Focus is on men in the middle
Don’t take your eyes off the men in the middle.
When the Oilers and Ducks renew hostilities at Rogers Place Sunday in Game 6 with the threat of elimination hanging in the air, the top four centremen in this series — Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — are good bets to rise up at the most crucial time to make the difference.
That’s when reputations are confirmed or built.
Oh sure, it could also be Anaheim’s prolific winger Jakob Silfverberg, who led all skaters on both teams with 38 shots through Game 4 and had scored seven goals, including two game-winners. And yes, it could be Leon Draisaitl, who had been Edmonton’s best forward through 10 playoff games. The post-season makes heroes out of the less likely, too, players like the Oilers’ Zack Kassian and David Desharnais and the Ducks’ Nate Thompson and Chris Wagner. All four have game-winners in these playoffs.
But the eyes are drawn more often to the middle and for reasons other than gut instinct or dramatic inference or name recognition. It’s right there in the ice-time statistics. These go-to guys are always going to be out there.
Between them, Getzlaf and Kesler are on the ice for 43 of the 60-odd minutes of each playoff game this year. Edmonton answers with 39 minutes from its top two pivots, 21 from McDavid and 18 from Nugent-Hopkins. The totals are skewed by the fact teammates will be on the ice together on occasion, but it essentially leaves two pivots for each team sharing the remaining 20 minutes or less.
It surely leaves the top two on each team more tired than the others, but likely energized by the challenge these matchups present.
And you can start where all plays start: in the faceoff circle. Getzlaf had won 57 per cent of his faceoffs, Kesler 55 per cent. Their Oilers opponents have been folded, spindled and mutilated on the dot. McDavid especially had struggled at 32 per cent. Nugent-Hopkins wasn’t much better at 40 per cent.
The imbalance puts the Oilers in chase mode too often and gives the Ducks an offensive edge they have been exploiting.
Getzlaf especially has imposed his will in all but Game 2, when only the rarest Duck could squeeze anything past goalie Cam Talbot. It was just Getzlaf’s second pointless game of the first eight in these playoffs.
“The way he’s playing right now, I mean, there’s not much you can do,” Kesler said Friday morning. The Oilers have to keep trying. “Get your stick in there, be in his face. If you hit him, finish him, but hold onto him a little bit longer than usual,” said Patrick Maroon. “You want to make sure he doesn’t get back to the net or back to open space.”
The San Jose Sharks gangtackled McDavid with five-man coverage units and limited his effectiveness in Round 1. The Oilers have a similar problem on their hands in Getzlaf, but hadn’t solved it four games in.
“He’s got tremendous size, strength, skill, vision and experience,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said Friday morning. “To think that one guy is going to shut him down, it’s not going to happen that way. It has to be a group effort. If you end up on the ice against him, you’d better know who you’re out there with and get the job done.”