EDMONTON — One of the hallmarks of a team that can win in the National Hockey League playoffs is the ability to win that 2-1 game that arrives like an April snowstorm — which is to say inevitably — each spring.
Sometimes that tight game ends 3-1 with an-empty netter. But at least twice in a series, a team will find itself in a low event, 1-1 nail-biter. A game where two goals has to be enough to win.
If they panic, and try to create offence where none exists, they’ll lose. If they can not continue to limit the chances through 60 minutes — if they crack first and take penalties or surrender odd-man rushes — they will lose.
In the regular season, that 1-1 game can often be won with offence. The Maple Leafs, the Oilers, they’ll turn that into a 5-4 game and look great doing it. But in the playoffs, that game is won with goaltending and defensive play.
That’s why Toronto and Edmonton haven’t succeeded. Because the road to the ‘W’ in May and June isn’t the same road they took from October through April.
The Oilers, they know this to be true. And they’ve been working their tails off, trying to become that team that can defend well enough and long enough come playoff time, that their superior offence can win the day.
“You have the best defending teams that make the playoffs usually, right?” Reasons 50-100 man Leon Draisaitl. “We want to be one of those teams, and I think the last little stretch here — other than maybe one exception or one game — we’ve done a really good job of that. We’ve been really solid defensively. And for us, obviously, there’s never a problem to score goals.”
Personally, we’d love to see an NHL where creative teams and players get rewarded come playoff time. With more 6-5 hockey come springtime.
But we all know that creativity and goal scoring is a reward bestowed only on teams that grind, defend, and survive in the hard hockey that results from all 18 skaters treating every shift as if it is their last.
“The Tampa Bay Lightning,” states Zach Hyman. “They’ve got some really skilled players, but they play the right way. They have depth throughout the lineup and in the last two years they were able to mesh skill with a grinding game too.
“I don't think it’s one or the other,” he declared. “I think you need a little bit of everything.”
A year ago Edmonton found itself in a playoff series with Winnipeg in which they came up on the wrong side of the inch every night. In Game 1 it was 1-1 with 11:00 to play, and the Jets won 4-1 with two empty-netters; they lost Game 2, 1-0 in overtime; in Game 3 they imploded, blowing a 4-1 lead with 8:00 to play; Game 4 was lost in triple OT.
Edmonton was in every game, but the Oilers were out in four.
Are the Oilers a more sound team this season? They actually appear to be.
“We’ve established our game and the way we want to play over the last couple of weeks,” said defenceman Darnell Nurse, whose Oilers have authored back to back 4-0 wins over Nashville and Vegas. “Going into the playoffs, you want to get into a groove, you want to have a good feel of your game, a good feel of each other on the ice and I feel like we’ve done that to this point.”
Edmonton is the fifth-best team in the league with a .700 winning percentage since Jan. 22. That’s 40 games — basically the second half of the season. But are they better than a year ago?
Here is a look at their lines from a years ago, Games 3 and 4 v. Winnipeg:
Draisaitl McDavid Puljujarvi
McLeod RNH Kassian
Shore Khaira Archibald
Ennis Haas Yamamoto
Here are their current lines
Kane McDavid Puljujarvi
Hyman Draisaitl Yamamoto
Foegle RNH Ryan
Brassard McLeod Kassian
With McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins each centring separate lines, Edmonton is a better team. Kane, Hyman and Foegele are huge upgrades at left wing. McLeod has improved a ton, and moved down the lineup.
On defence, here is last year’s Top 6:
Nurse Barrie
Russell Larsson
Koekkoek/Kulikov Bear
And this year:
Nurse Ceci
Keith Bouchard
Kulak Barrie
The Oilers are stronger on defence and the same in goal, much deeper and better in front of Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen.
They are, suddenly, a team that might wind up on the right end of those close playoff games that they could not find a way to win a year ago versus the Jets.
“Well, we’re working towards it,” said Woodcroft, who has done a magnificent job since taking over on Feb. 11 (21-8-34). “As the league narrows, and more and more teams fall out, the attention to detail and the focus of teams on the defensive part of the game increases. Every play counts. Every rep counts, every shift counts. So it becomes harder and harder to score.”
His club has back-to-back shutouts, and recently played an epic 2-1 game against Colorado. Edmonton lost in a shootout, but the Oilers didn’t lose the way they used to, on a bad goal or a chance given up that did not have to be earned.
“It was a 0-0 game (after 40 minutes), and it was some of the best players in the world on the ice,” Woodcroft said. “It was a heck of a game. A great game.”
Can the Oilers take that act into the post-season?
From here, we see no reason why they can’t.
