The Oilers have been knocking on the door for years and now here they are in the Stanley Cup final! For this team to find themselves in the final, while the Stars, Avalanche and Golden Knights are on vacation, is quite an achievement. It is therefore time to give a lot of credit to this organization which has disappointed its supporters more often than not in recent years.
But nothing is certain yet for this team which will have its biggest challenge of the playoffs, the Florida Panthers.
The same style
For the Panthers head coach, the Oilers have a style that closely resembles that of the Rangers. “The Oilers have intelligent and dynamic players when they enter the offensive zone with the puck,” emphasizes Paul Maurice. One thing is certain, it will be much more similar to the Rangers in style than what we experienced against the Lightning and the Bruins. Still, the Oilers’ advanced statistics show that they are much superior defensively, contrary to what many analysts say. »
But the Panthers’ defensive play is particularly effective too. They were able to completely stifle Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin, but will they be able to do so against Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman who are much more dangerous than the Rangers’ best forwards and c Not forgetting Evan Bouchard who is healthy, compared to Adam Fox who played the series on one leg.
The Panthers are different
The Oilers will face the Panthers who are at the top of their game. They have talent but also a lot of “F…U”, if you know what I mean.
It seems like every player has a combination of talent and villain in them. Who would have thought, for example, that Aaron Ekblad, this nice, talented defender, would go from a friendly player to a player who never smiles anymore and who uses his stick, no longer necessarily to shoot the puck, but much more to hit the ball? ‘opponent.
It’s as if Jordan Harris went from smiling man to one of the nastiest defensemen on the ice. If Aaron Ekblad can do it, every defenseman in the NHL can do it. If they want it obviously, but it takes a lot of courage, which is not given to everyone, I agree. It’s like in society, it takes everything to make a world. Except that the world of the Panthers is quite different from that of the Oilers.
Battle of the Special Units
There is a staggering statistic this year in the playoffs. Teams that had the upper hand on special teams against their opponents won 14 series. 14 series won and none lost. The Oilers dominated in this regard with 37% efficiency with the power play and 94% efficiency on the penalty kill.
The Panthers only had 23% efficiency on the power play and 88% on the penalty kill.
This is where it will be interesting to see how the officials will impact this series. If we go by what we saw in game six between the Rangers and the Panthers, they didn’t try to intervene too much. The proof was that they did not raise their arms when Matthew Tkachuk found himself on the breakaway and received a stick blow to the hands. In the regular season, it would have been a penalty throw. In the series, it’s obviously something else.
