We win

It’s a nice change of pace writing this blog as opposed to the last two seasons when I had to write about what went wrong for the Edmonton Oilers.

The Oilers beat LA in game seven 2-0 to move onto the second round last night.

In the process the Oilers exorcised their demons of the past two seasons from when they were defeated in the first round by Chicago and Winnipeg respectively. Third time’s the charm, I guess.

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So, what went right for them in this series that went wrong in the past two seasons?

Let’s look at that now.

Hunger to win

This series we saw a hunger to win that seemed to be missing from the last two series. In part that’s due to the personnel, and in part due to being tired of losing from past series, and in part due to learning through the hockey school of hard knocks.

It all started with Connor McDavid, and if you don’t believe me, just ask Leon Draisaitl.

In the playoffs, it often comes down to who wants it more. I always suspected LA’s mix of players wasn’t sufficient enough to win the series – after all, most of their core vets had already been there and done that, so they may be lacking that extra bit of motivation to win it. Oh, every NHL player wants to win in the playoffs, but the Edmonton Oilers, who are still seeking their first cup since 1990, would obviously be hungrier than a team who was one of the best teams in the league and two time Cup champs in the 2010s.

The vets didn’t have enough left in the tank and the young players who have started supplanting them didn’t know how to raise their game in the playoffs – something that I suspect LA will remedy within the next two or three seasons as their rebuild becomes 100% complete.

LA brought a lot during the series, but the Edmonton Oilers just wanted it that much more. The Kings reminded me a lot of the Oilers circa 2017.

Depth scoring

Give GM Ken Holland credit for one thing – he sure knows how to remake the bottom six corps of forwards in short order.

Between the Edmonton Oilers signing of Evander Kane mid-season, who really seemed to complete the top six, and the remake of the bottom six into three legitimate scoring lines and one fourth line capable of providing both energy and secondary offence, the Edmonton Oilers had better teams than either of the ones who took on Chicago or Winnipeg the past two seasons.

The Oilers had 12 different goal scorers in this series and only four players who didn’t provide any offence at all during the series – and of those four players, only one, Warren Foegele, was a regular in the bottom six. Not surprisingly Jay Woodcroft took him out of the lineup altogether in game seven.

Compare this to last year’s team that took on Winnipeg, who had only seven players score goals, only 13 players who produced points, and nine players with no offence at all – including four regulars.

I’d like to think this season’s edition of the Edmonton Oilers would’ve fared much better against the Jets last year. Even going by players who scored multiple goals in the playoffs is in stark contrast to last year. Last year, only Leon Draisaitl scored more than one goal in the playoffs, while this year five players – McDavid, Kane, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman – scored more than once in the series.

Depth scoring is a key ingredient to win in the playoffs, and this year the Oilers got it.

Sound defensive play

The Oilers defensive play was far from perfect, I’m the first one to admit that. Losing 4-0 in game four, then 5-4 in OT in game five, and 4-3 in game one on a defensive gaffe (a lot of people blame Mike Smith for that goal, but I’d argue the Kings wouldn’t be in the Oilers end at that point at all if they had played properly defensively) is pretty damning evidence they didn’t play their best in those games.

Nonetheless, they played well enough defensively to get the job done, and that’s what counts. Game seven, in particular, was not only a victory on the scoreboard but a victory for our defensive play as well, as with the exception of the last two minutes of the game the Edmonton Oilers spent the vast majority of it in the King’s zone, outshooting them 41-29.

This was a far cry from the Winnipeg series last season when they went well with the Jets head to head but unfortunately had a tendency to commit defensive gaffes at inopportune times that cost them all four games.

Sound defensive play combined with a killer instinct is what gets you.

The +/- stats bear this out. McDavid – +10. Kane – +5. Ceci – +8. Nugent-Hopkins- +1. Barrie (of all people…) – +1. Yamamoto – 0. Nurse – +7.

In fact, the most disappointing player defensively was Evan Bouchard at -4, which frankly for someone playing their first playoff games is pretty good. Duncan Keith was on the wrong side of things at -3, but it hardly seems like coincidence that he’s Bouchard’s partner, which probably had something to do with it.

Last playoffs almost everyone was a minus player and the best one was Tyson Barrie with a +1.

Talk about a huge improvement playoffs over playoffs. Even the McDrai duo were both -2 last playoffs, with both players improving on that number this series.

With vastly improved defensive play this year, it’s no surprise they won as expected. Now they just need to work on playing consistently like they did in games six and seven and they’ll be an unstoppable machine in the playoffs.

Mike Smith

Both goaltenders were excellent in this series. The Kings would’ve had more than two blowouts if it weren’t for Jonathan Quick. But Smith has made several timely saves that Jonathan Quick didn’t, and that helped tipped the balance of power in the series towards the Oilers.

Smith has a history of raising his play in the playoffs, and this year was no different. Lifetime he has a .932 sv% in the playoffs, buoyed by a .938 sv% in the first round of this year.

With his play at the end of the regular season, Smith boosted his sv% over 15 points and that momentum has continued in the playoffs.

Contrast this with Quick, who by eye test did pretty good but finished only with a .910 sv% in the playoffs this season, and in the Oilers 8-2 game three victory he was chased from the nets altogether.

GAA is similar story. Smith finished with a 2.29 GAA, compared to Quick’s 2.59. Smith has a 2.33 GAA lifetime in the playoffs while a 2.7 in the regular season.

One of the key ingredients to a playoff series win is you need to get not just good, but timely, goaltending. The Edmonton Oilers got that in spades this time around, and I have no reason to suspect that will end in the second round.

I have to give props to the LA Kings before I end this blog.

They’ve got some of the ingredients of a good team, and I would expect they’ll rise from the ashes soon enough in another two or three seasons. Right now they don’t have enough guys in the prime of their careers, and that’s bound to change as more prospects take over for the elder statesmen of their cup wins from the previous decade, and if they can draft, sign, and trade properly they’re going to be a team to watch.

Not to mention they’re coached well by the man above who Oiler fans should be well acquainted with.

Also there are key pieces of their future that are still raw behind the edges, like Quinton Byfield who was a non-factor in this series but was also playing in his very first playoffs. He’s bound to learn from this experience and become more of a force in the coming years. Adrian Kempe had six points in seven games and was a thorn in the Edmonton Oilers side all series long, but the Kings need more players like him if they want to go on another cup run.

The chamber has been partially refilled, now they just need to finish the job.

I may have underestimated them a bit, I certainly didn’t expect them to take the series to seven games, but that was just as much the Edmonton Oilers shooting themselves in the foot in certain games that it was them taking advantage of their opportunities.

Give the Kings some time they should re-emerge as the first California team that has success in the modern era.