Suddenly, Oilers have flipped script and look like deeper team than Stars

EDMONTON — You could hear a pin drop in Rogers Place. In an “almost must-win game,” Kris Knoblauch’s words, the Edmonton Oilers were down two before six minutes elapsed.

And the guy who had been raked over the coals in the previous 24 hours, Darnell Nurse, was a dash-2 – even though none of the goals against were his fault. Gulp.

It was quiet everywhere except the Edmonton bench – where Corey Perry piped up.

“After the second goal, I said ‘We’re fine,’” said Perry. “It was a shit bounce. What are you supposed to do? Sit and sulk? The scoreboard said there was still 55 minutes left in the game. I knew once we got our feet under us, our tenacity would take over.”

Tenacious. Relentless. Whatever the buzzword, that was a big boy win. The Oilers scored five unanswered goals to shock the Dallas Stars, 5-2, and even their best-of-seven Western Conference Final at two games apiece.

“I was thinking it was going to be a long night,” Knoblauch said. “It didn’t look very good.”

They tagged an unflappable Jake Oettinger, the goaltender who hadn’t allowed more than two in a road game these playoffs, for seven goals in two games in Oil Country. Then Edmonton perfectly salted away a two-goal lead, comfortably walking the line between aggression and conservative play with the puck.

The comeback was impressive, but more so how they did it. Mattias Janmark netted the game-winner on a shorthanded break shortly before the Oilers killed off their 23rd consecutive penalty. Yes, Edmonton’s penalty killers have scored the only special teams goal in this series. Who had that on their bingo card?

And now, suddenly, the tables have turned as the series shifts back to Dallas.

The biggest storyline has been the Stars’ clear advantage in depth. In the wake of Chris Tanev’s injury, that pendulum has now swung to Edmonton’s favor if Tanev is unavailable in a pivotal Game 5.

Stars coach Pete DeBoer said he was “fingers crossed” that Tanev will be available on Friday night. He left in the second period after blocking a shot with his right foot. There were whispers Tanev exited Rogers Place in a walking boot, but Stars officials did not return inquiries – it’s the playoffs.

Between his stops in Calgary and Dallas, Tanev has seemingly gone down the tunnel a couple hundred times this season to walk off a blocked shot. Except this time, he didn’t return, which you know means one of hockey’s true warriors was dealt a significant blow.

Consider: Since signing a four-year deal in Calgary in 2020, Tanev has appeared in 93 percent of his available games. If Tanev is out for the remainder of the series, he’ll have somehow missed at least five of 11 playoff contests against the Oilers – since he sat out three in the Battle of Alberta in 2022 with a bum shoulder.

The Stars were already down to five defensemen with Tanev healthy. DeBoer has deployed Alex Petrovic sparingly in this series after exclusively playing in the AHL for the last five seasons. And Ryan Suter struggled mightily in Game 4.

“Next man up,” DeBoer said on Dallas’ approach if Tanev can’t play.

And that next man up is … ? Nils Lundkvist? He has averaged 4:28 in ice time over 12 games before being healthy scratched. Derrick Pouliot? Perhaps their best hope is that staunch defender Jani Hakanpaa could heal up in time for Friday night. DeBoer noted Hakanpaa accompanied the Stars to Edmonton, so he is getting closer.

Nonetheless, Game 5 could boil down to this: Bouchard-Ekholm-Nurse-Kulak-Ceci-Broberg vs. Heiskanen-Lindell-Harley-Suter-Petrovic-Lundkvist.

Advantage: Edmonton.

Contrast that thin-in-a-hurry Stars blueline to Edmonton, where Knoblauch made Vincent Desharnais a healthy scratch, a 6-foot-6 top-six staple this season who will be a sought-after free agent this summer if he doesn’t re-sign in Edmonton. Knoblauch already displayed balls the size of an Athabasca oil sands dump truck last round when he went to Calvin Pickard for Game 4 against Vancouver; he smashed all the right buttons in Game 4 against Dallas.

Knoblauch swapped out three healthy players, which DeBoer acknowledged on Wednesday is almost unheard of in Round 3 of a razor-thin playoff series. All three of them – Ryan McLeod, Perry and Philip Broberg – contributed in big ways. Perry assisted on McLeod’s goal that got the ball rolling, and watch back the goal celebration scrum – you can almost see Perry trying to coax the Oilers to believe.

So, for all of the (justified) talk of the Stars’ two first lines and embarrassment of riches in a forward group that has Matt Duchene, Tyler Seguin or Jamie Benn anchoring a third line on a nightly basis, the Oilers are managing just fine.

“I think our teams are built different,” Janmark said. “I don’t think their team has the top players that we have. I think it’s obvious they have three lines that are A, B and C, and we have the first line and our top-six that scores. So it’s hard to challenge that way, but for sure we knew we could contribute and maybe in different ways than their depth.”

The Oilers got some incredibly important even-strength shifts from Janmark and Connor Brown and Perry and Dylan Holloway. They may not be flashy, as Knoblauch said, but it’s part of a winning formula in the playoffs.

“Our depth is defensive responsibility, especially on our penalty kill,” Knoblauch said. “Now, lately, they’ve been coming up with some key goals.”

So few teams get to replenish through the Draft with special game breakers like Wyatt Johnston and Logan Stankoven outside of the lottery positions. They might ultimately be the difference in this series. But how many coaches have a former Hart Trophy winner and four-time Stanley Cup finalist ready to be re-inserted into the lineup in place of a 20-goal scorer in Warren Foegele? 

“That’s what good teams have, that’s what winning teams have,” Leon Draisaitl said.

This has been an odd series. There is zero animosity, no healthy hate worked up between these two teams. There is barely any emotion, except in the rollercoaster of momentum swings within games. The drama is in what is at stake.

“Best of three for a trip to the Stanley Cup Final,” DeBoer said.

The Oilers could have folded like a cheap tent in a soft wind on Wednesday night. A couple years ago, they might have. They responded with what is the signature win of the Connor McDavid Era in Edmonton. For now.

“You look at this series, there’s four games Dallas thought they could’ve won, and there’s four games that we could’ve won,” Knoblauch said. “It’s been a good series, and I like where we’re going.”

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