The Edmonton Oilers are battle-tested now – proven, experienced, stronger and more confident than they’ve been all season after their first round series with the San Jose Sharks.
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McDavid scored his only even-strength point of the series with an empty-netter in the final second of Edmonton’s 3-1 series-clinching victory in Game 6 on Saturday night. Martin Jones took the loss.
The Sharks would continue to grind throughout the remaining 18 minutes of the second period and continue the pursuit of even a single goal during the third.
The Oilers were 22-14-5 on the road this year (seventh) but the Ducks won 29 of 41 at home at the Honda Center, good for third in the National Hockey League. The Oilers frantically tried to hold on after building the 2-0 lead and had to survive a tense power play after a penalty for too many men on the ice that included Joe Pavelski hitting both the cross bar and post on a shot that almost tied the game.
“I’ve never seen a guy play with a torn MCL and ACL”, DeBoer said Monday at the team’s end-of-season meeting the the media. Both of them were solid and skated effectively, and took their time with the puck to ensure two goals for Edmonton. I felt like I had been transported into a foreign land where the fans from both teams commingled and enjoyed the game. Despite outplaying the Blues for the majority of the series, the Wild couldn’t solve Jake Allen, and couldn’t get enough from Devan Dubnyk when they needed it the most.
“It’s a series … we lose and you don’t know how you lost at times”. “A turnover on my part, double-clutch, it gives them the lead”.
“This is as tough a matchup as you’re going to find”, Cogliano said. We knew they were going to bring pressure. In six games, they toppled the San Jose Sharks.
There were other, much-less publicized injuries, too.
In a sport known for the toughness and durability of its athletes, Thornton stands out in my mind as tougher than most and that says a lot.
“And in the last game, we got up early and protected down the stretch, so we kind of showed that we can play any type of game in that series and that benefits us moving forward”. A play by them.
The Sharks were unable to convert on their one power play chance of the first 40 minutes, as Drake Caggiula was sent off for slashing Jannik Hansen at the 16:47 mark of the second period. Puck-moving power play stalwart Sami Vatanen missed three games in the series with an upper-body injury.
McDavid did not score a goal in his first six career games against the Ducks, but he scored in each of the past two matchups.
The Sharks did a lot of the things they set out to do before the start of the series.
Blues head coach Mike Yeo sat down and spoke with Saturday’s hero the day before the game.
Cam Talbot was better than his counterpart Martin Jones if you throw out that 7-0 crumble in Game 4 when the Oilers goalie and everybody in front of him had one of those inexplicable stinkers.
Thornton’s production fell a bit this season. A few second later, Hansen fed Joel Ward near the slot, but Ward’s shot hit the post.
Marleau did beat Talbot in the third period after taking a cross-crease feed from Couture to make it 2-1.
There of course remains the possibility that the money, either for the Sharks, Thornton or Marleau, simply doesn’t work out.
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After dominating the overtime in their Game 5 win, the Oilers picked right up from there and controlled the play in the opening period of Game 6.
