Oilers Can Win Stanley Cup If Their Top Players Get Back On Track – Hockey Writers –
The Edmonton Oilers kept their championship hopes alive with an 8-1 victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals at Rogers Place on Saturday (June 15). Florida now leads the best-of-seven series 3-1 with Game 5 scheduled for Tuesday (June 18) at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.
Facing elimination, Edmonton launched an offensive game for the ages, tying the fourth-most goals scored by a team in a Stanley Cup final.
Related: Oilers’ 4 Most Incredible Records Set in Game 4 Win vs. Panthers
But the most remarkable thing about the Oilers’ victory on Saturday was not that they scored eight goals. It was that they got seven goals from players named Evan Bouchard, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane or Connor McDavid. Dylan Holloway scored two goals, and Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse, and Ryan McLeod scored one goal for the Oilers in Game 4. McDavid once again came up big.
Supporting actors Save the Day for the Anointed
For years, the biggest criticism of the Oilers was that they lacked depth. Although they were blessed with the legendary duo of Draisaitl and McDavid, they did not have the supporting cast necessary to run a deep season. That, many feel, is what has stopped them from challenging the competition.
But times have changed, because the only reason the Oilers still have a chance to lift the Stanley Cup in 2024 is the supporting cast. Of the seven Oilers who lit the lamp Saturday, only McDavid is among the team’s top five scorers in the 2023-24 regular season. Holloway and Janmark ranked 13thth and 17th on the team in goals in the regular season.
Most of Edmonton’s top players are MIA
Hyman led the Oilers and ranked third in the NHL in 2023-24 with 54 goals. Draisaitl was second on the team with 41 goals, his fifth straight season outside of the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 40-goal campaign. Kane scored 24 times. Bouchard had 18 goals, fifth most among NHL defensemen in the regular season. But none of these players have scored in the first four games of the final tournament.
Kane hasn’t played since Game 2, sidelined by a sports hernia. The 6-foot-2 forward could be ready for Game 5. His teammates, however, don’t have injuries as an excuse for their lack of production.
Hyman’s last goal was the one that punched Edmonton’s ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals, in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars on June 2. The defenseman has now gone four playoff games without a goal, matching his streak. longest slump of the entire 2023-24 season.
Bouchard scored four times in the Oilers’ second-round series against the Vancouver Canucks, but has only one goal in 10 games since. Meanwhile, Draisaitl, who scored eight goals in the first nine games of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, has just two goals in his past 13 games and is currently on a six-game scoreless streak.
Even McDavid, while he played spectacularly in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, setting the NHL’s single postseason record for assists (32), hasn’t really burned the net: Edmonton’s captain has just six goals in 22 games. so far this spring, below his career high per game.
The Oilers will be tough to beat if the Stars deliver
Imagine now that the stars falling in Edmonton are out scoring. Let’s say Drasiaitl starts producing like a guy with three 50-goal seasons in his resume, and Hyman goes back to scoring twice every three games like he did during the regular season, and Bouchard or Kane chip in, too.
Take that output and combine it with a goal per game from Edmonton’s supporting cast, and suddenly the Oilers are very difficult to beat. Suddenly they are able to win their next three games and capture the Stanley Cup.
Holloway, Janmark, and McLeod got the Oilers to Florida in Game 5. Let’s see if Bouchard, Draisaitl and Hyman can get them back in Edmonton in Game 6, which will be held on Friday (June 21) at -Rogers Place.
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