Can the Oilers make history?
Back from the brink, Edmonton has forced a Game 7 showdown.
Momentum can be a fickle thing.
Just over a week ago, it seemed the Florida Panthers had made whatever remained of the Stanley Cup Final all but a write-off.
Up 3-0 on the Edmonton Oilers and looking to make-up on their Finals loss last season by winning the first championship in franchise history.
Sergei Bobrovsky had seemingly secured the Conn Smythe and collectively, the Panthers had successfully stymied the two-headed Oilers monster of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, while locking up Edmonton elsewhere.
Instead, Edmonton, in nullifying a potential sweep in Game 4 ran both Bobrovsky and Florida clean off the ice with a dominating 8-1 win.
Enough so, that you couldn’t help but notice a difference.
It didn’t feel like an overmatched or burnt out team giving it their all, just to stave off the inevitable, as can often be the case in those situations but rather, a notable shift in the status quo.
And it was.
With their 5-1 win on Friday? Edmonton have tied the series at 3.
Through Games 4-6, they have outscored Florida 18-5 and have taken complete control of the series as it heads back to Sunrise for the deciding Game 7 on Monday night.
The Oilers: looking to become just the second team, following the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, to erase a 3-0 deficit on their way to a title, which would be their first since 1990 (and the first time a Canadian team won the Cup since 1993).
And Florida?
Sure, the Cup remains within in their grasp but no doubt they’re having a hard time shaking that rapidly encroaching feeling - if the Oilers complete their miracle run? The Panthers would find themselves on the receiving end of one of the most prominent collapses in modern sports.
So the adage goes, there is no predicting a Game 7 and on a base level, that should be true come Monday.
There are no rules in either knife fights, wrestling matches with the dog or winner-take-all affairs.
Florida have established themselves as one of the best teams in hockey over the past two seasons and absolving themselves of the “what could have beens” which have defined their previous outings could allow them to come in both sharper and better prepared, while back on home-ice.
But on-paper optimism alone won’t be enough.
Their execution and resulting adjustments have been decidedly lacking over the past three games, as they look unfocused and at times exhausted when compared to a decidedly more pressing Oilers team.
Maybe it is Zach Hyman, whose sixteen goals lead the playoffs or Evan Bouchard, who now has the all-time record for assists by a blue liner in a playoff season with 26 (and counting). Maybe it is goaltender Stuart Skinner, who has stopped 81 of 86 shots through Games 4-6, redeeming his oft-shaky play earlier in the series.
Maybe it is (who else?) Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who has been up to his usual, history-making play.
He is the first player to have have back-to-back four point games in the Stanley Cup Final and his 42 points (as of this writing) are the fourth most ever in a single playoff - only Wayne Gretzky (1985: 47, 1988: 43) and Mario Lemieux (1991: 44) have more.
Even for a player who has made the incredible his M.O his whole career?
This recent stretch has felt particularly unbelievable as he actively rewrites the record book, while approaching two of hockey’s “Mount Rushmore” titans on his quest for championship glory.
But history making or not, anything can happen on Monday night.
Game 7.
The two best words in sports.
Florida or Edmonton - and only one will come out on top.
The Oilers put this old boy over the top and on the Rockwood trophy
Go Oilers !!