LAS VEGAS — Play better. Play smarter.
It’s as simple as that.
On a night when the Oilers didn’t score a five-on-five goal, when Leon Draisaitl’s line got very little done, where Stuart Skinner was pulled — again, where the Oilers took seven minor penalties, the solutions aren’t hard to pinpoint with a must-win Game 6 set for Mother’s Day in Edmonton.
Even the opposition could sense that the Oilers weren’t going to be the better team in Game 5.
“They didn’t have the same jump they had in Game 4 … and I think our players sensed it,” Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game. “They just didn't have the same drive and intensity they had up there. The physicality that they showed in Game 4 wasn't quite as evident.
“That's how our feeling was on the bench, that we can grab hold of this because they weren't dominating or pushing us out of the game.”
Here’s what felled the Oilers in a 4-3 loss on Friday where they scored first, led 2-1 after 20 minutes, and then folded up like a cheap tent with three Vegas goals in an 89-second span.
An iffy call on young Philip Broberg was amplified when the veteran Mattias Janmark took a high-sticking penalty that an old pro like him should never take. The Oilers had killed three penalties to that point, but Vegas scored twice on what began as 1:16 of five-on-three time gifted by Janmark’s inattention to detail.
“Obviously, it's a three-on-five that crushes us,” said Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm, who logged 26:51 of ice time with Darnell Nurse serving his one-game suspension. “Give them credit. They made a good play. But those are the ones that kill you.”
“That's playoffs. It’s momentum,” said Oilers winger Zach Hyman. “We go from having a fantastic start to trying to kill almost two minutes of five-on-three.
“That's the way playoffs go,” he opined. “It's hard, and you’ve got to be able to manage those times in the game when you get scored against. Obviously, those (two) minutes tonight did us in.”
The Golden Knights' fourth goal was a long-range wobbler from the point on which Skinner was perfectly screened by defenceman Evan Bouchard. Skinner never moved as the puck sailed over his glove, and raised his hands in frustration as the crowd at T-Mobile Arena raised the roof.
That was the cue for Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft to get the hook out for the second time in three games. Jack Campbell finished this one, and should be a candidate to start Game 6.
My impression on the young Calder candidate Skinner?
If you’re going to ride through the playoffs on a goalie who has never been here before, you had better expect a guy who struggles with momentum swings in a building like this one, in moments like these. He’s learning as he goes, as his .890 playoff save percentage would attest.
When the Oilers have been good in these playoffs, Skinner has been good also.
But he hasn’t stolen anything along the way, and Game 5 was an example of a night when his team could have used just a few more acrobatics when they weren’t at their best.
“He gave us a chance to win a lot of nights,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who was marvellous on a two-goal night. “He's in a tough situation here tonight, and we know we’ve got a capable guy in Soup (Campbell). I think that's the reason for the switch. It wasn’t much on Stu.”
The Oilers power play is so lethal, but even so, it can’t absolve a team from winning the even-strength battle. In games where they’ve been as good as their opponent at evens, they win almost every time — augmented by the best power play in the history of the sport.
But even that unit couldn’t pull this one from the fire, despite scoring all three goals.
“That's the name of the game for us right now,” Ekholm admitted. “When we're going five-on-five, that's when we win games. I don't think it was won or lost in the penalty box. I mean, we scored three on the power play. But we’ve got to be better five-on-five.”
And so we go north for the first elimination game of this series between the two top clubs in the West.
After the first close game of this series, the losing team still walked out to their bus feeling like they hadn’t brought everything they had to the game.
They’ll try again on a Sunday night in May, and the Edmonton Oilers had better find it.
Because we’ve reached the point of no return.
It’s do or die.
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