Team effort, not usual suspects, helps Oilers eliminate Golden Knights

Edmonton Oilers right wing Kasperi Kapanen, upper right, celebrates after scoring against the Vegas Golden Knights during overtime of Game 5 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series Wednesday, May 14, 2025, in Las Vegas. (John Locher/AP)

We’re not there yet – at 28, Connor McDavid is in his prime and he’s eligible for a contract extension this summer – but the Edmonton Oilers’ captain could have a post-hockey career as an assignment editor if he so desires.

Not because the National Hockey League’s biggest superstar would need to pad his income with a five-figure annual stipend once the grey really settles in – come this year’s warm months, he’s eligible to cash in on a lengthy nine-figure deal – but because he conjured a decent story idea for reporters Wednesday night after his team finished off the Vegas Golden Knights in their second-round playoff series.

Who knows, maybe he’ll get bored, maybe 15-20 years from now, lounging in the Muskokas – or during the winter months at least.

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Five-on-five, the Oilers “have been really, really good,” he said in the dressing room after the game, trying to redirect several questions about the Oilers’ staunch defensive play in the wake of two shutout wins in a row.

“That’s the new story for you guys to write,” said McDavid, after encapsulating the Oilers’ journey thus far these playoffs: “We’ve done it largely grinding through special teams. The PK (penalty-kill) has been battling. The power play has struggled all series long.”

That grind, as McDavid identifies, hasn’t included the Oilers’ once-vaunted unit that could almost score at will just two years ago. It converted on just one off 11 chances against Vegas after going five-for-13 vs. Los Angeles.

The Oilers’ power play finished 12th in the NHL this regular season, scoring 23.7 per cent of the time. Last year, their power play sat fourth among the league leaders at 26.3 per cent. In 2022-23, it was first with an eye-popping 32.4-per-cent conversion rate, a number not seen since the Flying Frenchmen days of the 1970s powerhouse Montreal Canadiens.

And McDavid, a five-time NHL scoring champ, was held off the scoresheet Wednesday for the first time in eight games. He’s scored 17 points in 10 playoff games, good for second in NHL scoring before Thursday’s action in Washington, D.C., and Winnipeg.

Indeed, save Game 2’s push-back by Vegas in trying to not lose both opening games on home ice and the one wide-open game that Edmonton could’ve won after attempting to come back for a playoffs-unheard-of seventh time in a row – Game 3’s fraction-of-a-second-left Golden Knights victory to snuff a late blue-and-orange charge – the Oilers dominated the series in terms of puck possession, scoring chances and the shot clock.

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“A lot of people thought it was going to go longer than five (games), and probably not a lot of people thought we would win,” McDavid said. “It’s nice to keep on rolling, keep on proving people wrong. We’ve got a lot of belief in this room. It’s fun to be part of ...

“I know we’ve got a good team. Obviously, we keep showing it. We’ve beaten two really, really good teams.”

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch spoke to the team’s air-tight defensive play that helped formerly embattled goalie Stuart Skinner post two straight shutouts, once again following Wednesday’s series-clinching victory – as he did two nights earlier after Game 4 when Skinner and the Oilers mothballed the Golden Knights 3-0 – pointing out the bailing out the netminder supplied while they were shorthanded.

“We defended pretty well in front of him,” Knoblauch told media, emphasizing Skinner’s third-period performance on Wednesday with Vegas pressing. “Was he perfect? No. Were there some chances? Definitely. And he came up big the last two nights.”

Defenceman Darnell Nurse said Wednesday night he expected the Oilers to “come together” after starting the postseason with two convincing losses to the Los Angeles Kings, given the injuries to and absences of several key players late in the regular season.

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“There was always going to be some moments of cohesion that had to come,” Nurse said post-game. “There’s a feel to being on the ice with four other guys and knowing where they’re going to be on the ice, knowing where to put the puck, so there was going to be an adjustment period for us.

“We managed that first, and then you can just tell as these two series had gone on, there’s more and more cohesion coming within our group. With that said, this is not the end. We’ve got to continue to build our game and continue to be better because we have high goals for ourselves.”

Wednesday night’s overtime hero, Kasperi Kapanen, told reporters he “knew exactly what kind of team” he was joining – one that has the reputation for nuclear-level offensive firepower – after the Oilers picked him up off the waiver wire from the St. Louis Blues in November, but that they’ve been doing “a phenomenal job defending as well.”

“(Wednesday’s Game 5) was just one of those games where both teams, I felt, defended pretty well, and both goalies played well,” said Kapanen, who saw his first Oilers playoff action in Monday’s Game 4.

“That overtime goal is pretty much just throwing it on net, getting guys there and then staying with it.”

Nurse said the Oilers know if they want success, “it starts with defending.”

“The offence will come off that,” he said. ”We were more conscious and did a better job of that in this series.”