I’ve seen 6-on-5s when the losing team was down by two – never with any success – but unless I’m misremembering (which, Lord knows, is entirely possible!) it was never this early. “Arrogance” was probably a poor word choice on my part – let’s just say Maurice was taking a huge risk. Given how well the Panthers have played when they really cranked up the energy, one suspects he was hoping for a miracle.
Anyway, this was a fantastic game to watch and a good example of why hockey is so much fun. Plucky Edmonton has earned themselves a place in the history books no matter what happens in Game 7. If they bring home the Cup, they’ll be superheroes!
Maurice was doing the right thing. Teams generally don’t pull their goalies early enough.
Connor McDavid had no points last night - kind of amazing when the Oilers scored 5 goals - so his pursuit of Gretzky’s record, already unlikely, is pretty much toast.
The fact that here’s, ya know, ANOTHER Gretzky record we’re talking about just serves to illustrate how ridiculous the man’s dominance was. It’s not just that Gretzky dominates NHL records; there’s isn’t an equivalent player in ANY other major North American pro sport. He holds records I didn’t even know they considered records. Who is the fastest person to scored 100 points at the beginning of a season? It’s Wayne Gretzky, who one year had 100 points just 34 games (!!!) into the season.
Vancouver was down 2 goals to the Predators in the first round, pulled their goalie with about 3 minutes left, scored twice to tie the game, then won it in OT.
Heh and then after that I got a bit sick of the Islanders, and then the Oilers. (lucky you they were your home team)
Interesting, no dynasties since then - half of me is ok with that, half isn’t.
Still better than being sick of the Toronto Maple Leafs who half the time can’t even clear the very low bar to get into the post-season. Used to be a fan back in the days of Cujo, and now I hate the rich, pampered, complacent bastards with a passion. On the rare occasions when I watch a Leafs game, I’m always rooting for the other team, no matter who it is. The lazy shits did get into the playoffs this year, and I was happy to see them kicked out in the first round.
The Edmonton Oilers have more pluck and determination than the Leafs have ever had in at least the last half century.
Great to see the Oilers still bubbling. But that offside call that went their way was really really close. I hope Edmonton does win game seven. Who scores one or two goals in the first three games than eighteen in the next three? Is that called momentum?
People are a bit too quick on this assumption; if I had to bet a dollar, I’d bet it on Florida.
This is the tenth time in NHL history that a team has blown a 3-0 lead and ended up in a game 7. In six of the previous nine, the team that was up 3-0 and blew the lead won Game 7.
When the Oilers won game 4 I figured that was their shot and that Florida would clamp down in game 5 and close out the series. However, that is not even close to what happened. It isn’t like games 5 and 6 were close. It wasn’t an unlucky bounce or one bad call that was the difference in those games. Florida has had zero push back.
I noticed late in game 6 that Florida had a chance to forecheck, but their forwards just kind of did a collective shrug and didn’t drive into the corners full bore to try to disrupt the Oilers attempt to get the puck back out.
