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Oilers vs Panthers Game 6 |
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No additional title needed for this one. No big dramatic keys to victory, who needs to show up, how the Oilers can beat the Panthers... either the Edmonton Oilers show up tonight and force a Game 7 or the 24/25 season ends tonight.
The Oilers looked gassed from the moment the puck dropped in Game 5. We know there are injuries with top six winger Zach Hyman out of the lineup and RNH dealing with something upper body. None of these are good excuses for why two three games in a row the Edmonton Oilers barely showed up in the first period and let the Panthers simply shoot at will.
I look at the first Brad Marchand goal in Game 5 where he simply skated hard and drove towards the net. How many times did we see the Oilers make any sort of play like that in this series? Edmonton gained some life near the end of the game where Perry scored to make it 3-2 Florida only for the Panthers to immediately respond. After all the talk about needing to show up early and to not look as shell shocked as they did to start the Stanley Cup Finals last year we are well on our way to the same result.
RNH-McDavid-Perry
Kane-Draisaitl-Kapanen
Skinner-Henrique-Frederic
Podkolzin-Janmark-Brown
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Kulak
Walman-Klingberg
Skinner
I have no clue why Nurse and Kulak are back together. I do not like how Coffey has deployed his defense throughout this series. Two of those pairs are strong and unfortunately Nurse just seems to be unplayable with anyone.
Skinner is the starter tonight which is the right call. I don't fault Knoblauch to going to Pickard after the third goal in Game 4 nor do I fault him for going back to Pickard in Game 5 as he helped get the win but Skinner's ceiling is far better than Pickard's and the Oilers need to ice the best possible lineup tonight and get that ceiling from all their players.
Evander Kane will play on the second line with Kapanen and Draisaitl and needs to find a way to impact the game on an actual level. Kane's stats in the last two games are 0-0-0 with zero shots, three hits and two penalty minutes. The prior game he had 4 hits and 16 PIMS. I know there are some idiots fans out there who think Kane is providing toughness but look at this series and tell me any of the Florida players are scared of Evander Kane. If he wants to be more than a fourth line player he needs to show the offensive instincts he used to have.
Either we are sitting here tomorrow discussing the off-season and a eulogy of the season or getting ready for Game 7 at home on Friday. It's simply up to every player on the Oilers to decide if they are ready to put in the work and make that happen.
Thanks for reading.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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