The Edmonton Oilers find themselves on the brink, following the 4-3 loss on Thursday night in game three. Their hopes of winning the city's first Stanley Cup since 1990 hang by the thinnest of threads.
Down 3-0 in the series, the Oilers now need to do something virtually impossible. Only once has a team recovered from three games down to come back and win the Stanley Cup, and that was the Toronto Maple Leafs all the way back in 1942.
The one sliver of hope is that if there's one team capable of doing this in today's game, it's the Oilers. When they're on form no one is better, led by the best player in the world and another who is regularly among the best 5-10 players in the NHL.
Both positive and negative streaks for the Oilers
This Oilers team has been streaky all season long, both for better and worse. On the negative side, they had a run early on of just one win in nine games, contributing towards the poorest start in team history through the first 12 games.
Further, even after Kris Knoblauch took over as coach and mostly righted the ship, the Oilers still had their struggles. More specifically, on three different occasions the team lost three consecutive games.
On the flip side though, the Oilers also had some lengthy winning stretches. Among them, this included eight and five-game winning streaks.
Of course most spectacularly of all, Knoblauch's team won 16 consecutive games between late December and the All-Star break. As a result, they agonisingly fell just one win short of the Pittsburgh Penguins' all-time NHL record of 17 straight victories.
Trying to find one more winning run
Well, now the Oilers find themselves in need of just one final winning streak, to turn this Stanley Cup Final on its head. Hey, what's one four-game winning run, after having already managed to win four times this amount in a row already this season?
Of course we're being flippant with that remark; we appreciate it's extremely unlikely versus a Florida Panthers side which -- quite frankly -- seems to have their number. However, this doesn't change our opinion that if one team can do it, it's the Oilers.
Along these lines, Knoblauch is still keeping the faith alive and made reference to the previous winning streaks when speaking to the media on Friday. He said: "I'm disappointed that we're in this situation, (but) it is what it is. We've got a lot to be optimistic about; we've gone on some quite astonishing rolls during the regular season. Obviously it's a little more difficult now with playing in the playoffs against Florida in the Stanley Cup Final, (but) we're also optimistic with the way we've played so far in this series. We've had a lot to be optimistic about."
Objectively speaking, these almost sound like the words of someone in denial, because the Oilers have clearly been the second-best team so far. The only possible exception was game one, which Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky effectively stole for the Panthers.
Knoblauch and his players keep the faith
However, it's often said that you need an almost naive and irrational belief in yourself, to achieve something great in your life. And that's where Knoblauch and the Oilers now find themselves, as they look to achieve something which would become the second-greatest miracle on ice.
The Oilers coach continued his theme about the team's ability to go on winning runs. He said: " ... there's a lot of optimism after the game, today in practice, in the dressing room talking to the guys. I believe the last time we lost three in a row, things went pretty well for us and we're hoping we can do that again."
Stuart Skinner similarly expressed the belief within the team, when speaking to the media following the game three loss. He said: "I think that we can be an amazing team and I know that we can find a way to beat these guys. ... I'm not too sure what the stats are coming back (from this deficit), but if anyone can do it, it's the Oil."
Skinner went on to explain his confidence comes from the way the Oilers came back from 4-1 down on Thursday night, to make a game of it. He said: "I think the way that we finished this game, too, also brings a strong belief in this group, the way that we battled back. If we play like that for 60 minutes, we'll give ourselves a really good chance to win games and I think that gives you a lot of belief. We've got nothing but hope in this room."
Overall, we appreciate that the words from Knoblauch and Skinner are just that - words. It's all very well talking the talking, now it's time to walk the walk; something which the Oilers are more than capable of doing, but now it's a case of going out there on the ice and actually proving it.