.
As the series marches on, and returning players like Evander Kane, Trent Frederic, Zach Hyman and Jake Walman start to find their sea legs, it’s fair to say the Oilers gain an advantage over a Kings team that doesn’t love its depth.
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“They play four D and nine forwards an awful lot,” Draisaitl said. “The longer this goes, we’ve got to continue to chip away at it, and make it hard on them, if that’s the game they want to play.”
They say a series doesn’t start until the road team wins a game, and this is a six-game series now, with seven a distinct possibility.
The Oilers have won some big ones in Los Angeles over the past four years, but none would be bigger than the two chances they’ll have left this spring.
See you Tuesday.
