Edmonton Oilers left wing Zach Hyman celebrates after scoring a goal during the second period of Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals against the Florida Panthers. The Oilers won 5-3 on June 18, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla.Rebecca Blackwell/The Associated Press
One hundred and five games into their season, the Edmonton Oilers have discovered the thing that brings out their best – existential dread.
Tuesday’s 5-3 win in Florida was the fourth time they have survived an elimination game in these playoffs.
The victory removes the Stanley Cup final from the embarrassing romp column and puts it in the toss-up pile. What seemed like a sure thing for Florida a couple of days ago is beginning to look like a future Canadian Heritage Minute.
The Oilers haven’t been outclassed in this final, but they were being outlucked. Things that could go wrong did, and vice versa for things that might go right.
In Game 5, the rules flipped. When Florida was pouring down on the Oilers early, nothing could leak into the Edmonton net. When the Panthers got an early power play, Edmonton scored instead.
When the Panthers thought they’d escaped the first period singed but not burned, they took a penalty with no time remaining. The Oilers scored on the man advantage to start the second.
The third goal was the sort that can turn a series. Connor McDavid drifted in on the wing and took a shot so speculative it ought to be investigated by a regulatory body. Somehow, Florida’s former brick wall, Sergei Bobrovsky, allowed it to pass through his body and into the net.
If Bobrovsky is done for the year – and the quality of his play over the last five periods or so suggests that is possible – the Panthers could be too.
From that point on, it was mostly downhill sledding. Well, not really. But the Oilers got there. The series resumes Friday in what promises to be a cancel-all-leaves sort of night in Edmonton.
In a weird sort of way, this final is lining up in the optimal way for both the Oilers and the NHL.
The macro point of this match-up was always staging a two-week advertisement for McDavid. If you want to sell the league’s best talent, you need to put him in the biggest production. This is his shot.
McDavid’s done his part. He isn’t the favourite to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, but he should be. After Tuesday’s two-goal, two-assist performance, he has an outside shot to pip Wayne Gretzky for the most points in a single postseason (47).
The one thing McDavid hasn’t done is blossom in some sort of content-friendly, future-film-script sort of way. No Braveheart-esque speeches. No wild off-ice moments. If Tuesday hadn’t gone the way it went, there was a danger that the last clear memory of McDavid would be of his swarming in Game 5 by a couple of Panthers.
McDavid remains the shyest great athlete at work anywhere. He remains visibly uncomfortable whenever speaking. You can still see him scanning for traps in every question.
Some greats play better loose. McDavid is at the other end of that spectrum. Despite all the miles on his body, he still showed up for an optional skate on Tuesday morning.
Why?
“I don’t want to be flat,” McDavid said.
He made the same joke other Oilers have been making about the Panthers being “dragged back to Alberta.” Someone asked him to explain what that meant.
“You guys have been on that flight,” McDavid said. “It’s not the most enjoyable flight.” Some quick wit pointed out that the players and the reporters are on very different sorts of flights.
Everybody laughed, except McDavid. He seemed worried he might have offended someone.
The odds are always pretty good that the best player in hockey will be a Canadian. But what’s the likelihood of that guy being this Canadian? Due South, King of Kensington, Dudley Do-Right Canadian?
His off-ice reticence contrasted with his on-ice exuberance is the key to McDavid’s brand. Leading the biggest Stanley Cup final comeback in history, then watching him try to slip out of the post-game interviews – that would be a nice way to grow his legend.
It’s already done the rounds, but after Tuesday’s win it’s time to really run the comparison to the 1942 Leafs’ comeback into the ground.
What doesn’t get a lot of play when that story is retold is how exactly that 80-year-old reverse sweep happened.
Detroit had things well in hand until it freaked out while losing the fourth game. An argument over a penalty call eventually wound around to Red Wings coach Jack Adams getting in a fistfight with the referee. The police intervened to head off an incipient riot.
The Red Wings gave the entire city of Toronto a reason to want them dead, while psyching themselves out in the process. A platoon of life coaches couldn’t have elicited a better incentive to performance.
So the great comeback of 1942 is best understood as one of the biggest choke jobs in team sports history.
Are the Panthers the sort of team that blows sure things?
Nothing about the way Florida has carried itself for going on two years suggests they get wobbly when things don’t go their way.
Once the Oilers went up 3-0 on Tuesday night, the crowd at the Amerant Arena gave up. You could actually hear the exuberance leaving their bodies.
That did not apply to the team on the ice. The Oilers tried pouring it on, but the Panthers poured back. Like the series, the game seemed destined to be determined by a strange bounce or fluky goal.
For one night at least, McDavid and friends got most of the advantages. It’s hard to say where the pressure falls now. It’s definitely begun to slosh around.
Edmonton has passed beyond the playing-for-pride stage. It is back to playing for a title. Florida still has a one-game buffer. Who would you rather be?
The only thing that really changed on Tuesday night is that a series that looked like a bust has clawed back the potential to become a classic.