Oilers Hold Off Ducks, Force Game 6
We all had a pretty similar idea of what the Edmonton Oilers needed heading into Game 5 of their first-round series against the Anaheim Ducks.
Video Transcript
Jim, in your opinion, what is the biggest reason that the Oilers haven't been able to slow Anaheim down?
Well, in the first three games, it was definitely special teams.
It was the penalty kill, and that's remained an issue.
the Oilers have not been good, down a man.
Part of that is because they lost Adam Henrique, which is a big penalty killer for them.
Jason Dickinson was there and a question mark, and he's not, he's been back, but he's not healthy.
He's a game-time decision tonight.
you've got players like McDavid who are injured, and he's a game-time decision tonight.
He was not on the ice this morning for pregame skate.
Leon Draisaitl's still dealing with something.
Zach Hyman's still dealing with something.
Like, there's a lot going on in Edmonton, right?
I'm not suggesting those are excuses because the Oilers have played really lousy hockey.
Like, that's just not, they've not been very good.
and you cannot come into a series like this.
We all sort of assumed that this was gonna be kind of a given, like this was gonna be a team, an inexperienced Anaheim, who could score a lot, but had a terrible penalty kill, was brutal defensively, and they've proven that they've figured out a way to shut down and clog McDavid, who, while hurt and dealing with something, has not been an impact player at all.
so Anaheim has figured this out.
They're looking really strong.
the Oilers do not look like the team, that could potentially get out of this series, and now they're down 3-1.
So there's a lot going on here.
There's injuries, there's penalty kill issues, there's five-on-five play where they've scored a lot, but they've also not, you know, limited the chances against.
And tonight, it sounds like all the defensive pairings are being switched up.
So this is kind of a last-ditch effort here, I think, by head coach Kris Knoblauch to try to figure out how to stay in this series.
And if you're coming into the game, maybe no McDavid, maybe no Dickinson, no Henrique, no Max, like these guys are all dealing with something.
And now Ingram's coming back in to start again after Jari came in and played okay, but had that weird overtime goal, right?
So there's a lot going up against the Oilers right now, so they're, they're scrambling to stay alive here.
And this has been a very unexpected series and a very unexpected way of the Oilers playing, especially given how they came into it.
The last 10 to 15 games of the season, they were much better.
They'd sort of flipped the switch.
and they, maybe they took Anaheim too lightly, I don't know.
Or maybe they came in and they were dealing with issues that we didn't realize were as bad as they are, seem to be now.
but yeah, I think the Oilers are in trouble here, and I think there's been a lot going wrong.
The penalty kill started all of it, still an issue, but just defensively, they've not been very good.
