Anaheim, CA—Is the question whether the Ducks could skate with the Oilers or whether the Oilers would let them? In their first period together, the team from Anaheim went blade-for-blade with the Canadian team on Monday night. The Oilers way outshot the Ducks, anyway, 14-6, but all but one were either blocked aside with a “thwack” off the waffle or swallowed up in Lukas Dostal’s belly pad. Finally Edmonton got one past the Czechian keeper, off a broken play that saw the puck lying in the slot, then sent back to the point for a rolling slap shot that made its way along the ice and past Dostal.
Oddities to this point in the game were two. One was that the Oilers were playing with 19 players dressed. A second was that they had a goalie with one game of experience prior to this night in the net. Olivier Rodrigue is from Chicoutimi, Quebec, where a hundred years ago, the “Chicoutimi Cucumber” emerged to be one of the best goalies in history. His name: Georges Vezina. You might have heard of the trophy named after him.
There was something else, actually: no Draisaitl. No McDavid. Each is out injured. McDavid, as everyone knows, came back from the Four Nations tourney not quite himself. Draisaitl is, as the team has said, “out short term.” The Oilers without their star power are not quite the same. Saturday, they lost in LA, 3-0. If they don’t want to be playing the Kings as the lower-seeded “away” team to start the playoffs, they’d best sort out wins against teams like Anaheim.
What’s to worry about? The Kings rarely lose at home, though on this night, up the road, they were halfway through a game with Seattle and losing, 2-1.
LA entered the night second in the Pacific, Edmonton third, with the same number of games played. LA’s home record was 29-4-4. They were 15-19-5 away. Edmonton was 23-12-3 at home and 21-15-2 on the road. The playoff matchup of these two teams has been presumed, by their fans at least, for a couple of months, if not longer. LA is not afraid of the Oilers, but neither do they relish the risk of a fourth straight playoff loss to the same team. Starting out at home, based on regular-season performance, would go a long way towards alleviating that as a possibility, if you believe the regular season counts for anything.
Back to Ducks-Oilers. Period two was not “all Ducks,” but all the scoring was. And it was all one guy, Cutter Gauthier. The first one was a no-look pass across the slot from Carlsson. Gauthier buried it. The second was pure skill, a rush down the left wing, a cut to the net, angling in on his edges, and a backhand up and over Rodrigue. It was lovely. Would he score a hat trick? In the end, no, but he received high praise from his coach after for the “elite, goal-scorer’s goal which, Cronin added, was a hint at the future as he develops physically.
The end of period two saw a scrum after Evan Bouchard got tied up with Ryan Strome. No punches were thrown, but it went on a while, with the play having stopped at 2.6 seconds to go. The Ducks ended up shorthanded, and Edmonton pulled their goalie with that little time left and play starting in the Anaheim end.
Meanwhile, up I-5, the Kings were still behind the Kraken with the third period underway.
The Ducks kept taking penalties as period three carried on, usually a dangerous game against the Oilers, but it was Mason McTavish who got the next goal. He grabbed a puck and went straight up the gut, firing from a low-left angle up and over the goalie and into the top corner, on the right side as he would have looked at it. That made it 3-1, and that’s where it stayed until Edmonton got one back. The game ended 3-2 Ducks. The Kings lost to Seattle also, so that mitigated the “we blew it” feeling the Oilers could have had at losing a chance to catch up a game on the Ducks.
Or did they blow it? Look at the shots: 47 Edmonton, 21 Ducks. And there’s the truth. As Coach Cronin said after the game, “Dostal won the game. It was the penalty kill and Dostal.” He added, “This game was an awkward game because their star players are out. They’re fighting for positioning in the playoffs, and I didn’t think we had a very good game. They had more urgency to the way they played. They were more precise…more aggressive.”
He summarized, “Our goalie was the best player on the ice.” Cronin later praised Dostal’s work ethic and professionalism. “He’s the personification of the ideal athlete that you want to coach. He’s low maintenance. He’s got high standards that he measures himself by on a daily basis…. Because of that, he’s able to play a lot of games.” Looks like if Gibson gets better, he might finally get traded while Dostal takes the crease.
Meanwhile, the Ducks have five games left including Wednesday at home against Calgary and Sunday’s home finale against the Avalanche.
Note
Brian Kennedy wrote Growing Up Hockey: The Life and Times of Anyone Who Ever Loved the Game.
