Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid celebrates his goal during the third period of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Florida Panthers on June 18, in Sunrise, Fla.Rebecca Blackwell/The Associated Press
Connor McDavid and the Oilers have certainly gotten the Florida Panthers’ attention now. They have beaten them in consecutive elimination games and, with a victory on Friday on home ice, could force a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup final that looked extremely improbable just days ago.
They clearly got Bill Zito’s attention. After McDavid scored an empty-netter to clinch a 5-3 victory on Tuesday, the Panthers’ infuriated general manager hurled a water bottle.
He must have gotten agitated as he watched the Oilers captain skate circles around his team and put together a second straight four-point night, the first in 106 years in the final.
Edmonton is still in a precarious position. To win its first Stanley Cup since 1990, it will have to win two more elimination games and has zero room for error. One small hiccup and this will be remembered as a very good season, but the 31st in a row without a Canadian team being crowned champion.
Only one team – the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs – has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in the Cup final. Those aren’t long odds; they are more of a plank to walk after asking for a final cigarette.
The teams have flown back and forth across the continent throughout the series, and Friday in Edmonton the Stanley Cup will be ready to be hoisted for the third time. The family and friends of Florida’s players flew here on Saturday only to see an 8-1 steamrolling and then another disappointing defeat at home on Tuesday.
No matter the result, it would be stunning not to see McDavid win the Conn Smythe Trophy that is awarded to the most valuable player during the postseason. He has been a factor in eight of Edmonton’s 13 goals over the past two games, has broken one of Wayne Gretzky’s records for assists and – just speculation here – with two more productive games could erase the Great One’s playoff points mark of 47.
He has 11 points in the final and needs just two more to set an all-time series record. Say what you will about Aleksander Barkov – an exceptional player for sure – but he has not dominated like McDavid. To this point Oilers GM Ken Holland hasn’t watched him make a huge play and thrown a hissy fit.
“He has driven the bus since before I got here,” Zach Hyman, the former Maple Leaf, said of McDavid. Hyman scored his playoff-leading 15th goal on Tuesday. “He is the guy who has led this team. You kind of expect it from him.”
The Panthers still need to win only one more time to clinch their first Stanley Cup. They joined the NHL in 1993 as an expansion franchise.
“Nothing has changed in our situation except that in the last two games we learned some things, lessons we don’t need to learn,” Florida head coach Paul Maurice said. “We’ve learned them enough.”
The Oilers have scored a short-handed goal in each of the past two games and have found the back of the net three times on power plays. Stuart Skinner has suddenly started to outplay Sergei Bobrovsky. In Game 5, Evan Bouchard rang up his 24th, 25th and 26th assists to eclipse Paul Coffey’s previous mark for a defenceman of 25. Connor Brown, who went 55 games without a goal during the regular season, got Tuesday’s shortie. Corey Perry got his first goal of the playoffs.
A lot of very good things are happening.
“We were counted out a long time ago and here we are playing hockey in June,” Kris Knoblauch, the Oilers head coach, said after Tuesday’s triumph. “We are headed back to Edmonton for Game 6. There is a lot to smile about.”
The Oilers are only the fourth team to ever lose the first three contests in the final and then win the next two. It’s a mountain to climb and perhaps too much to expect.
Remember, though, that Edmonton was last among 32 teams in the NHL, had eight- and 16-game winning streaks, and has now battled back after it fell behind multiple times in the playoffs.
“Some teams that face adversity get tense and [don’t] play their usual game,” Knoblauch said on Wednesday. “This team has seen so much adversity and it just elevates our game. Right now we are playing on house money. Nobody expected us maybe to even be here now in the Stanley Cup final, let alone have the opportunity to claw back in this series.
“We [have] to stretch this out for as long as we can.”