ANAHEIM — For 57 minutes, this was one of those games that make a hockey team. A game they’re talking about at the reunion 20 years from now.
Down to four defencemen at times, with winger Benoit Pouliot taking shifts on the back end, Edmonton had a 3-0 lead with 3:30 to play on the road.
And then, everything changed.
By the time Corey Perry scored at 6:57 of the second overtime period to complete a playoff comeback, the likes of which have never been accomplished before in the National Hockey League, the Oilers weren’t even talking about their collapse. They were talking once again about a goaltender interference call that wasn’t made on the ice, then upheld by the NHL’s Situation Room in Toronto.
“I don’t even know what goalie interference is anymore, to be perfectly honest,” said winger Milan Lucic. “Last game, it goes in blocker side and they bump his blocker. Tonight, they wrap their arm around our goalie’s leg and he can’t get up, and it’s still a goal.
“If someone knows, call me and tell me. Because it’s a shame that we are where we are right now with a call like that.”
The Oilers are the first team in NHL history to cough up a three-goal lead with less then four minutes to play in a playoff game, and lose. But the biggest choke in playoff history was enabled by, frankly, an unfathomable call, when Ryan Kesler held Talbot’s pad with his arm, and Talbot couldn’t close the wickets in time to stop Rickard Rakell’s shot from sliding through the five-hole with 15 seconds left in the third period.
It’s the kind of goal that counted in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but that video review was supposed to clean up. The league ruled that Kesler was pushed into the crease by defenceman Darnell Nurse, so we are left to assume that, once pushed in, a player can do whatever he wants to the goalie.
“Interference?” asked Oilers head coach Todd McLellan. “You’re asking the wrong guy. I don’t know what interference is any more.
“Obviously Kesler was pushed in, there’s no doubt about that. But we have a strong belief that he had wrapped his arm around Talbot’s leg. I don’t know what interference is anymore so you’ll have to ask someone else.”
The goal came with 15 seconds left in the third period. An absolute crusher for Edmonton.
“I couldn’t really bring (his leg) back underneath me,” Talbot said. “There’s no way I could do that. I watched the replay and he has a chance to get up and it almost looks like he digs in over my pad and makes it look like he’s just holding on.”
The Oilers lost this one all by themselves, spitting the bit on a 3-0 lead to the point where a decision made in Toronto could impact the game. But the NHL’s replay justice system took another hit Friday, and we’re heading right back to Brett Hull’s toe in the crease in ’99, with the 2017 Stanley Cup in serious danger of being decided on one of these inexplicable plays.
Hidden beneath the furor, however, was the fact Edmonton walked into the Honda Center and should have beaten these Ducks. The Oilers now trail the series 3-2, but after his first two-point night of these playoffs, Edmonton captain Connor McDavid basically guaranteed a Game 6 win at home.
“There’s not much that can really be said right now. It sucks,” he said post-game. “But we’ll be back here Wednesday.”
Adam Larsson played 44:58 on Edmonton’s blue-line, and Andrej Sekera was lost early in the game after a hit from Ryan Getzlaf. Defencemen Kris Russell, Oscar Klefbom and Matt Benning each left the game injured, but returned to slog through, with the team down to five rearguards.
Now, it’s home to Edmonton for a 5 p.m. game Sunday. One that their captain has already guaranteed.
If the Oilers win Game 6, Game 7 goes back here at the Honda Center on Wednesday.
Playoff hockey, eh? We’d forgotten how much fun this can be.
