Oilers need an elusive ‘full effort’ to avoid another Stanley Cup defeat ...Middle East

EDMONTON — At this level, no matter the sport, it becomes about making plays. Everyone on the ice is a good player, so beat a man, make a high-level pass, win a battle for a loose puck and do something special with it.

Goals are a product of these things, not the cause.

On a night where the Florida Panthers put a 60-minute sleeper hold on the Edmonton Oilers, the visitors simply made plays at an alarmingly higher rate than the listless home side, winning 5-2 to set themselves up to become back-to-back Stanley Cup champions Tuesday night in Sunrise.

Did the Oilers play with enough urgency?

“Against some teams, maybe. But not against this team that we’re playing,” said defenceman Jake Walman. “It’s got to be a full effort, and for spurts we had that. We had our chances, but it’s got to be a full effort.”

Outscored 11-4 in the first period of this series, and 8-0 in Games 3-5, Florida jumped to a 2-0 first-period lead by dominating the final 16 minutes of the frame. They would never let go on this night, as Florida showed why they are a champion while Edmonton only hopes to be.

“On two of the goals against, we won the draws and they go down and score immediately. That’s tough,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Rather than being on the attack, having the puck, getting in on the forecheck at least should happen.

“What turns out is we’re picking the puck out of our net.”

It’s the starts that have had Edmonton chasing this series in its entirety, playing from behind night after excruciating night.

The Panthers have scored at least two goals in every first period of this series, while the Oilers have held the lead in this series for a paltry 33:51, compared to 200:25 for Florida.

That is domination, folks. Don’t let the scoreboard fool you.

“We’ve come out flat now most of the series,” said Mattias Ekholm. “If I knew (why), I’d address it.”

Edmonton was, alas, a shadow of the team that a hockey country expected to see on Hockey Night in Canada. But minimize the Panthers’ role in that at your own peril.

The Oilers’ battle level was nowhere near Florida’s, their execution was poor by comparison, and Edmonton’s overall intensity appeared about six notches below what you’d expect from a team that was — and still is — two wins away from a Stanley Cup.

“That’s the challenge with this team on the other side. That’s why they’re good,” said Ekholm, who simply was not as efficient as the Oilers require him to be on a minus-3 evening. “They’re trying to do everything in their power to deter us from playing our game. It seems to be the team that comes out winning in these games is the one that gets to their game the quickest and the longest. That’s the battle.”

That’s the battle, and for the majority of this series, Edmonton has lost it.

There has been no semblance of a defensive blanket thrown over anyone by Edmonton for any length of time, or a night in which the Oilers’ goaltending frustrated anyone wearing red, blue and gold.

This latest effort on the Game 5 stage was a little bit embarrassing, honestly, as a team that needed to conjure up its best for this absolutely massive opportunity instead produced something far, far below what the Oilers themselves would even deem acceptable.

With the Stanley Cup within reach, the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers are set to battle once again for hockey’s ultimate prize. Watch every game of the Final on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.

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Connor McDavid was average. Leon Draisaitl had two shots on net. The power play went 0-for-3, and Edmonton’s mobile, puck-moving defence corps couldn’t get out of its own way.

Alas, the Oilers messed the bed.

Do we blame Edmonton? Or should we credit the Panthers for that?

“It’s always going to come from the room here,” Walman said, standing post-game in the Oilers locker room. “Yeah, it’s a great team we’re playing, and they check hard. But we know what we can do when we’re playing our game, and it takes us a little bit to get to that. We’ve got to try and dial that in as quick as possible.

“We gave up way too much, and that’s because we’re not moving our feet,” he lamented. “We’re not playing the way that we know we can, and you can’t just do it for spurts. It’s got to be the whole game.”

There is every chance Edmonton could win a Game 6 in Sunrise and drag this series back for a Friday night Game 7, of course. They are the best comeback team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and winning one Game 6 is not out of the realm of possibility.

They’ll hang their hat on that now, because there’s nowhere left for it to hang.

“Knowing that we’re in a difficult situation,” began Knoblauch. “Winning our last two games is something that we’re confident that we can do. We’ve been through difficult situations before.

“It’s just another one that we’ll overcome.”

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