EDMONTON | The Panthers had a heartfelt one, but they didn’t leave Rogers Place too worried.
“This is not the first defeat we have suffered since the start of the series,” Aleksander Barkov put things into perspective.
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TRUE. However, none of the other five losses had been as catastrophic.
“The score doesn’t matter. Whether it’s 2 to 1 or 8 to 1, it just counts as a defeat. We have to bounce back and think about the next match. »
A few steps from the Panthers captain, in the visitors’ locker room, Matthew Tkachuk was in a similar state of mind.
“We are still in a very good situation. We lead this series 3 to 1, said Matthew Tkachuk. We split the honors here and head back home to play in front of our incredible fans. We are excited to play in front of them. »
Except that they will have to do much better if they wish to parade on their ice with the Stanley Cup. But they know that.
“There are several things that we can improve. They worked harder than us. We gave them too many chances on restarts. We weren’t good at defending ourselves against that,” Barkov analyzed.
Not Bob’s fault
Indeed, the Oilers’ overkill attacks were numerous. Their way of attacking the neutral zone completely destabilized the Panthers defenders.
“We weren’t as united as in previous matches. They were flying on the ice, Tkachuk said. This is a lesson to be learned by the attackers and defenders of our team. »
And Sergei Bobrovsky in there?
“We gave away eight goals, but none were his fault,” said the Panthers pest. He has been incredible all season and since the start of the playoffs. We know he will bounce back. Besides, we’re all going to do it. »
The Oilers recipe
On the Oilers side, we will certainly want to build on this victory. After struggling offensively in the first three games, they saw 15 of their players collect at least one point.
“Our big guns often drag the team down, but sometimes you need the others to contribute as well. Tonight was one of those nights. Hopefully we’ll see more like this,” said Mattias Janmark, who got the ball rolling by scoring shorthanded.
Not only did the Oilers cause a fifth game to be held with an unequivocal victory, they will leave for Florida with the conviction of having been the better of the two teams since the start of this final.
“We fought in every game and we were the better team in three of the four games,” said Zach Hyman. This evening, we limited our mistakes. The ones we committed were redeemed by our guardian. »
We will see if they will be able to apply the same recipe on Tuesday.
