Jets get early jump on Oilers
Thirty-seven years to the day after winning their first Stanley Cup championship, the Edmonton Oilers set out in search of their next one Wednesday at Rogers Place.
Opening their first playoff series since the two-round run in 2017, and eager to show the hockey world just how they’ve evolved as a team, the Oilers saw firsthand what they already knew going in — this isn’t going to be easy.
Not even against an injured team they were 7-2 against in the regular season.
The Winnipeg Jets turned out to be exactly what they said they’d be in their 4-1 victory in Game 1, a solid, hungry team determined to prove the playoffs are an entirely different battleground than the one Edmonton dominated in the regular season.
And they did. Jets forward Dominic Toninato broke a 1-1 tie at 9:16 of the third period and Kyle Connor and Blake Wheeler sealed it with empty netters to give the Jets first blood in their North Division semifinal.
“It’s playoff hockey, it’s tight,” said Oilers coach Dave Tippett, who wasn’t unhappy with how his club played in a game that was a coin toss until the final minutes.
“They got a break on the winning goal and the first empty netter hits the referee. The way games are, they’re going to be tight. You have to capitalize on your chances.
“There are some things we can do better, but that’s how it’s going to be — it’s going to be tight hockey. We like what we’ve done all year. We have a confident group. We’ll rerack and be ready for Game 2.”
In an empty building, but with about a million Oilers fans cheering from their couches, Edmonton had a solid night on the defensive side of the puck, but couldn’t find the offensive magic that served them so well all year.
“I actually didn’t mind our game,” said Oilers captain Connor Mcdavid, who had 22 points in nine regular-season games against the Jets, but none on Wednesday night.
“I thought we did a lot of good things. I thought we had the puck a lot of the night and played in their zone. We put a lot of pucks through (shots were 33-22 Edmonton). We just didn’t find a way to get one. That’s the way it goes. They get a tip. We don’t. That’s playoff hockey.”
This was the tightchecking, hard-hitting and low-scoring affair one would come to expect from two teams who played each other nine times during the regular season, locking things down for the post-season.
And the Oilers, for the most part, showed they were right at home in this kind of atmosphere. They just couldn’t find the offence when they needed it.
This isn’t going to be a free-wheeling series where offence comes easily for anyone, even those players who’ve made careers out of making it look that way. And not if Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck has anything more to say about it.
“We were trying to do the right thing, we just didn’t get it done,” said Tippett. “You have to make your breaks, find ways to get the puck in the back of the net.
“When it doesn’t go in, you have to stay with it. That’s how I expected all the games to be, they’re going to be tight. That’s playoff hockey at its best.”
The Jets limped into the playoffs, winning just three of their last 12 games, but they showed up strong in Game 1, dishing out 18 of the game’s first 26 hits.
It was also a tentative start for the Oilers, who didn’t register their first shot of the game until 8:25 and had to count on goalie Mike Smith to make a couple of good saves under some early Winnipeg pressure.
“Everyone was really eager to get going. I think you saw a little first-game jitters,” said Oilers winger James Neal “Then we settled in and had a good second period.
Edmonton found its footing and made it 1-0 on Jesse Puljujarvi’s goal at 8:24 of the second period. They were in the process of taking over (shots were 8-1 in the second when Puljujarvi scored), but the Jets tied it 2:37 later on a Tucker Poolman rebound goal.