How the Edmonton Oilers punctured Sergei Bobrovsky’s aura of invincibility in Game 4

EDMONTON —  Four things happened when Sergei Bobrovsky took the skate of shame to the Florida Panthers’ bench in Game 4 on Saturday night inside a deafening Rogers Place.

The lid to Lord Stanley’s trunk slammed shut. Bobrovsky likely flushed his shot at the Conn Smythe Trophy. And this Stanley Cup Final might have been flipped on its head – because the Edmonton Oilers punctured the aura of invincibility that had been levitating around Florida’s Hall of Fame-bound goaltender.

For three games, Bobrovsky was in the Oilers’ heads – and the demon beneath their beds. Channeling his inner Ivan Drago, relentlessly focused and emotionless, Bobrovsky was nearly flawless to start the series with a .953 save percentage.

“We felt like it was going to break,” Connor McDavid said. “It felt like we were going to find a way to score some goals.”

It didn’t break. It exploded as Edmonton avoided a sweep: Oilers 8, Panthers 1, in the most lopsided Stanley Cup Final win by a team with a chance to be eliminated in league history. On a night 18 years in the making in Oil Country, it was a score as drunk as its deliriously happy and loyal fanbase whose party spilled out into the midnight-sun soaked streets. 

The Oilers, who looked like they might’ve been out of gas, could have folded and no one would have blamed them considering the long odds – they’ve been in survival mode since November. They didn’t.

Somehow, Stuart Skinner now has a better goals against-average (2.58) than Bobrovsky (2.63) in this series after Bobrovsky allowed five goals on 11 shots before he was mercifully yanked 25 minutes in.

“He’d had enough,” coach Paul Maurice explained his goalie pull. 

There’s no denying it’s just different when Lord Stanley is being polished in the building. All of the preparations were in place for a Panthers victory, including a full charter flight of family members that arrived in Edmonton on Friday.

“It’s the first opportunity that we’ve had as a franchise really to feel the two [past] days – the excitement of it, the emotions of it,” Maurice said. “We’ll learn how to channel it. That’s all part of this process.”

Now what? As McDavid said: “It’s just one win. That’s all it is. Doesn’t matter if you score eight or you score one – it’s just one win.”

And he’s right. It’s not a mountain that the Oilers have to climb, it’s Mount Everest. This comeback would be the greatest in the history of the sport, given the stakes.

“We’re in an unbelievable spot right now,” Matthew Tkachuk reminded.

The Panthers have at least three more cracks at collecting one win to hoist Lord Stanley for the first time in franchise history, starting with Tuesday night on home ice in South Florida. They actually controlled play in the first period despite trailing 3-1 at intermission.

How thin is the margin in this series? The Panthers hit two posts on the same power play sequence and then Mattias Janmark scored a shorthanded goal.

Over the course of a seven-game series, that usually cuts both ways – but it doesn’t always. Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch has preached process, the same process that saw Edmonton pile up high-danger chances and expected goals at the same rate as they had all season, only for their finishing to dry up at the exact worst time.

Knoblauch was wrong about one thing though. He said after Game 3 that the Oilers proved they could beat Florida – and that wasn’t proven until Saturday night.

The Oilers were left for dead, and not for the first time this season. The previous three times Edmonton has lost three straight under Knoblauch, they responded with winning streaks of eight wins (Nov. 24-Dec. 12), 16 wins (Dec. 21 to Jan. 7) and five wins (Feb. 26 to March 3).

“Just scoring, to be honest,” Zach Hyman said was the difference in Game 4. “There’s no moral victories in hockey. You’re down three [games], even though you think you played pretty well. The key is to stick with it. People on the outside see the score, and see what the series score is, but in the locker room, we feel like we’re right there. That’s fueled the belief in this group. Every win, that belief grows.”

Math is clearly in the favor of Florida. Maurice mentioned getting rest for Bobrovsky, who had played every second of this postseason for the Panthers until Game 4. And the Oilers know how well a goalie can bounce back after being pulled, they lived it already.

But if you’re looking for reasons why the Oilers can make this a series, you don’t really have to squint. McDavid broke one of Wayne Gretzky’s 58 standing records for most assists (32) in a single postseason. He has more assists on this run than any other leading scorer has total points in 16 of the 18 playoffs in the salary cap era.

And yes, 15 of Edmonton’s 18 skaters registered a point on Saturday night. But Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have really yet to click. Their lethal power play hasn’t taken over a game yet and stands 1-for-16 in the Final. And, oh yeah, the best playoff performer of his generation in Leon Draisaitl has been extraordinarily quiet.

“I still think I have a lot more to give,” Draisaitl said.

Draisaitl said in the Western Conference Final that he believed the Oilers’ “best beats anybody’s best.” Maybe there is something to that. Edmonton’s three best games of the series have produced the first, second and third games of the most shots allowed by Florida these playoffs.

Edmonton boasts the best attack that Florida has seen yet, they just didn’t convert and show it until Saturday night. They made a statement. With so much on the line, Maurice talked about the human nature involved when it’s desperation versus desire. It’s amazing how quickly that can flip in a playoff series. The Oilers planted the seed of doubt, and broke the previously unbreakable goalie. Welcome to the Stanley Cup Final.

“There’s nothing to panic about,” McDavid said. “We’re still in a hole. There’s no pressure on us. We have to go to Florida, do a job, and drag them back to Alberta.”

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