The Edmonton Oilers won with relative ease last night, scoring three first period goals and then riding a fine performance by Connor Ingram to victory. I think the Oilers are going to need more, like finding clean air for an ailing No. 1 line. However, there is promise in the step today, and more than a sliver of hope.
- Draisaitl-McDavid-Kapanen 11:40, 4-7 shots, 1-0 goals, 21X, 1-2 HDSC
The goal suggests the line is working, but all other indicators are poor. Kris Knoblauch doesn’t like to line match, so we see Jackson Lacombe out there against the captain most shifts. In 51 minutes, Anaheim is outshooting McDavid 30-15, outscoring 4-2 and owns an expected goal share of 65 percent. My only solace is that I know it’s driving Craig MacTavish crazy. MacT must tell the coach about this, I’m not sure Knoblauch knows it’s going on. You might say ‘it’s just run of play’ but 51 minutes head-to-head with McDavid playing only 33 minutes away (97 is 63 pct shots, 50 pct goals and 74X away from Lacombe) is a fairly hard match in my opinion. Kasperi Kapanen is earning a contract.
- Podkolzin-Nuge-Hyman 7:01, 4-7 shots, 2-0 goals, 56X, 1-1 HDSC
Vasily Podkolzin is earning a ten-year career in Edmonton, my goodness he arrived just in time. NHL amateur scouts get ripped on the double, but those Canucks scouts got it right and this guy is money. Love it! Credit to Nuge and Hyman for their hard work on the line, this trio earned another go but we’ll see.
- Savoie-Dickinson-Roslovic 6:48, 3-3 shots, 72X, 1-0 HDSC
Jack Roslovic had two individual HD chances but my goodness he needs to score. I’d rather the Oilers sign Kapanen, because he’s big and can post offense. Kapanen is inconsistent, but Roslovic is no shining beacon in that area, either. Matt Savoie got flattened a couple of times, but he hangs in there and makes good plays. I’d like to see him cash. I didn’t like Jason Dickinson’s results in the regular season, but he has scored twice in this series and owns good underlying numbers (52 percent expected goals) despite getting outshot at five-on-five.
- Dach-Samanski-Lazar 6:40, 0-4 shots, 18X, 0-3 HDSC
Not a terribly impressive stats set by this trio, Trent Frederic’s mistake in overtime earned him the pressbox, don’t know if we’ll see him again soon. This line isn’t it, however.
- Nurse-Murphy 15:03, 4-9 shots, 1-0 goals, 26X, 1-2 HDSC
- Ekholm-Bouchard 12:28, 7-8 shots, 2-0 goals, 47X, 3-2 HDSC
- Walman-Emberson 9:03, 3-6 shots, 20X, 0-1 HDSC
- Walman-Bouchard 2:34
- Connor Ingram 29 of 30, .967, 1GA 2.76X
Ingram had a dandy night, and the team did a nice job limiting outrageous chances. Mattias Ekholm is clearly hurt, I think the team will have to manage his games during the regular season in 2026-27. Play him 55 games in the regular year, elevate Jake Walman for the other 27, and give Damien Carfagna a chance (or Spencer Stastney, who is the forgotten man currently). People are in love with Evan Bouchard again, a reminder he’s been this player all down the line.
On the Lowdown today, it’s the roundtable again as the young and restless meet the old and frail. They give me a 5-minute head start but will it be enough? Kevin McCurdy is our feature guest at 1pm. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440 and You Tube.
Go Oilers
Was it just my tired eyes on the Atlantic coast or did Dickinson not play the third period? I don’t recall seeing him taking any shifts or hearing anything about him being hurt or not on bench from our bumbling announcers.
Re Ekholm: Play him 55 games in the regular year, elevate Jake Walman for the other 27,
The trouble is, Walman misses time every year as well.
This team will need to find a true 1DL, and they usually come via draft.
Last season there were no sweeps at all, this year 2 already. Last season there were 7 x 4-1 series, none so far this year. As most people thought, outside of the Avs and Canes rolling, these playoffs are more wide open and contested
Podkolzin for President of Podstepki!
Nice game, and I’m glad KK pulled Frederic and went with Ingram, however:
Draisaitl – 23:22
McDavid – 24:09
The Oilers were leading by 3 goals for 48 minutes. 29 and 97 are both hurt, 97 especially. Looking across to the other bench, a team that trailed by 3 for virtually the entire game, not one single forward was over Leo Carlsson’s 17:14.
GM SB had best hire the next coach who understands that superstars in/about to be in their 30s, who have played ~200 games over the past 18 months, should not be driven into the dirt with this volume of TOI.
Samanski didn’t have a great game. I wouldn’t be surprised if Freddy is back with Lazar & Dach for game six. Also Savoie hasn’t had a good playoffs, maybe they insert Fred with Dickinson & Roslovic. Or they don’t mess with a winning hand. But IMO Freddy should get back in somewhere for game six in Anahiem.
Need a fourth line that can play some important minutes. The oilers had that at the end of the season.
Maybe time to go back to that line. Hard to do when all the other centres are hurt.
I know it’s not likely to happen, because NHL, but department of player safety should be having a look at Kreiders cross check on Drai.
Solid game by Ingram so props to him from this doubter
Gutsy win. This team is being held together by duct tape.
The Ducks have a couple of very good young players, but overall they are not a very good team. The broken Oilers have put up 4 goals a game.
Flowers to Knobs for going with Ingram, the correct move as he was excellent.
I’m sure this will come back to bite him in September when Jarry comes back ready to compete for the starting role…………..
Why would it bite him? Jarry is signed for the next several years to an immovable contract.
He better bet ready
That’s the first I’ve heard of a Trent Frederic mistake in OT.
Its unfortunate that Frederic, Samanski and Dach lost their Mojo right before playoffs.
Frederic had the puck and had task of getting the puck out of the zone. Instead of hard off the boards and out he went for soft flip which was intercepted, turned around, and resulted in the goal.
A bit of bad luck especially when it goes in off an Oiler defenseman’s skate
Fredrick Samanski dach. I’d go back to that line. I don’t recall them together in the playoffs but if they could get their mojo back it could be an effective line.
Fredrick made a bad mistake but I thought through the first three games he was quite effective playing all over the roster.
— yesterday while observing who knows I felt it could be an “easy” win
— The Ducks aren’t really that good (not that we are better) so that helps their chances
— game 6 is likely going to be kitchen sink variety
— Math still not good but gooder than yesterday
— I wouldn’t be relying on MacT for coaching advice though : great guy great quotes bled Oil amazing career by all accounts super to hang with :1 run to the cup missed what 5 other years of playoffs lost in first twice threw players under the bus. There’s a reason he never coached in NHL again …
Podz is 9-3 goals at 5 on 5 (9 goals for being the most any player has been on the ice for).
Kap is 7-0 goals.
Great stuff.
The starts are starting to star now – hope its not too late but the team might be coming around.
Did Q get out-coached last night?
I mean, the Ducks had five high danger attempts (not shots, but attempts) in the last 40 minutes – Q couldn’t adjust and have his team break through the Oilers structure.
5 games in a row the Oilers scored first….. does Q have his team ready for games as much as Knob does?
Q sticking with a goalie that has struggled all series (and his team is up due to outscoring that). Knob went to Jarry and listening to Ingram last night, he needed a re-set – he mentioned he was frustrated after game 3 and the communication and plan was clear and made sense. Going back to Ingram was key.
Credit when its due for sure. There was plenty of evidence of adjustment and game planning. It looked like Knoblauch cobbled together McDavid and Draisaitl who are both way under 100% physically. He short shifted them, by that i mean plenty of shifts but to my eye they were short in duration, hoping to get the lead. Plus they cashed on PP.
Each line contributed. Breakout stronger support (sometimes) puck flip was the breakout for most of game, but also more pressure on puck carrier. Yeah, coach should get some credit.
No no no I was told categorically 97 and 29 don’t work together they only have a 53% goal share.
Interestingly, they did not get short shifted at all.
McDavid’s average shift length at 5v5 was 50 seconds, just two seconds shy of his Regular season average of 52 seconds.
Draisaitl’s average shift length was 40 seconds, down by 10 seconds over his regular season average (although he had 23 shifts, 5 more than McDavid, so I’m wondering if he was actually being double shifted, and may have been used for faceoffs in key situations).
Last night was the first game I felt the Oilers outayed the Ducks with a system. It’s either KK out coached Q or that the message finally sunk in to the players. I’d lean towards KK pulled the right levers.
The Ducks played poorly and leaked defensively like they have all year. This time, they couldn’t come back. Q didn’t get outcoached as much as a great home crowd combined with the fact that KK made the right call in goal and the talent on the ice finally clicked in the first 10 minutes.
To me the game hinged on them getting to the puck on time or before the Ducks. I was surprised they were able to do that, I hope they didn’t empty the tank completely on that game
When they get enough puck pressure they stay in structure better and make it very hard on the other guys to do much that’s dangerous, like they did last playoffs. Skate hard and simplify, the fun skill plays will show up when they show up
Ducks pushed in the last 40 minutes and carried the play but I was just fine with how the Oilers were playing – they were still trying to press and play in the offensive zone and, when the puck was in the d-zone: (1) the Ducks were on the outside and they contested everything on the inside with being in lanes and good sticks and (2) they were safe with their exits and ensured the puck got out.
Coach said last night that he thought they were too safe, that wasn’t a strategy, but how the game played out – they wanted to make more plays but erred on the side of being safe.
Works for me.
May have been some rope a dope going on there.
It’s funny, Knoblauch thought they played a little too safe.
Bouchard’s fake drop pass at the blueline on Drai’s PP goal was something else. When he feeling it, he might be the best d-man in the league.
I can’t believe a coach doesn’t believe in line matching, why would you not use every single possible tool at your disposal to free up your supernova player?
I am glad we held out the 3rd without the Ducks scoring but I’d still like a bit more offensive cohesion from the team. Still look disjointed.
I would guess because line matching is demanding of the coach.
I mean sure some roll forth whatever as a philosophy but I think there’s always a little of people simply taking the easier path.
They scored 3 goals halfway through the first. I don’t think that’s disjointed.
Maybe the coach is fine with his injured star getting hard matched when his less injured players get clean air? There’s always a tradeoff.
I was thinking they shouldn’t sit back. But I guess they were confident a three goal lead was enough. I would prefer a six goal lead. It’s good to know Edmonton can protect a lead
heading into game six. I think that game has to have shaken the Ducks belief system.
Mattias Ekholm is clearly hurt, I think the team will have to manage his games during the regular season in 2026-27. Play him 55 games in the regular year, elevate Jake Walman for the other 27, and give Damien Carfagna a chance (or Spencer Stastney, who is the forgotten man currently).
Not just Stastney and Carfagna, but I would bet that Regula comes back next season and is a better player. I think he needed more time to develop, and I think the Oilers have 3 guys who will perform for them in the future the way that Emberson has done this year.
*edit* I can’t get the block quote thing right to save my life
I agree on Regula. Big D who can move the puck get extra chances.
I believe it was Curlock who called Regula a break out machine. Might have been OP. If he can do that at the NHL level and has enough boots he’ll have a career at that size
He showed exactly that(breakout machine) in the nhl before he got hurt. When he came back his processor seemed off. I believe he can be a solid second pairing guy at the nhl level.