The Edmonton Oilers bench after a loss to the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on June 8, in Sunrise, Fla.Elsa/Getty Images
The Oilers are on life support now. They are one loss from the end of their season and on the verge of having their dream of winning the Stanley Cup crushed.
They trail the Florida Panthers 3-0 in the best-of-seven final. Just one team – the Toronto Maple Leafs of 1942 – has won the Stanley Cup after losing the first three games.
Impossible? No. More likely to be run over by a streetcar? Perhaps.
With Game 4 at Rogers Place on Saturday, Edmonton has zero wiggle room. It must win or find solace in having reached the final for the first time in 18 years. A week ago it looked like the Oilers could be the first Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup since Montreal in 1993.
Most of Canada – most everyone outside of Calgary, at least – has carried that hope with them.
Florida is on the verge of capturing its first Stanley Cup after a 4-3 victory on Thursday. It won the first two games at home 3-0 and 3-1 and at this point has a death grip on the series.
In two of the three games the Oilers have played reasonably well but found ways to lose. Game 3 was tied 1-1 in the second period before the Panthers scored three times in a little more than six minutes. A late rally fell short.
In the dressing room and an interview room at Rogers Place on Friday, Oilers players lamented the mistakes that have cost them but still held out hope like a swimmer clinging to the side of a life raft.
“The series is 3-0 but it doesn’t feel like that,” said Zach Hyman, the Edmonton winger. “We have controlled games for a lot of the time. There are moments where there are freebies that we are giving up. You clean those things up and in every one of those games we had a chance to win.
“If there is any team that can do this, it’s us. I strongly believe that. We don’t give up. We are going to respond.”
There is no shame in losing to a better team – and the Panthers have looked like one – but is also an opportunity lost. And an opportunity that does not come around very often.
The Oilers’ big guns – Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl – have been held in check. Edmonton has four goals in three games, netted by Mattias Ekholm, Warren Foegele, Philip Broberg and Ryan McLeod.
Stuart Skinner has been outplayed by opposing goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. Skinner wandered out of the net and got beaten for a goal on Thursday – a clear gaffe – but overall he has not got a lot of help from teammates. Too often he has been hung out to dry.
“At this time of year it is just little things that can make a difference,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. This is his 13th season with the Oilers and his first crack at hockey’s holy grail. “The Panthers have found ways to do more of those little things that can push you over the top in all three games.”
Players need little motivation at this time of year. Some play their whole careers for just one opportunity to win the Stanley Cup. They have dreamed of it since they were kids.
When a team trails 3-0 it can only be buoyed by hope. The hourglass is down to a few grains of sand.
Edmonton began the season badly. It won only two of its first 12 games and fired its coach after its 13th. At U.S. Thanksgiving it was 5-12-1 and fairly well given up for dead. After Kris Knoblauch replaced Jay Woodcroft things began to improve.
The Oilers had an eight-game winning streak and another of 16. Now here they are.
“I’m disappointed that we are in the situation,” Knoblauch said. “It is what it is. We have a lot to be optimistic about. We went on some quite astonishing rolls during the regular season. Obviously it’s a lot more difficult now but I am still optimistic.
“One of the last times we lost three in a row things went pretty well for us. We hope we can do that again.”