Las Vegas – Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, sleeping for a large part of Match 2, jumped with the help at stake.
Draisaitl scored its second goal in overtime in the playoffs after finishing a McDavid pass to win a sixth consecutive victory for Edmonton’s Oilers, this time 5-4 on the Vegas Golden Knights.
This came after the two players were useless throughout the regulation on Thursday and could not capitalize when the oilers had a power game of five minutes in addition to time.
“Not our best, not my best, but we found a way,” said McDavid. “This is what we are paid, paid to score goals in great moments.”
The goals in overtime are almost always distinguished above all, so Draisaitl and McDavid connecting to such a count which gave the Oilers a 2-0 series advance at home has its place in the franchise tradition.
The reality, however, is that this game was not won because of them, which was the norm in the last outings. The oilers won due to the efforts of goalkeeper Calvin Pickard outside.
“This shows the depth of our team,” said defender Jake Walman. “Everyone can contribute to any time, then you saw at the end that our big dogs took over.”
Large dogs took over at the end after looking at a sort of night. It is not necessarily a bad thing. It could be the best characteristic of these recently.
“Everyone has been talking, since I was here, the team has been based strongly on Connor and Leon,” winger Zach Hyman said, who is in his fourth season in Edmonton. “These are special players and they will win matches. But if you want to win a Stanley Cup, you need everyone. You need everyone to contribute.
“It’s a very good thing for a team this kind of depth, and this depth being able to provide.”
It becomes clearer by the game that the oilers are no longer only the Draisaitl and McDavid spectacle.
McDavid raised four points again in the three previous games, and Draisaitl won three. But Draisaitl’s linked goal in the third period of match 1 Tuesday, which McDavid helped, was undoubtedly the only piece of impactful attack they produced during this period.
This remained the case on Thursday until Corey Perry found McDavid on the defensive blue line in Stride, and McDavid took over from there.
With a steam head, McDavid returned the classmate of the 2015 draft Jack Eichel insane, then set up Draisaitl for a net open on a two against one. Game at 3:20 p.m. from the first additional period.
“It’s 4-4, and I think:” Their best guys are not on the match sheet. We need this one to go in our sense “” said the coach of the Golden Knights, Bruce Cassidy. “They don’t need a lot, right?”
“They got us at the end.”
Draisaitl and McDavid managed to go through the clutch when they did not have their best things.
“When you have elite talents, these giberings, they just need a moment or an opportunity to play this game,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. “It’s not too often, they are silent for an entire match and do not appear on the match sheet. When we needed it most, they did a game game there. ”
“We didn’t have a lot,” said Draisaitl. “Obviously, a few big games and then it’s just everyone (from McDavid). It is difficult to celebrate even my role of goal.”
Instead, it is worth celebrating the work of so many others. They deserve more praise for this victory.
Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson experienced two points as part of a fourth line with Mattias Janmark who made a difference. Podkolzin’s goal assured that the 12 regular attackers had scored in the playoffs. The Oilers played eight games.
Walman scored his first goal in career playoffs.
Evander Kane had his third marker of the playoffs as part of a group with Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who found a certain chemistry.
Calvin Pickard has decisively surpassed his counterpart, Adin Hill, winner of the Stanley Cup and a member of the 4 nations in Canada. Pickard made 28 stops, several of which were exceptional, which led Knoblauch to feel that he “stole” the victory for the Oilers.
McDavid and Draisaitl connected to end the game, but the adulation belongs elsewhere.
“It brings everyone up and down,” said McDavid. “We get help everywhere.”
Nor is it a single-off.
During the last four games, players like Janmark, Connor Brown and John Klingberg also stole some of the projectors of the Oilers Superstars.
“That’s it. That’s really all,” said Draisaitl. “Our depth was, for the most part, which brought us through these qualifying series, and that is why we are at this place at the moment.
“You need it during this time of year.”
This is the best version of the oilers from top to bottom which exists from n ° 97 and 29 put on more than ten years ago. With each member of the team available for less action the versatile defender Mattias Ekholm, this team seems to be a well -oiled machine.
They upset the opponents of 14-8 to five out of five without McDavid and Draisaitl on the ice throughout the playoffs.
“Everyone wants to play their best every night, but the reality is that it does not happen,” said Hyman. “Having different guys, I am able to intensify every night gives you much more chance of winning, different ways of winning. You don’t have to count on Connor and Leon. We are the most well balanced.”
All this does not suggest that McDavid and Draisaitl did not do their part. It would be impossible to assert that the fact that McDavid has 14 points, a Dallas striker features Mikko Rantanen for the head of the playoffs, and Draisaitl is right behind with 13.
The winning goal represented another moment of signature for the dynamic duo. Add this to the first goal in Draisaitl career extension in match 4 against the Kings and McDavid’s brilliance in a failed return attempt in the opening of this series.
“They are second and third in the score. To say that they are just OK is a fairly high bar that you have established for these two,” said Knoblauch. “From what they have done in the past, they play quite well.”
These cases of Draisaitl and McDavid were not as abundant as usual, however, and their pure domination. This should be the most attractive part for the Oilers.
McDavid and Draisaitl are the third and fifth prolific markers in the history of the playoffs. They took over the games and even the series by themselves. McDavid won the Conn Smythe Trophy last year.
It seems that the inevitable, they control games in a way that becomes commonplace during this time of year, has not yet occurred.
And when this is the case, the Oilers, already prove to be a worthy competitor of the Stanley Cup with each passing game, has the potential to turn into an unstoppable force.
(Photo of Ethan Miller / Getty images)
