Commentary: Edmonton Oilers rose from slump to Stanley Cup finalist – team improved tremendously in one thing | Sport

Edmonton returned to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 18 years, and deservedly so, writes Urheilu’s NHL reporter Tommi Seppälä.

When the Western Conference semifinal series between Dallas and Edmonton went down to the wire, Edmonton showed its greatness.

Dallas led the match series with wins 2–1 and the four-match series 2–0, when Edmonton, who went through a tough season, started to turn the series around. The Oilers came from a 0–2 deficit in the four-game series and finally won three games in a row. The Oilers scored 10 of the last 12 goals in the series. There was no room for explanations.

And the Oilers still weren’t that much ahead of Dallas, as the clean goal column showed. In the last three games, Dallas created Natural Stat Trick website including as many as 30 more goals than Edmonton and one from the best sector, but Edmonton scored the goals.

And in the end it wasn’t even a surprise.

The game is always at the center of everything, but it is not appropriate to forget about the purgatory that this particular Oilers has gone through. It started the season with a crushing loss in Vancouver and immediately lost at home to the same team. Edmonton went on an extraordinary hard hitting streak, which ultimately led to the coach by Jay Woodcroft for separation.

The group’s growth since then is an impressive story. The winning record of the current head coach By Kurt Knoblauch under is a crushing 58–24–5.

Edmonton already went through a rough patch in the fall, the likes of which Dallas didn’t really have to experience at any point during the season. Dallas’ longest losing streaks of the season were three and four games. The ride was smooth, but the group was never really tested.

In a tight spot, Edmonton was tougher, and certainly not least because of the intellectual capital they had accumulated.

Edmonton’s toughness was visible especially in tight matches. Here, the oil team, which profiles itself as more of a charm team, has made enormous progress.

Edmonton’s game has fluctuated during this spring as well, but now the team is playing goal games with better quality than ever before during this core group. Six of the twelve playoff wins have come by a one-goal margin.

It also says something about the team’s mental strength that it has been able to rush to the finals, even though it feels like it’s constantly burning around. Just a few days ago, there was a huge controversy in the media about the top defender of the expensive salary Darnell Nurse of difficulties in the rink.

The number one goalkeeper who played poorly earlier in the spring Stuart Skinner already came once by Calvin Pickard to be displaced. However, the goaltending crisis was canceled when Skinner returned to the net at the end of the Vancouver series, played solidly and won the series.

Edmonton really hasn’t been the happy family of dreams this season. There is plenty of chatter and bickering sometimes on the ice, sometimes in the media and sometimes between the press and the team in the press room.

The ability to operate in the midst of constant turbulence is a great indication of the team’s resources, but definitely also a question mark during the final series. Goalkeeper play, the depth of the team and the carrying capacity of the defensive equipment are question marks as long as there are enough games.

But there’s no need to think about that now. On Monday morning, the Edmonton Oilers have earned all the credit and praise for their march to the Western Conference title. The achievement certainly did not come easily.

Dallas froze

Falling out of the playoffs for Dallas was of course a huge disappointment. The team entered the playoffs as the biggest favorite in the Western Conference and knocked off the previous two champions, Vegas and Colorado, but that something was missing from Dallas from the start.

Dallas played hockey according to its identity, defended well and got to enjoy quality goaltending, but in terms of the puck game, the peak of fitness really didn’t hit in the spring. Dallas lived a lot on a few top players such as Miro Heiskanen and Wyatt Johnstonbut as a collective the machine did not start up at any point.

The big question mark is what happened in January Roope for Hintz? The striker from Tampere was like a shadow of himself throughout the spring and it could not be invisible in the game of star shirts.

There was a constant chain rally to find working combinations and this process was never finished at any point. When the Edmonton series was really decided, only Johnston managed to score twice and Esa Lindell and Mason Marchment once. Left in the pipe.

If the fate of Dallas taught anything, it was the eternal truth that success in the regular season does nothing in the playoffs. In the NHL’s unreasonable playoff game, the winner is the one who plays his best games in May-summer and not in December.

The final series starts in Florida early Sunday morning Finnish time.

Correction June 3, 2024 at 4:07 p.m.: Fixed that Mason Marchment succeeded in scoring and not Bryan Marchment.