EDMONTON — In a series that has not been long on nervous, one-goal hockey games, we have at least reached the short strokes of dirty, frustrated playoff hockey.
At least we’re getting somewhere.
It doesn’t always take this long for the playoff pot to boil over, but as a 4-1 Edmonton Oilers Game 4 victory wound down, veteran Vegas defenceman Alex Pietrangelo became the first to crack. Inexplicably, he lifted his stick well over his head and levelled a slash that narrowly missed the chin of Leon Draisaitl and settled in on his forearm.
You know how they say that each bodycheck is like an investment to be cashed in later in a series?
Well, this was a play borne from the frustration of four nights of being splattered against the end boards by Oilers forecheckers, an over-the-top slash that will — by the time you read this column — have been perused over and over again by the good folks at the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.
“I would like to see (a suspension),” said Connor McDavid, who came to Draisaitl’s defence and almost ended up in a fight with Pietrangelo, a Team Canada defenceman who simply lost his cool for a sequence. “I mean, it's as intent-to-injure as you can get. Time, score, clock, all play a factor.
“He comes from over his own head and places it kind of under Leon's chin. You'd like to see something like that suspended. It's not a hockey play."
Moments later, in a series that had finally been brought to a boil, Darnell Nurse engaged Nicolas Hague in a scrap the two have been marinating on for the better part of a week. Nurse was handed an instigator, and when levied in the last five minutes of a game an instigator penalty can bring a one-game suspension.
The instigator can also be rescinded after review, however, which in our objective opinion is likely. Nurse clearly started the fight, but he engaged a willing and welcoming Hague, and it was the Vegas defenceman who threw the first eight punches in what was a highly entertaining heavyweight scrap.
“I saw Darnell wrap somebody up and two guys bear hugging each other,” said Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. “I saw their player with his gloves off first, I saw their player throw eight punches and to me that’s two willing combatants. It’s not like somebody was turtling up in a ball.”
The instigator penalty was not devised for even fights between willing participants of equal size and fighting ability. But perhaps an officiating arm of a league that may not be able to avoid giving Pietrangelo a one-game suspension will perform its classic “evening up” act by banning Nurse from Game 5 as well.
That sound you hear is the Wheel of Justice spinning inside the Department of Player Safety headquarters. Where it stops, nobody ever really knows.
As for the hockey that preceded the late-game shenanigans, Game 4 was all Edmonton, all the time.
Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy, speaking after the morning skate, dug into why we’ve had a series with consecutive 5-1 games — hours before we would witness another blow out in Game 4.
Is it possible for these two teams to play their best games on the same night, Cassidy was asked?
“Probably not, right?” Cassidy figured. “They're the most dynamic offensive team, and we want to take that away from them. So if we're taking it away from them they're probably leaving the rink saying, ‘Well, we didn't get to our game tonight.’
“I don't know if we've seen a game yet where both teams are truly at their best.”
As of this morning, in a series that seems destined for a seventh game, we still have not.
The Oilers had their way with Vegas in evening this series, scoring three of their four goals at even strength.
“We have to follow it up,” McDavid declared after the game. “Someone has to do it two nights in a row. It’s got to be us. We have to put two together here.”
Two nights after Jonathan Marchessault finally found the playoff twine, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins zipped home a wrist shot for Edmonton, a deft snapper from the slot for his first of this post-season.
On the back end, Mattias Ekholm scored a beauty goal, and Nurse led the way with a defensive game for the ages. Nurse is a big part of things here in Edmonton, and grabbed his team by the name bars in Game 4, absolutely taking back the Golden Knights' previous edge in five-on-five play.
“I thought he was really, really good,” Woodcroft said. “In terms of a leader, this guy does it right on a daily basis. His care level is off the charts. He's a positive influence on the next generation of Oilers just by the way he conducts himself on a day in, day out basis.
“Then, to acquit himself nicely in that in that fair fight, I thought he did a good job.”
And so we reconvene in Vegas for Game 5, the two top regular-season teams in the Western Conference slugging it out like Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran in the parking lot at Caesar’s Palace.
There could be a couple less participants in Game 5, or maybe we'll all look the other way and say, “Play on!”
Either way, it’s a best-of-three now, appointment viewing through the weekend.
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