Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers had one thing in mind coming into Game Three of their second round series with the Calgary Flames: to dictate terms on home-ice.

Part of that is on the coach but at some point, your best players have to elevate and while no one is expecting them to reach the level McDavid is at, the status quo isn’t good enough. The gap between these two teams has only widened over the last five periods of hockey and it is now up to Darryl Sutter to find a response. Jay Woodcroft’s side is in an enviable spot but as we have seen in this series, momentum can turn on a dime and the Oilers can’t allow for that to happen.

11 days later, Edmonton is down to 9-to-1 to win it all at FanDuel Sportsbook. The Oilers beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 in Game 3 last night to take ...

11 days later, Edmonton is down to 9-to-1 to win it all at FanDuel Sportsbook. Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Monday, May 23rd, 2022. As somebody who bet the Flames to win the series and the Flames -1.5 in the series, I’m not banking on Calgary winning three in a row to cover the latter number. If that doesn’t change in Game 4 on Tuesday night, the Flames will go from a heavy series favourite to the brink of elimination in a span of just four days. NHL teams that take a 2-1 lead in a best-of-seven have gone on to win the series 69.5 per cent of the time. The Edmonton Oilers were 28-to-1 to win the Stanley Cup on May 12th. The Edmonton Oilers were 28-to-1 to win the Stanley Cup on May 12th.

Or should we talk about Evander Kane's natural hat trick in the second, the seventh-fastest in playoff history? Or how about Leon Draisaitl, who on one leg, set ...

- One of whom was Ryan McLeod, who played a post-season high of 16:37. He played 3:15 on the PK last night, with 2:02 coming in the third. Adjusting for score and venue at 5×5 last night in their 5:34 TOI, they controlled 68.19 percent of the shot attempts, 66.99 percent of the scoring chances, but just 43.51 percent of the expected goal share. The fact that it happened three times in one period is pretty inexcusable, though. Winning the puck battles, being hard on the forecheck, breaking up the cycle in the defensive zone — all the little things that all of a sudden create havoc going the other way. Still, his presence on the ice has the Flames in shambles. The Oilers game out with jump early on in that first period putting the pressure on Calgary early and they stuck with it right to the final whistle. After going up 2-1 on the LA Kings in the first round, Edmonton, then on the road, took the SoCal kids way too soft. He didn’t, but it’s clear the coaching staff gave some of that special team’s trust to other players. Kane, meanwhile, scored three goals in three ways: one by waiting out Jacob Markstrom, another by driving to the far side and banging in a McDavid pass, or his third where he made a quick move to score his backhand top-shelf. Smith, meanwhile, got bulldozed over in a brain-dead move by Milan Lucic with 11 minutes left in the game, only to come back to help secure the Oilers a potentially series-changing win. His snipe gave him his fourth goal in the series along. Calgary’s only big push, or pushes, for that matter, came in the third frame when the game was already well out of reach.

Flames 1, Oilers 4 Edmonton Oilers did a lot of things right straight out of the gate on Sunday night, dominating possession and the shot clock to the tune…

All 3 times he materialized on the edge of the blue paint at just the right moment to receive a fine pass and lift a shot over Markstrom. On 2 of them he made a fine move to his backhand before the finish; the third was a one-timer. Made up for that when he stepped up to stop a Calgary odd-man rush with a good stick check high in the defensive zone. Did have one bad line change that led to a Flames jailbreak, and lost a battle on the lone Flames goal. Turned it up a notch in the third when he stood on his head, at one point stopping 6 Grade A shots in under a minute. Set up all 4 Oilers goals, starting the transition from deep in his own territory on 3 of them and on the other made a superb move around Erik Gudbranson and backhand feed to Kane for the finish. Had a couple of chances in short order in the opening period, first slicing in on the left side to test Markstrom from close range, then off the subsequent faceoff firing a shot through traffic that handcuffed the Flames tender and hit the goal post. Led the defence corps with 21:39. On the ice for the first 3 Oilers goals so wound up with a shiny +3 even as he had little involvement in those rushes. Led the forwards in various categories including shot attempts (9), shots on goal (7, of which 6 were deemed Grade A shots), takeaways (2) and shot blocks (2). Opened the scoring in the first minute of the second, converting Draisaitl’s feed with a perfect shot off the far post that beat an over committed Markstrom. Made a superb goal line save to prevent a sure goal in the early third period chaos. First in the scrum after Lucic decked Smith. On the receiving end of a marginal leg-on-leg hit from Mangiapane late. Was drilled in the hand by a shot in the third that sent him to the room for a few nervous moments, but he returned to play 5 shifts down the stretch. Also chipped in 2:47 on the PK. 1 shot, 2 hits, 2 giveaways, 3 blocks. On the night the Oilers outshot the Flames 41-33 including an 18-16 margin in Grade A shots, while Calgary held a 9-7 edge in 5-alarm chances ( running count), with all three measures moderated by score effects.