SAN JOSE — Usually, by now, there’s a trend.
Someone can’t win in someone’s building. Someone’s top player can’t produce, and his team isn’t going to survive it. Someone’s goalie has the other team psyched out.
Then there is this series between Edmonton and San Jose. It’s about as trendy as an old hockey writer.
Nothing makes sense, including a Game 5 in which the Oilers scored first and last, but at times in between the building felt like San Jose was teaching the young Oilers a stern playoff lesson.
In a series that has given us two road wins in five games, each club has led the series and each has won an overtime game. Cam Talbot has two shutouts, Martin Jones a shutout and a 1-0 loss. The veteran Sharks uncharacteristically coughed up a third-period lead in Game 5, while Edmonton’s young legs had circles skated around them in a 7-0 Game 4 debacle.
We billed this series as a battle between a team with aging leaders in San Jose, and one whose best players are all 23 and under in Edmonton. After that, nobody really knew how this was going to unfold.
At least we were right about that.
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“Playoffs are about a guy making a big play,” said San Jose coach Peter DeBoer before flying home from Edmonton with his team Friday morning. “Your best players being your best players. Timely goals. Staying healthy…
“There is a whole bunch of stuff that goes into that mixture, that successful mixture at this time of year. We’ve been just a little bit short here and there and that’s been the difference so far.”
As we approach the first elimination game in this Western Conference quarter-final, with the Oilers holding a 3-2 series lead and Anaheim resting up a short flight south of here, there just aren’t enough repeaters in this series to have a feel for what will shake down Saturday night in San Jose.
Edmonton’s best player has struggled to score, so instead Connor McDavid has taken to drilling unsuspecting Sharks every chance he gets. McDavid has 10 hits and just three points — anyone predict that? — yet still leads his team in scoring (tied with Leon Draisaitl).
McDavid found some room as Game 5 progressed, and we’re still betting he has a first-star performance somewhere along the way. But can that happen at the Shark Tank Saturday night, or will he save it for a Game 7, the brightest stage for memorable performance?
“We still believe. We have to believe,” Sharks winger Mikkel Boedker said. “I think we’ve got to believe that we can do it. I know that the guys in here, the expectation in here, is that we can do it.”
We’ve said this before: These are two organizations heading in opposite directions, which play two different brands of hockey and own completely opposite histories.
It’s possible, though we would not predict it, that both Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau could be playing their final playoff game at the SAP Center Saturday, two 37-year-olds for whom unrestricted free agency beckons. Meanwhile, Draisaitl’s entry-level contract is set to expire, while after July 1 the Oilers are free to sign McDavid to a long-term extension.
The Oilers have some series wins in their future, but does that future arrive Saturday? One thing we know for sure: The Sharks have tasted more than their share of defeat, and it has left them sour.
“It sucks,” Boedker said. “Losing sucks. There’s no way around that.”
The Sharks have a goalie capable of absolutely slamming the door shut, but so does Edmonton. Jones’ Game 5 overtime heroics was the latest display between two goalies who check off that all-important box marked “Stanley Cup calibre goaltending.”
“That’s what he does,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “He definitely gives us that chance. He made the saves (for San Jose) to get going. We just never really got going.”
“I was just trying to buy us time,” Jones said. “We were just a bounce away from getting an opportunity to score a goal. That’s my only mindset, buy us as much time as we can.”
Now, we arrive at more uncharted territory, with a young Oilers team that only this year figured out to play like they expect to win. The next lesson has arrived: Wining the fourth game.
“We’ve got two opportunities to close them out. But momentum in this series clearly hasn’t carried over,” Mark Letestu said. “It seems like we’ve been going back and forth. It’s going to take another good game on their ice to seal this thing out. We have to be ready for it, to take it to another level.”
Two teams, new levels, a different hero every night…
“It is the biggest challenge,” said Todd McLellan. “The toughest one to win is that final one.”
Tougher than predicting this series? No chance.
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