The Edmonton Oilers kept their championship hopes alive with an 8-1 victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place on Saturday (June 15). Florida now leads the best-of-seven series 3-1 with Game 5 set for Tuesday (June 18) at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.
Facing elimination, Edmonton delivered an offensive performance for the ages, tying for the fourth-most goals ever scored by a team in a Stanley Cup Final game.
Related: Oilers’ 4 Most Incredible Records Set in Game 4 Win vs. Panthers
But the most remarkable thing about the Oilers’ victory Saturday wasn’t that they scored eight times. It was that they got seven goals from players not named Evan Bouchard, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane or Connor McDavid. Dylan Holloway scored twice, while Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse, and Ryan McLeod each had one goal for the Oilers in Game 4. McDavid also tallied in the dominant victory.
Supporting Cast Saves the Day for Oilers
For years, a chief criticism of the Oilers was that they lacked depth. While blessed with the superstar duo of Draisaitl and McDavid, they did not have the supporting cast required for a deep postseason run. That, many felt, is what kept them from challenging for a championship.
But times sure have changed, because the only reason the Oilers still have a chance to hoist the Stanley Cup in 2024 is the supporting cast. Of the seven Oilers who lit the lamp on Saturday, only McDavid was among the team’s top five goal-scorers during the 2023-24 regular season. Holloway and Janmark ranked 13th and 17th on the team for goals in the regular season.
Many of Edmonton’s Top Scorers Are MIA
Hyman led the Oilers and ranked third in the NHL in 2023-24 with 54 goals. Draisaitl was second on the team with 41 goals, his fifth consecutive season excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign with 40 goals. Kane scored 24 times. Bouchard had 18 goals, fifth most among all NHL defencemen in the regular season. But not one of those players has scored yet in the first four games of the championship final.
Kane hasn’t played since Game 2, sidelined by a sports hernia. The 6-foot-2 forward could possibly suit up for Game 5. His teammates, however, don’t have injury as an excuse for their lack of production.
The last goal Hyman scored was the one that punched Edmonton’s ticket to the Stanley Cup Final, in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars on June 2. The veteran winger has now gone four straight playoff games without a goal, matching his longest slump of the entire 2023-24 season.
Bouchard scored four times in the Oilers’ second round series against the Vancouver Canucks, but has only one goal in 10 games since. Meanwhile, Draisaitl, who scored eight times in the first nine games of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, has only two goals in the last 13 games and is currently in a six-game goalless streak.
Even McDavid, while he has played extraordinarily in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, setting the all-time NHL single-postseason record for assists (32), hasn’t exactly been torching the nets: Edmonton’s captain has just six goals in 22 playoff games so far this spring, well below his career per-game rate.
Oilers Will Be Tough to Beat if Stars Deliver
Imagine now that Edmonton’s slumping stars snap out of their scoring funks. Suppose Drasiaitl starts producing like the guy who has three 50-goal seasons on his resume, and Hyman gets back to scoring twice every three games like he did during the regular season, and Bouchard or Kane chip in, too.
Take that output and combine it with a goal each game from Edmonton’s supporting cast, and suddenly the Oilers become very difficult to beat. Suddenly they become very capable of winning their next three games and capturing the Stanley Cup.
Holloway, Janmark, and McLeod got the Oilers to Florida for Game 5. Let’s see if Bouchard, Draisaitl and Hyman can get them back to Edmonton for Game 6, which would be Friday (June 21) at Rogers Place.
