The Preds were NOT an easy out. They were f***ing for real. One of the best teams in the entire league in the calendar year, coming in hot to the playoffs. They were deep, well coached, extremely defensive and checked tight, had a terrifying first line, and had a brilliant goalie in net. The Canucks should be EXTREMELY proud of this series win. I unironically think Edmonton will be easier. We have a path to the cup finals now. 12 MORE.
So I was impressed the Brunette turned a stretch play, quick-up team into one that forechecked hard and then blocked a ton of shots in their own end. I'm not sure the Oilers can do that.
LA did manage to contain McDavid, and we're going to have to commit completely to our defensive play to keep doing that. We might be a terrible matchup for them because we're similar to the Kings in defensive structure but we don't have that baggage of losing to them all the time. And we have better goaltending.
I don't think Skinner is that great. We should be able to take advantage of him, he doesn't move laterally all that well. The Oilers are playing better defence but they're not necessarily structured, they are just trying hard. That might fall apart easily if they get frustrated.
I think we saw some flashes of dropping another forward for puck support in breakouts and I don't think it's a surprise that we got more shots in the third period than we have basically all series. Tocchet needs to learn from this and they need to figure out their PP. Kind of crazy that it feels like we can rely on the PK now considering what it was the previous two seasons.