Shutting the Los Angeles Kings down in seven games, the Edmonton Oilers are off to the Elite 8 in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs

May 17, 2022 by Kirk Morris

The Edmonton Oilers finally slayed the dragon. Exorcised their demons. Done and extinguished. For the first time since 2017, they are off to the second round of the post-season.

It was another dominant performance starting Connor McDavid. The Oilers captain literally willed his team and way to a decisive win against the pesky Los Angeles Kings. 

And you have to give full credit where credit is due — the Kings were a true adversary, their young core mixed with veteran grit, combined with a fully functioning defensive structure provided by head coach Todd McLellan, proved to be truly challenging for the Oilers.

But in the end, after trailing 3-2 in the series, the orange and blue cinched down defensively themselves and trusted the process provided by Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. 

My five takeaways on the series as follows:

1. Mike Smith owned his gaffe after serving up a pizza right up main street in the third period during game one. It certainly wasn’t the end of the world with that play as well…just a lucky bounce off of Phillip Danult and in.  I know a lot of people were probably saying to themselves “here we go again…” but he played exceptionally well when called upon the rest of the way. Smith said it himself, “you learn from your mistakes and move on. Every game is a new one, just have to go out and prove to yourself that you can do it”. Even at 40 years young, his veteran presence has been well received by teammates and coaches. and it showed in spades…even his puck handling skill are still unbelievable. 
2. When the Oilers buttoned down the hatches defensively, especially on 5v5 play, they were very difficult to play against. For the first five games, they started out horribly slow, and then awoke after the first ten minutes. LA definitely game them fits too with odd man rushes and cherry picking due to once again, poor defensive reads in the neutral zone. moving forward from here on, they HAVE to be more defensively responsible, or they will get burned (no pun intended), especially against teams that run and gun. Smith can only bail them out so much in that area as well. 
3. Special teams were out of this world. The powerplay was running at 36.8% (2nd in playoffs so far) and the penalty kill was at 87.5% (4th in the playoffs so far as well). Also, the come back in game five was a testament to the lethal prowess of Draisaitl in his favourite “spot”. Furthermore, can we say thank god for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins? His play on both sides of the special teams are equally awesome! 
4. The team fought thru adversity when needed. The Nurse one game suspension, the Draisaitl injury, poor bottom six play and defence at times was horrendous. Once again, game six and seven was a testament to better awareness and defensive structure. The Oil knew what they had to do. Also, Leon Draisaitl is a beast to battle through what is being speculated as a high ankle sprain…those certainly not nice to deal with. Nothing but pain i would imagine for the big German. 
5. This is Connor McDavid’s team. He is the best player on the planet for a reason. only the second player in league history to have six multi point games in the same series. (the first was Henrik Sedin). When called upon-each and every time he had the puck, he was a thorn in the Kings side, no question about it. And on the other side of the coin-the defensive play of his has ramped up significantly as well, coverages and forechecking in helping out the defencemen has been well noticed. A credit to Woodcroft in that area as well.

Bring on the Battle of Alberta once again

As everyone knows now, the next big test for the Oil is against their biggest rivals, the Calgary Flames. It’s been 31 years since the clubs faced each other in the playoffs, and this series should prove to be an instant classic. Calgary and Edmonton finished one-and-two in the Pacific Division standings this season, and split two wins apiece in four meetings.

Most of the major media outlets have the Flames as favourites to win in six or seven games, due to no surprise.

They are a deep team, but not unbeatable, as the Dallas Stars had taken them to the brink of elimination into overtime in game seven. Johnny Gaudreau made a bank shot off of Stars’ netminder Jake Oettinger and score with 4:56 left in the first overtime period, to push them into the second round.

Jacob Markström, the Flames number one tender, will be tough to beat as well. He posted a record-high 0.943 save percentage in a series for Calgary.

I think it’s safe to say that everyone on the Oilers don’t mind being the underdog. Just another step in growing as Jay Woodcroft would probably mention. Bring on the Battle of Alberta!