The Hockey PDOcast - How the Oilers Tied Up the West Final in Game 2, and What To Watch for Ahead of Game 3

Episode Date: May 24, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Harman Dayal to get into everything they saw in Game 2 of the West Final, how the Oilers were able to even the series up, and what the Stars need to do to get back on track as the series shifts to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dmitra Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Harmon Dile. Harman, what's going on? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm doing well. We got to watch Game 2 of the West Final. Oilers 1 to even up the series of 1-1, heading back to Edmonton for game 3. And we're going to break it all down today. everything we saw, kind of how these, you know, lumping the two games together so far, kind of how they've transpired, what we've seen from them. Let's start with this. We are on one hell of a ride right now with Stuart Skinner, right?

He's got seven starts this postseason, four of those games, all of them losses. His save percentages in them were 800, 821, 833, and 815. After the first two, he loses his job to Calvin Pickard, gets the crease back, part way through the Vegas series after Pickard gets hurt. In the three games, he's won, all three of the other games. They've been shutouts, 23, 24, and 25 save performances. That means he has not had an appearance with a same percentage between 834 and 999. So far this postseason, it is a perfect representation, I think, of the Oilers as a team, right?

You and I have spoken about kind of how there's zero in between seemingly in terms of the performance and the way they apply themselves and look. And, you know, he gets the shutout again here, his third one of the postseason. It's the fourth time, I believe the stars themselves have been shut out in these playoffs. He makes that remarkable paddle save on Estelle in the third period or he recovers.

Lendell has a yawning gauge to shoot at. He gets it down and gets enough of it. Made some quality stop. Certainly, I did think, I'm not sure if you agree with this, that throughout the game, especially in the second period when the stars kind of found their legs a little bit and started to push a little offensively. A lot of the looks they were generating were pretty dangerous,

but they were either missing the net or kind of shooting into bodies and weren't actually testing. Skinner in this one, he made the save certainly that he needed to, and it was a big win for both him and the Oilers. But I find the two extremes here for Skinner this postseason remarkable and one of the best stories so far this postseason. Yeah, it's the one thing that strikes me about Skinner, and obviously dealing with these highs and lows,

how he's bounced back from a lot of this adversity and a lot of these awful starts, you hear him in a lot of these sort of post-game interviews and he just seems to have such a grounded perspective, even his quote the other day about how there's a lot more to life than hockey and talking about FaceTiming his kids. I think as a goaltender especially, it's so important to master the mental side of the game.

and for somebody like Stuart Skinner that has been through so many lows, not just in this playoff run, but even in last year's round two against Vancouver, where similar sort of situation, situation where he struggled enormously and then nearly lost in that series, to be totally honest with you, and then bounce back in the Western Conference final where he out dual Jake Onger.

He's been there before, and I think mentally he's kind of wired to be able to bounce back from a lot of these situations where you seemingly think he's down and out. And I mean, just a few minutes into that game, Rope Hintz had a chance. He was batting a rebound chance out of midair. Important stop there. Jason had a high slot chance off a power plant tree in the first period. And then the massive one to me was, you mentioned the stars sort of pushing in the second period at times.

He had a huge point blank save on Rope Hints right before Brett Kulak's, scored to make it two nothing. That's a massive moment in terms of the timing and just how drastic of swing that is in the game. The only flaw I'd say throughout that game two performance from him was his pot handling scared me

at times. It was a bit of an adventure every time he left a crease, but I mean, he's too tall and there were definitely pockets of the game where the stars were pushing, where they have their looks, where they have their chances. To the Oilers defended well in terms of the rush and not

allowing a lot of East West. But this wasn't a, like sometimes the goaltender has a shutout and you look at and go, well, he didn't really have to make any difficult saves. Skinner didn't have to be spectacular, but there's no doubt that the stars had pockets to the game where they pushed, where they had some quality looks and Skinner stood tall. Yeah, you're right. As I mentioned, the Shawball, you may believe he made the 25 saves wasn't necessarily immense, but I thought the pressure, especially in some of those isolated sequences was definitely there.

and he did the job. So I thought that was huge for him. You know, this was a bit of an extension, not only from what we saw through the first 40 minutes, I guess, a game one before the game flipped with all those stars, power plays in the third, but also just the postseason trends, I think, for those two teams in general heading into this series, right?

We've got two games worth of Oilers versus stars so far. The Oilers are up four two at five on five. They've controlled 57.4% of the score adjusted. expected goals share. And once again, we can kind of talk about the ebbs and flows of the game and where in particular I think they've thrived. But through the first two periods, I had the scoring chances, 9, 6, Edmonton in the first.

And a couple of those Oilers ones in particular were very, very high-danger ones that Andrew stopped. And then in the second period, 7-4, flipped a little bit in the third with the stars kind of in comeback mode down by three goals. But I thought their performance once again at 5-on-5 was awesome. you know, Connor McDavid had the post game quote and the scrum saying like, yeah, we can play defense too. And I think that's a big part of this because when we've seen this Oilers team really thrive this postseason, you know, they had a couple of those explosions, certainly offensively against the Kings,

but especially what they did to Vegas in round two when they lock in and how well they have managed the puck, but also managed where they're at positionally in terms of making sure they're just always involved. and in the right place. I thought you saw that yet again here. What are you seeing from them and this series as a whole five-on-five that's creating some of these results for the Oilers? Yeah, there are a couple things that stand out, rush offense and then, you know, the defensive side.

I'll start with the defensive side. I like the back pressure that we're seeing at times from the Oilers forwards. In the first period, Adam Henrique made a huge play where I can't remember the exact stars, forwards in that situation, but there was one on the back door where if that pass made it through, that's potentially as high quality of chances you're going to get. And Henrique was able to get a stick in there, prevent that East West play. McDavid at times throughout this postseason has been

really noticeable in the back check, breaking plays up and snuffing things out. I liked, yes, the star sort of pushed towards the second half of the third period, but I like the fact that in the beginning, right? Because when it's a three nothing lead, it's really the start of the period where for the first several minutes, can you lock it down? Because at that point, once you get to the second half,

managing three goals in the final 10 minutes, you're usually going to make it home. And so you look at the first 10 minutes of that third period, so the stars only muster two shots on goal through the first eight minutes, I should clarify. And it was after that point where they started to ramp up, but I liked that in the beginning of the third, the Oilers were still cycling pucks down.

down low and just burning time off the clock with puck possession. And then I also think if you're going to highlight a sort of individual on song hero, Troy Stetcher was phenomenal in that game defensively. Here's a guy that started the postseason as a number seven defenseman, draws into the lineup. And especially when you're on the road, you can't really control and dictate matchups very well. And so in the first period,

you have him out there with Donnell Nurse. And a lot of times he's facing top six competition, number seven defensemen. And you had sequences such as early in the first period, Miko Ranton had a zone entry. Rope Hince was flying off the puck. And Rantin tries to sort of hit him. And Stetra's able to disrupt Hintz's flight path,

just stand him up there. A few minutes later in the first period, Grandland's centering for Hints right in front for a potential grade A chance. And their Stetra is tying Hints up. Third period P.K. Stetcher standing up Robertson at the blue line and then gets the clear. And keep in mind, too, these are massive forwards we're talking about. Hintz is built like a truck on both of those examples I mentioned.

Robertson is built like a truck. And so Stetcher is a 5'10 defenseman. You see the compete level. You see the intelligence, just how steady he is. And of course, with the game, he also saw some shifts with Kulak, more so than he did with Nurse compared to the first period. But to have a number six, seven defensemen who could just slot into the line, up and make those types of plays against top forwards on the road where you don't have as much

control over your matchups, that's a huge luxury. Yeah, Stetcher's game is so calming, right? There's, I mean, he's got the mobility to contest a lot and I'll give you easy stuff, but also makes a lot of these little connective plays is always seemingly kind of standing around in the slot in the defensive zone and knocking away some of these east-west passes or stuff that's trying to get into the slot. I mean, obviously, Troy from Richmond is such a gem of a dude, too, right? I think in this game, you can find it online.

He has that intermission interview with Bob Stauffer and Jack Michaels, and it's hilarious. I'd highly recommend everyone goes out of their way to check that out. You know, I noticed that as well from the Oilers forwards in terms of how they've been controlling the middle of the ice at 515 with the F3 positioning in terms of always having someone there to either keep plays alive, high in the offensive zone, and extend some of these possessions and often work it back down low,

or if there is a change of possession, how quickly they've been backtracking and applying some of that back pressure to allow these Oilers' defensemen to gap up, right? Because in those first two games, when things really went off the rails for them defensively, part of it was on the PK against that King's power play, but a lot of it was the Kings just getting whatever they wanted off the rush and having free rein to just attack downhill,

and they've been much better at tightening that up. and some of it's certainly been McDavid, you very visibly looping down low to provide support or retreat possession and then start moving the other way. I want to shout out R&H as well because I think he had a pretty poor regular season by his standards. I think he finished with under 50 points.

Despite his role, he's at a point of game. This postseason, his 5-15 numbers are awesome. This series alone, 26, 5-1-5 minutes, shots on goal are 188, Edmonton, goals 3-0, 71% expected goals share. And I think he's been a huge part of that as well, guys like him and Henry kind of being in the right position off the puck on the ice. And I think that's a huge part of this in terms of why the Oilers are able to not only

control possession as much as they have a 5-1-5, but also really limit a lot of these chances. I thought it was kind of notable, you know, in terms of how the game progressed. While it was 1-0 for the Oilers in the second period, I actually did think that the stars kind of found their game a little bit, right? You saw Randen and trying to assert himself a little bit more, taking the puck to the net. He created a couple chances, and back-to-back shifts.

I thought the stars had success, working the puck below the goal line, kind of looping it around the net, and then looking for someone as they switch sides of the ice and created a few looks off of that. That hints went off the rebound that you mentioned, which Skinner made a big stop on, and then the Oilers go back the other way and make it two-nothing.

So on the one hand, the stars actually found their footing a little bit, a five and started playing much better than they had in the first four periods of this series. Yet on the other hand, it reminded me a lot of what we saw when things went poor for them in round one against Colorado against a faster team, right? When you open the game up a little bit and you start pushing a little for offense to kind to try to get back into it, they have to play such a disciplined game in terms of decisions with the puck and positioning and not getting caught down low.

And so as the ice opened up and these teams started trading chances a little bit, it was very noticeable how much the oilers were feasting in transition and off the rush, right? I think through 40 minutes, Sporologic had odd man rushes 7-2 for Edmonton. They created that second goal off of one of those odd man rushes and it really felt like once they were able to get moving and there was space, it was a massive advantage for the oilers. And if you're the stars, it's a pretty delicate balance to find between not just being so passive and trying to absorb everything and waiting for power play opportunities because you actually need to do more if I was. 1-5, but as soon as you do so, it can really kind of get away from you and snowball.

And I thought that's what happened as the Oilers built their lead in this one. Yeah, the first half of the game was especially interesting because, as you alluded to, there were stretches of the game where the stars in-zone pressure was significantly more dangerous off the cycle and down low than the Oilers. But the difference was the Oilers' quick strike game off the rush was just completely lethal and the number of just great A opportunities that they were able to manufacture was something that the stars couldn't really adjust to.

I mean, even in the first period, you had the McDavid 2-11 where he hit the post short-handed Corey Perry in the first period setting up dry-settled back door. That was a glorious stop by Jake Onger off, Wyatt Johnson turnover, the Brett Kulak 2-0-0-0-0-0-the-Rush. And then even Connor Brown's 3-0-0-0, which looked like a relatively harmless play

where he tips it off a bad angle Ryan Nugent Hopkins shot. It starts with a pretty glorious Evander Cain, high slot chance off the rush. So Perry had another sort of backhand look off a McDavid sort of play where he swooped down low in the defensive zone, transported it up the ice, and was able to connect a play to spring Perry.

So I thought the start, stars just got flat out dominated off the rush, got flat out dominated in the neutral zone. And when you look at why there was such a disparity, a few things stand out. Number one, I think the stars were sloppy with turnovers and managing the puck in all three zones. That was evident, you know, the neutral zone where I mentioned some of these, some of some of these looks like the McDavid short-handed one and the Perry one in the first period as well. Those were directly off turnovers.

but also even in the attacking end, just situations where they were a little bit timid or a puck would just sort of, like everybody would be concentrated towards one part of the ice to be a puck battle going on and then somehow a puck just sort of leaks through into open space and that's a spot where McDavid is sort of high in the defensive zone and he swoops in and now he's off to the races

and the Oilers have three forwards up the ice. And with that speed, the Oilers forwards were pushing the source, stars back. And then that's where I love how they always had a defenseman or even a forward activating as that second layer threat in the high slot. Like that's that area where they generated so many looks in the high slot where where there was no stars play around to contest the shot. And then there were just those huge gaps in coverage that the Oilers were able to exploit. And to me, the way you stop the orlers off the rush, you know, it's twofold, right? You've got to be

extra cautious and disciplined with your puck management was just difficult because you also want to make plays and may things happen offensively. But secondly, you can't stop Edmonton off the rush with half court defense. You need a sort of aggressive forecheck that can disrupt Edmonton's own exits. And to me, it was too easy for the Oilers defensemen to hit some of these long outlet passes to break the puck out. I think the stars could have done a better job of slowing the Oilers down sort of in their own half of the ice before they even got a chance to cross into the star's side of the red line. I agree. It's much more difficult to do so now because you look at the state of this or this blue line and even without a TSA home available and it sounds like he's

probably going to be back for game three. I don't want to ask you about what you do with him returning. But I mean, there's just so many options now in terms of guys who are not only mobile as pocket as puck carriers themselves but can make quick little passes and aren't just reliant purely on the top forwards to do all the heavy lifting in transition. And we know, you talked about Stetcher earlier. I think you can kind of apply it to all these pairs. I think Klingberg and Walman have been awesome together. They played 135 on five minutes in the 60s in terms of shot and expected goal sharing that time. Walman leads a team with 33 block shots so far this postseason. He had another big one here, kind of like a lot of timely ones either on the PK

or Matt Duchyne had this one rush opportunity in the second period where he's coming down the middle, there's some space and Walman is just able to absorb it and not even let it get to Skinner. I thought he's had a number of those throughout this run so far for the Oilers. And then Klingberg's mobility and his puck skills, right? There was that play in the first period where they forced a turnover off the foretick, it comes up the wall to the blue line,

Klingberg's Manning the point on the right side, and he quickly fires this diagonal cross-seam pass to Connor Brown, and he's ultimately not able to get the timing down for the one-timer on it, but it was such a beautiful look kind of out of nothing, and I thought that sequence was very emblematic of some of the stuff we've been seeing in these two games with the Stars defensemen struggling with retrievals against some of this heavy forecheck pressure from the Oilers, and then how the Oilers are quickly able to turn that into a down-low look so efficiently, right?

at Harley, I know his underlying numbers were much better in this game and they split up to defense pairs and he was driving a lot of offense, especially in the third period in that comeback mode. But he had another couple turnover is kind of struggling going back to play the puck. I thought that Bischel, Petrovich pair as well got victimized a couple times and there were a few forecheck chance opportunities for the Oilers off of that. And so they've been executing really well there in terms of turning defense to offense and just getting contributions from all of these guys. I think the state of the defense right now for the Oilers is, I mean, clearly the best combination of players they've had there during this entire era. That's just without, me, the T.S. H. H.com, you would have thought heading into the postseason, that would have been a real death blow for them. And instead, Kulak stepped up on the top pair. Him and Bouchard had been phenomenal. And then the acquisition of Wallman and Klingberg's returned to form.

Everything's kind of fallen into place really nicely for that blue line. Yeah, and this is where the Oilers sort of deserve credit for the way they've stylistically built out that blue line. line too, right? A lot of times when teams are loading up to sort of improve their supporting cast on the back end, they're targeting these sort of big, quote unquote, hard to play against defensemen that have skills that are sort of more relevant when it comes to defending in zone, such as net front defense, prioritizing that size, guys who can break up the cycle, win battles or a little bit physical. And that's typically sometimes the, um, the, the, the way that teams try and target defensemen to really load up for the playoffs,

whereas the earlier sort of went in a different direction. They've gone more towards speed and puck moving. Certainly that is Walman's biggest strength of his game and then even signing Klingberg as well. But also you look at, you know, Ty Emerson was their number 60 men early in the series. And they made the adjustment to take him out of the lineup. and bring it stature, who is obviously a lot smaller, but it's also a lot better, particularly because of how mobile he is,

because of how smart he is. And so you've got a blue line right now where there aren't any deficiencies in their puck skills. And that's often the tradeoff with these bigger defensive defensemen that other teams sometimes target is, yeah, they give you that muscle on the back end, but can they make those plays under pressure on defensive zone retrievals? Can they connect plays to sort of get the puck to your forward?

And right now with the Oilers defensemen, whether it's doing it with their feet, whether it's doing it with outlet passes, they're really successfully able to connect those types of plays. And it's a significant difference even compared to last year's playoffs where I remember round two, the Nurse C, C, pair was such a major liability. And the biggest issue was they couldn't break the puck out against heavy four checks. They couldn't connect plays. They were a little bit slow in defensive zone retrievals. their outlet passes weren't sharp. They don't have that type of weakness that a team can exploit right now.

I remember watching that Orlyth Blue Line last year and going that NERC-C-Pair is such a liability, is such a weakness. And you can almost craft your game plan around trying to dominate that pair and win those matchups. Whereas right now, I just don't see that weakness on the Oilish Blue Line, which is pretty remarkable considering they don't have Mitya Sackholm right now.

Yeah, and with his return looming, I want to shout out what we've seen from Brett Kulak, right? I think the combination of him and Bouchard have been incredible together. They've played 20 minutes and 18 seconds, 5-1-5 together. So far in this series, the stars have generated a grand total of 0.16, expected goals worth of offense. In that time, I've been completely held off the board, don't even have a single scoring chance.

In that time, they combined to create the 2-0 goal in that second period, where it starts, Michael Granlin's trying to get in on the forecheck, Bouchard's backpedaling. just fires this beautiful bank pass off the boards to McDavid to stretch the ice. McDavid's able to kind of stop up, push the defense back, and then Kulak joins as the trailer, as you described earlier. He first shot gets blocked by Ranton and bounces back to him, and then he buries it. You know, Bouchard obviously is a very polarizing player because I think when it looks bad

and he makes mistakes, it usually winds up in goals against. But I think his game since pretty much the first three, three games of round one against the Kings has been nearly perfect. And he's been so good. He had a couple other plays in this game that I noted down in the first period. He had this kind of neutral zone step up where he knocks the puck away, carries it into the zone, brings it low in the zone, and then sets up a hymen slot shot, which created out as a really strong opportunity.

And then Kulak himself, he makes this play in the second period as the game's opening up where Sam Steele kind of for whatever reason gets around Bouchard and looks like he has space coming down the left wing and you're wondering whether he's going to, you know, fire a shot off or bring it to the other side or loop around the net and look for a trailer. And Kulak just sprints from the other end of the ice and just completely nullifies it, you know,

just takes the shot opportunity away. They wind up retrieving possession and get out of the zone. And Kulak's doing this, you know, often it's difficult to know how defensemen are going to respond when their usage, escalates to this level, right? Like last post season and he's been this good for, for a number of years. But during their run to the Stanley Cup final last year,

he's averaging 1629 per game. So far this year with Ekholm not available, he's playing 2349 and doing it in top pair of minutes playing with Bouchard. And those guys are out with McDavid a lot. And the wheelers just always have the puck and aren't giving up anything defensively. And it's nearly to the level of a power play unit

when that five-man group is out there because they're just always creating something. So I think that's been a massive luxury here in terms of enabling a lot of the other pairs to shake out and just having a guy like Kulag being able to step up and shoulder this responsibility has been massive for Chris Knoblock and the Oilers. Yeah, I love the way he skates. I love the way he moves, the plays that he's able to see, the way that he can support offense. But all of those attributes without sacrificing the defensive part of the game. him and as he alluded to sometimes you don't know how well a player will adjust to such a drastic extreme increase in usage but he's looked comfortable he's looked confident and i mean to me

it's surprising that it's taken sort of this long as far as him arriving in edmonton a few years ago for teams to sort of realize his value as a defenseman because i remember even when he was with the calgary flames and i think it might have been 2018 he ended up on waivers I believe the Canadians ended up picking him up. But even at the time, I remember sort of just the brief instances I'd watched him play. And of course, it was in a sheltered role at the time. But looking at, you know, how well he moves, the plays that he's able to connect. And it's not like he's an undersized guy.

Plus how, like I think his own exit numbers in a small sample according to Corey Schneider's data, even back then, graded out in like the 90th percentile or something. And I remember at the time, 2018. team tweeting out, hey, I think the connect should claim this guy off waivers. He's such a clear slam dunk upgrade compared to anything else. The team's rolling out. And so it's a bit of a surprise that it took that long for Kulak to sort of, I don't think he really got his appreciation until he really arrived in Edmonton a few years ago.

And now it's only growing since he's had the opportunity to step up in a huge role and is crushing it. Yeah, he's been phenomenal. All right, harm, let's take our break here. and then we come back. We'll close out with the rest of our observations and takeaways from game two of the West Final. You're listening to the Hockey P.DioCast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right.

We're back here on the Hockeyedogacast, I'm going to go through game two of the West Final. You know, I want to talk more about McDavid here because he plays 23-07, generates six more shots. He's up to three goals scored only on 92 shot attempts so far this postseason. And it's certainly based on that. number is not for a lack of trying or scoring chances on his part. You mentioned the on the

PK earlier. Intercepts a pass from say again. It goes in two on one with hymen, rings it off the bar. He sets up the two nothing goal by pushing the D back, stopping up and then kind of finding Kulak coming in as the trailer. We saw Pete DeBurr after game one when he played Hayskinin and Harley together, switch up his pairs right off the top. He goes with Hayskinin playing with Lundell primarily and then he uses Miro with. Harley for offensive zone draws and opportunities when they think they're more likely to create something offensively. We saw Hayskinin versus McDavid for 9-10 at 5-1-5 in this game. Shots on goal were 7-0. Edmonton in that time, I wanted to highlight that one McDavid rush in the first

period one-on-one against Haskinen, where he kind of puts the puck in a space. As Miro's going to poke check it, he does a quick little stick lift, and then in one motion gets a dangerous opportunity off that Anders stops. It was a very Datsukian play. Dreysaitel executes that pretty frequently as well. It was really an awesome, just high-level offensive play by him. And so, you know, I think he's been incredible unsurprisingly in these two games in terms of how much he's generating.

You know, we also got to see, I believe him and Dreysaito played only one five-on-five shift together in this game. Part of it was because they were in a much better position from a scoreboard perspective. So they didn't need to push as much for offense and could balance it out. a little bit more. But beyond that, they split those two guys up. They were both creating on separate lines. And when they can get into that spot and not after out of desperation, load them up,

I feel like it makes them even scarier. And so I think what those two guys have done in these two games in terms of creating scoring chances with the frequency they have is pretty alarming for the stars, right? Because I think the stars are working under this assumption that they're going to play absorb defense and they're going to allow you to have the puck more than they do. and they're going to try to be opportunistic on the other end, but they're going to concede certain things. And yet even despite that acknowledgement,

the number of times we've seen one of those two guys out of thin air create a great A opportunity has been, I would imagine pretty alarming for Peter Barr as he prepares for game three and the Oilers head back home and presumably have even more advantageous opportunities to get those guys out there against some of the weaker stars options defensively because they've created a lot of goals so far. I think the Connor Brown 3-0 goal was the first goal for the Oilers in this series that neither of those guys factored into it.

Yet it feels like it's almost the tip of the iceberg because if they keep doing this, I think the goals are going to start coming in even a greater frequency for the Oilers. Yeah, Mike, David was all world in game two. The number of threatening rushes that he was single-handedly sort of able to lead and whether he was the one generating the scoring chance or setting others up, it was remarkable to watch. I also want to highlight how it isn't just the pure speed and skill, the electricity through the neutral zone, but the number of times in the defensive zone

where his anticipation for where to support the Poc of, you know, there's a battle going on along the wall and in the exact positioning to ensure that he's in an advantageous position to swoop in and collect the Pock, he's putting himself, he's leveraging his IQ to put himself, in positions where he is able to wind up, where he is able to pick up the puck with some speed and space

sort of in high in the defensive zone or sort of shallow in the neutral zone and that gives him that opportunity to wind up. I think a lot of times we focus on what players do when they have the puck and I think there isn't as much of an emphasis on what they do away from the puck

to get themselves in position where they can have possession. And that work away from the puck is often the difference between when you do get possession, do you have a little bit of a window of opportunity to create, to have some space to make a play, or if you struggle to anticipate, if you struggle to understand the spots you need to be in to support the plays, then when you do,

A, you may not get as many puck touches, and B, if you do get them, there's a defender usually draped all over you, and there's no opportunity to wind up and build speed. So that's something that really stood out to me about McDavid. in game two is it's not just what he's doing once he gets the puck, but the work he's doing before it to ensure that he's putting himself in advantageous positions to attack through the neutral zone

and create off the rush. And I think that's what makes what we said earlier about the Oilers actually finally having a blue line that can consistently get these guys the puck and be trusted to move it successfully even more frightening because all of a sudden now when McDavid's kind of cycling around and moving around and probing. without the puck, it's much more difficult to just track him and mirror him the entire time because often you're kind of very preoccupied with Weber as the puck at the time.

And if you're forechecking, you're kind of getting it after the defenseman. And so you can't necessarily just latch onto him and follow him around the ice every step of the way. And so now all of a sudden, just more off-puck opportunities to move around and then pop up into space, get the puck, and then attack from there. It gives them a starting point that I think is even more advantageous for him to find kind of these little windows to then just accelerate up the ice and attack with speed and numbers. So I think that's been huge for them. Part of the logic and kind of the reason why splitting those guys also works is because you could see it in this game where Drysidal all of a sudden gets more of these opportunities to create offensively in CC minutes where CC's paired with Harley and those look very good for the Oilers.

Certainly I thought Drysidal it's not a revelation, but man, his backhand in this game was incredible. Right in the first period, he has that cross-ice whip pass through traffic, cross-seam that gets to Waldman at the left circle, and he gets a good chance off of that in the second period. He's kind of a work in this two-man game down low with R&H, receives the puck on his back hand. Is it too in tight so he can't lift it as much?

And And Andre's able to stop it, but that was a glorious look for them. You mentioned post-PK, the one shift, they paired McDavid and Dreyss settled up with Perry. They get a rush opportunity and Andre's able to get across laterally, but that was a good look for him. He picked pockets Blackwell later and sets up Pod Coles in.

I think on that one, there was a loose puck rebound kind of floating around the blue paint and Capitan wasn't able to get around to it. And that's something I noted as well where how many instances in this game were there where the puck was either loose with the net open or even got by onjure and was kind of hanging around the goal line. Yanmark notably had that one

near the end of the game where he squibs a shot and it goes 5-0 through injure and then Hayeskin is able to clear it. There was a Frederick shot off of a four-check turnover that was available and they weren't able to get to. But Coles in had a couple. So the opportunities

were certainly there for the Oilers much more so, I think, net front than they were in game one and they probably could have had even more of an offensive outpress than they did here scoring the three goals, but it was enough when you don't give up anything on the other end. But yeah, I thought once again, the combination of McDavid and Drys-Sidal, this time doing it much more separately than in game one, we're driving so much of the offense here and left the stars in a bit of a bind in terms of how to

kind of wrangle them and try to deal with it, splitting up their own pairs and figuring out who to use against them. They're using Ranjanon's line a lot against these guys, especially McDavid. And I wondered if that is also the reason why some of the offense is being limited and why Ranchenin, that second period improvement in this game only has seven shot attempts so far in this series and hasn't really even been able to get going himself because they're just spending so much time preoccupied and dealing with what the oilers are doing offensively as opposed to actually creating their own looks. Yeah, this is where I'm concerned that the stars don't have enough of their top forwards

going outside of Ranton and obviously. Robertson, we know he's likely banged up and playing through something, but he hasn't looked anywhere close to being the usual normal version of himself, zero goals and just two assists through eight playoff games. Dushan, he finally broke through in game one, but just one goal in 15 playoff games. Jamie Banj's three points in 15 games. Mason Marchman only has one goal. And then why Johnston? I love him as a player. I think he's got such a high ceiling. I think he's going to be star in this league for a really long time. But I expect more from him in this series. only eight points in 15 games through these playoffs.

And when you look at his 5-and-5 metrics through two games in these series, the stars have been outshot 14 to 6, have only controlled 31% of expected goals, and have been outscored 2-0 with Johnson on the ice at 5-1-5. So you're right. When Ranton is oftentimes going head-to-head against McDavid, it is sometimes going to limit how much offense he can individually create. And so the stars on paper anyway,

should have enough of these impact forwards to get contributions throughout the lineup. But this has been a theme throughout the postseason. And that's why it's worrying for me is it's not as if a lot of these guys were firing in round run, firing around two. And you look at it and go, okay, they've been sort of quiet for only a couple of games here. It's been a consistent theme throughout the postseason. And obviously, after game one, you were a little bit hopeful that, okay, say again, score twice, Dush, got the monkey off the back.

then maybe some of these other forwards can get going, but they just haven't been able to do that, and that's becoming a big red flag for me. And it might be an even bigger one, depending on Rupert Hinsis' status, right? I don't think we talked about it yet. He takes that slash in front of the net from Darnell Maris isn't able to put weight on it.

Heading off the ice doesn't come back. I believe he was spotted in a walking boot after the game. We're recording early here on Saturday, so we don't know his status yet, but that would be certainly a massive. of loss for the stars. I'm glad you brought up Wyatt Johnson, right? Because on the one hand, I don't want to be too critical because you look at what they've

sort of asked from him this postseason. Not only the matchups, he's been playing and the zone deployment, but the defenseman he's playing with who aren't really able to get him the puck. And it's not really a spot where he's necessarily, it's very conducive to driving offense the way he did over the past couple of post seasons for them, especially last year. Yet on the other hand, F515, so far. far he's been outscored 10-4 has just two goals and four points in 15 games there. I guess a silver lining would be it was a three-nothing game at that point.

So maybe take it with a grain of salt, but he got loose for I think five or six chances, honestly, in that third period, right? It starts with they kill off that abbreviate five on three. He gets a short end and breakaway. He goes forehand back end and lifts it a bit too high. But that was the best look. I can remember him having it a long time. And then he was buzzing after that kind of either off the rush or cycle.

circling it around and bringing it to the face off circles and getting a couple looks there. Wasn't able to hit the net a ton on it, but was much more involved offensively than he has been for large stretches this postseason. And so they clearly need him to carry more of an offensive burden, especially if Hintz is going to be unavailable. And I would bet on him doing so because I love the player. And we've seen him in these settings do it before, yet it just hasn't really been there yet for this postseason. And so they just need him to create more offensively than he has so far. Yeah, absolutely. I look at him among that forward group as the biggest X factor outside of Ranted and obviously they need him to really level up as an offensive difference maker. And as you alluded to, it's a tough spot for him to be in. He's shouldering a lot of responsibility. He's in positions that aren't exactly conducive to creating a lot of offense. But he's the one guy on this roster that I have faith in can't actually live up to that law. and high of a bar because as much as I want to look at Jason Robertson and expect him to get

going, I just, I don't know if that's a realistic sort of expectation just because he looks really banged up and looks like a shadow of himself. And this obviously isn't the first time that he's, you know, struggled to the postseason either. We're in an interesting spot because as this series shifts to Edmonton for game three, as, you know, as poor as the stars looked at large stretches for these first two games and the Oilers posed a lot of problems for them at 5-1-5. There's been so many instances throughout this run so far this postseason where I felt that way watching the Stars play. I noted earlier. I think they've been shut out four times now and some some stinkers along the way, especially around one against Colorado. And then they would bounce back

and play an entirely different game and just lock things down defensively and be efficient offensively and guys would step up and they'd create enough goals and it would just you know it would just be night and day compared to what the previous game was like I think part of that is just having a bunch of good players who are going to play better and the other one is I think you and I both think the world of peterborough as a as a tactical coach in series making some adjustments and and figuring out how to slow down the opposition it's going to be quite a tall task for them to do so without last change in game three and dealing with what macdavid and tricidal they've been creating so far. But if there's a team that can do it, it probably is them. And I'm very curious to watch

how that game plays out and to see if they have any sort of answers or wrinkles to throw at them because I don't think they can afford to keep playing the way they have through these first two. Yeah. And if they can just manage the puck a little bit more responsibly, there were things in that game two performance that I liked. The way they were controlling some shifts in the offensive zone, especially down low, creating havoc around the net, especially with how volatile Stuart Skinner can be if his play ever slips and you're generating those types of looks the dam could break offensively for you

and if you're just able to limit the rush opportunities and I know that's really hard to do against the Oilers but even a modest improvement in that department would go a long way because I really think that's what killed them in game two again they had pockets of the game where I like the way they were controlling play where I like some of the where I like some of the plays that they were connecting offensively.

It's just a matter of, I think, tightening up defensively a little bit and especially denying the Oilers from being able to sort of push the stars back and consistently hit that trailer in that high slot area. Because they just gave up too much defensively. Ottinger really had no chance on some of these goals. And even some of the other chances that he stopped, he had to be spectacular for them. So again, if they can limit the turnovers, limit the rush chances that they're conceding a little bit,

I think they've got a chance based off how talented they are as a team and just some of the bigger bodies that they have up front and some of the chaos that they can create, especially. The others can't necessarily bank on Skinner maintaining how well he played in game two throughout the rest of the series. Not to mention the special teams are exploitable. If the stars can, you know, draw some more penalties, get their power play going.

We know that the Oilers, PK, has only been clicking at around 62%. So there are still pathways for the stars to win the series, unquestionably. Yeah, I'm certainly with you. And I think, you know, just going into the tape of that second period and while it was still won nothing, some of that pressure they were able to create in particular, as we said, working the puck behind the net and coming out on the other side and looking for shooting windows is going to be there.

But one of the issues is when you do so, not only your guys caught a bit deeper, but you just need immense discipline in terms of backtracking and making sure you prevent those odd band rushes that the Oilers were able to capitalize off of from those sequences. So yeah, that interplay between the two is going to be fascinating. I think it's going to be an awesome game three. I'm really excited to watch it and break it down afterwards.

You want to plug anything here on the way out, anything you want to let the listeners know about? Yeah, I think also kind of shifting, into off-season storylines soon. So I am about to do a few stories on, you know, our phase that might price themselves out of their current teams and become trade candidates. A couple stories around the cap flexibility and trade assets that certain teams have that might be really aggressive players in the summer. So starting to veer into off-season preview content and some of the spicy storylines for what I'm expecting is going to be a really fun summer once

these playoffs are over. Yeah, man, looking forward to breaking that all down with you and looking forward to having you on again here for another playoff breakdown as we progress through these conference finals. If you want to help us out, you enjoy today's show. Smash that five-star button and leave us a nice little review wherever you listen to show.

Join us in the PDOCast Discord as well. That is all from us today. But don't worry, we're going to be right back tomorrow. As I said, game three of this Oilers Star series is going to be a matinee on Sunday after. afternoon. And so our pal Drenz is back from his vacation. We're going to watch it together in studio and then do a show right afterwards and bring back the Sunday special after a brief one week hiatus for it. Thank you for listening to the Hockey Ptodiacs streaming on the

Sports Night Radio Network.