Edmonton missed an important spot and that immediately puts the team in a difficult situation, writes Tommi Seppälä, Urheilu’s NHL reporter.
Tommi SeppäläNHL reporter
Florida, United States.
The opening part of the Stanley Cup final series saw a special struggle. It hardly surprised anyone that Florida, who entered the series as the favorite, won the first game, but the way the victory came might surprise.
It would be fair to say that Florida was not at its best on Sunrise Saturday night. It was, so to speak, the party taking over a large part of the match, at least when it came to controlling the game equipment or creating goalscoring opportunities.
Edmonton had two runs in the opening set alone, one more in the second set. As a result, zero goals were scored. The Oilers won the shots in the first period 13–4 and the second 13–8. After two sets, the dangerous goal posts were recorded on the Natural Stat Trick website with a crushing 15–4 for the visitors.
The Oilers were allowed to try through drives, from close range, loose pucks, here and there, but the mail didn’t get there.
The biggest credit for the home team’s victory goes to the Russian goalkeeper To Sergei Bobrovsky, who played arguably his best game of the playoffs in the opening final. From the first change, Bobrovski started a goalkeeping clinic, which included numerous winning saves in many different ways.
Twice in his career, Bobrovski, who was chosen as the best goalkeeper in the series, gave a fantastic example of his athleticism in the match, which he has always been able to develop as his career progresses.
There is still another side to this coin.
Connor McDavid didn’t make it
Edmonton’s finishing lacked the best edge in the opener. For example Adam Henrique mixed Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tried to surprise the Russian in the bottom corner during the opening set, but to no avail. Bobrovski caught both, if you could even say an easy save.
The puck should be lifted to the top shelf. Superstars Connor McDavid mixed Leon Draisaitl they also got to try from the top places, but with meager results. And McDavid didn’t succeed anyway.
Carter Verhaeghen hit Florida’s opening goal at the four-minute mark went entirely to the Oilers captain’s account. Two of Edmonton’s forwards were already in the thick of it when the Canadian star decided to attack the puck. Florida released the pressure with a couple of quick passes and was able to build a 3-2 superiority attack. A tired McDavid could not pedal Alexander Barkov close and soon the puck was in Edmonton’s net.
McDavid’s reckless running in the first exchanges of the first final was a stupid mistake, the kind of which should not be seen from him again. The captain should recognize the situations better or at least remove everything possible from the plane in the back hair. Now the back stood up and skating changed to sliding.
You practically never see this kind of hawking from Barkov. A single wrong choice once again had a huge impact.
Huge second match
The Oilers did a lot of the right things on Saturday, but it’s clear that this loss alone puts the team under a lot of pressure. After one loss, Edmonton is practically forced to win Monday night at Sunrise. If they have to return to Edmonton with a 0-2 deficit, the task against top-quality Florida becomes almost impossible.
Nobody beats this Florida Four times in five games. The Oilers must wrest a tie from the trip to South Florida at any cost.
Of course, it must be said that Florida was by no means at its best. In many places, the team played hockey according to their identity, but in the end, they couldn’t get the machines to start properly at any point.
After the second goal, the pack of cats started to play risk-free line protection hockey, which partly shaped the setup. It defended the clock to zero well, but it is certain that the group wants to play better on Monday.
From Florida’s point of view, Edmonton was allowed to rush the puck too much on Saturday, and too much specifically in the best scoring sector. If this trend continues in the second part of the final match series, at some point the faucet of the visiting team will open and after that the ride can be tricky.
Fortunately for Florida, Bobrovski played with the lights out from the arena on Saturday.
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