Oilers eliminated from National Hockey League playoffs with loss to Ducks

The hulking young winger scored the Ducks’ biggest goal in many moons in the third period Wednesday night, taking a feed from Sami Vatanen and getting the game-winner in the far corner, past a helpless Cam Talbot. In game six, however, the Oilers punished Anaheim to the tune of seven goals and forced a seventh and deciding game on May 10.

Ahead of game 7 Wednesday, team captain Connor McDavid was asked about fan support since the team secured a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Barry Trotz, the reigning Jack Adams Award victor as Coach of the Year, owns a proven track record to out-maneuver Pittsburgh in his 15 seasons in Nashville. “We won’t have to answer that experience question anymore, which is nice”. The Ducks called a timeout with 1:03 remaining, and then held on.

“Stuff like that’s going to happen, whether it’s a bad bounce or a good break for them”, Gibson said. “We can’t have a fire in the house so let’s just take the TV outside'”. We managed to do that. It’s our turn to serve, and holding serve means that we go on. We obviously handled it well. It had 103 points (47-26-9) and finished second in the Pacific Division this season. After controlling the first three games played at Honda Center up until the final 3:16 of regulation in Game 5, the Oilers got back into that groove 3:31 into the first. “Proud to be a part of this group right now and looking forward to the future of this team”.

Clayton Stoner has practiced regularly with the Ducks and Simon Despres has skated before their official workout the last two days. “We’re ready for it”.

This was the Fleury who backstopped the Penguins to the Cup in 2009 and was nearly unbeatable early in the second-round series, and his return was all they needed to eliminate the Presidents’ Trophy winners in a meeting of the NHL’s top two teams. That year, they lost Game 7 on a goal by Dan Cleary with three minutes left.

“We were down 1-0 for a little bit, and we didn’t panic”, Ritchie said.

We’re not talking about a four-game sweep against a weak opponent – I’m not talking about the Blackhawks’ implosion last month -but one in which either side could’ve won in five games. “One goal was the difference”.

The Ducks last won the Stanley Cup in 2007, while the Oilers last won in 1990.

Throughout the post-season, it became clear that Leon Draisaitl was discovering what McDavid had figured out during the regular season – a way to put the Oilers on his back.

So, yes, McDavid channelled the Moose Sunday, even if he gob-smackingly didn’t get a point as his club blew the doors off the Ducks with three goals on their first six shots on John Gibson, all 5-hole, and four in the first eight and a half minutes as Jonathan Bernier came out of the bullpen.

“It’s always some kind of emptiness when you lose”, Larsson said. “(Anaheim) proved that you can come back from just about anything and we’ve come back from situations as well. I think there are a few guys who need to do some soul searching, including myself. That’s a good thing. Even though 97 was kept off the scoresheet in that 7-1 rout, he was as unsafe as ever and teams have to respect that. “It’s disappointing that we didn’t get it done, but we still took a lot of steps this year and it really [stinks] right now”.

“I just thought of that one night”.