Panthers on brink of Stanley Cup sweep: 5 takeaways
Source: The New York Times
Author: Daniel Nugent-Bowman, Michael Russo
EDMONTON -- As the Florida Panthers repeated over and over Thursday morning, their late arrival into Edmonton on Wednesday night after being delayed by torrential South Florida storms didn't mean squat. Neither did the rabid pro-Edmonton Oilers crowd or anything else.
"It's us against everyone," Matthew Tkachuk said after the morning skate.
And, just as they did in the first three rounds, the Panthers are coming out on top, suddenly one win from the first Stanley Cup sweep since 1998 after Thursday's 4-3 victory over the Oilers at Rogers Place.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Sam Bennett and Aleksander Barkov scored 6:19 apart in the second period to break open a 1-1 game, and Sergei Bobrovsky was once again exceptional early and finished with 32 saves for his 15th win in the playoffs. Florida is now 7-2 on the road in the postseason.
The Panthers had to fend off a third-period rally from the Oilers when Edmonton got goals by Philip Broberg and Ryan McLeod. Bobrovsky then robbed McLeod point-blank in the final minutes.
Here are five quick takeaways on how the Panthers pulled within a win of the sweep.
The Panthers have too many threats, and they're spread across the lineup.
Florida's first three goals Thursday night were scored by members of the first (Reinhart), second (Bennett) and third (Tarasenko) lines, and the Oilers just don't have the forward depth to keep up or the ability to check line after line with the way their blue line has played.
The injured Evander Kane being removed from the lineup was the biggest change coach Kris Knoblauch made heading into Game 3. But it wasn't the only one. Far from it.
Corey Perry came in after being scratched for the sixth time in the playoffs and started on the second line next to Draisaitl and McLeod. Perry and McLeod represented two new wingers for Draisaitl.
It's not that any of the changes blew up in Knoblauch's face. It's just that none of them resulted in much. By the third period, Draisaitl and Connor McDavid were together and were rotating with different wingers to make their push.
The backbreaking goal against was Florida's third, scored by the second-liner Bennett. That occurred with Nurse and Broberg on the ice -- and following a turnover by the former -- moments after Ryan's line jumped over the boards.
That line had been short-shifted following a Panthers icing so Knoblauch could load up with McDavid, Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm. It wound up getting caught in a mismatch.
Barkov put the Panthers up 4-1 just 1:34 after Bennett's marker.
Three games into the series, Bobrovsky has allowed four goals, with Thursday being the biggest test he faced early.
He made 13 saves in the first period -- five on the power play -- with stops on Bouchard, Draisaitl and McDavid during one power-play flurry and then another 15 in the second period.
But where he really proved his worth was preserving a 1-1 tie in the second period on back-to-back terrific saves on Hyman and McDavid. Thirty-eight seconds later, Tarasenko made it 2-1.
It's not as if the Oilers superstars haven't had their chances in this series. That was certainly the case on Thursday, too.
On first-period power plays alone, the best of the Oilers had four excellent chances. McDavid shot wide from the slot. Draisaitl's one-timer was stopped by Bobrovsky. A Bouchard blast was turned around. Draisaitl set up McDavid for a chip shot, which the Panthers goalie gobbled up.
Hyman and McDavid had those chances off the rush in the second period, too. But ... nothing.
The Oilers have scored four goals in the series -- one by Ekholm in Game 2 and the others by Foegele, Broberg and McLeod on Thursday. Those aren't their drivers.
Edmonton entered the series with the three top point-getters of the playoffs in McDavid, Bouchard and Draisaitl. McDavid has three assists -- including on the last two Oilers goals in Game 3. Bouchard has one. Draisaitl hasn't recorded a point.
Nugent-Hopkins, tied for fourth on the scoring list, is also pointless. So is Hyman, the leading goal scorer of the postseason.
Of all the things that have the Oilers on the brink of elimination, lack of production from their big guns is high on the list.
After failing to score on consecutive first-period power plays thanks to Bobrovsky's five saves and some missed targets from the likes of McDavid and Bouchard, the refs handed out a late four-on-four after a 10-player melee following a Bobrovsky save on Ceci. Thirty-one seconds later, it was 1-0 Panthers after Barkov stole a puck high in the zone from Bouchard, then outbattled him for the puck to slide it over to Gustav Forsling. The defenseman spotted Reinhart driving the net and sent a pass right off his blade for the winger's ninth goal of the playoffs with 62 seconds left in the period.
It was Forsling's eighth assist of the playoffs to match Panthers broadcaster Ed Jovanovski's 1996 team record for a defenseman in a single postseason. Forsling's 12 points are one behind Brandon Montour's team record for a defenseman, set last playoffs.