One of the most difficult things in life is gaining proper perspective in the moments immediately following a major event.
In sports, as in life, time allows an opportunity to ponder and arrive at reasonable conclusions.
For Edmonton Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch, there’s little time to assess and develop a game plan at this stage of the season.
Despite those limitations, his brilliant roster shuffling so far this spring has the team three wins from winning it all.
What can Knoblauch conclude from his team’s Game 4 performance in the Stanley Cup Final?
Entering Game 4
Previous roster tweaks through the postseason included sitting goaltender Stuart Skinner for a couple of games, sending veterans like Corey Perry to the press box and moving young defenceman Philip Broberg into a primary role.
Almost all of the changes made by the coach have delivered positive results across the regular season and deep into the playoffs.
Game 4 was a continuation of Knoblauch’s roster mastery.
Second pair solved?
Wrinkles that helped the Oilers win Game 4 included placing Broberg with veteran Darnell Nurse on an all lefty pairing. The two men played sparingly together until the third game of the final but flourished (2-1 goal share in 13:30 five-on-five minutes) in that game.
During Game 4, the two men saw similar playing time (12:21) and delivered a 2-0 goal share.
Solving the second pairing issue has been a massive problem for Edmonton going back to the regular season.
Finding a late fix like Nurse-Broberg could be massive over the balance of this series.
It might also be the answer to what looked like a massive roster issue over the summer.
Entering Game 3, Nurse owned one of the worst five-on-five goal differentials (9-23, 28 percent) in NHL playoff history. A 5-1 run over the last two games, with Broberg as his partner through most of it, saved Nurse from the record book and could vault the team to a Stanley Cup victory.
Support scoring
The veteran trio of centre Adam Henrique with wingers Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown didn’t spend much time together until the final.
Entering Saturday night’s game, the trio spent 17:40 together and owned a 53 percent expected goal percentage. The line wasn’t scoring but the puck was headed in a good direction.
What the team needed was offence from a line that didn’t include Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Saturday night, the line provided plenty of offence.
At five-on-five, they were 1-0 in goals over 8:39.
Henrique and Janmark scored one goal each, and Janmark and Brown each grabbed an assist.
Even more impressive, there was more depth scoring from Dylan Holloway (2-1-3), Ryan McLeod (1-0-1) and Corey Perry (0-1-1).
Connor McDavid (1-3-4), Leon Draisaitl (0-2-2) and Zach Hyman (0-2-2) were all over the scoresheet, but the badly needed secondary scoring arrived in full force on Saturday.
The importance of balanced scoring from each line, as seen in Game 4, cannot be underestimated as the series against Florida reaches the final stages.
Playing youth
During the Stanley Cup Final, all the young men Edmonton is currently deploying made poor decisions that led directly to goals.
Knoblauch didn’t fade these men and instead increased their minutes.
The result? Each of Holloway, Broberg, Skinner and McLeod contributed in a major way to the Oilers’ first win in the Stanley Cup Final.
This usage of youth runs counter to playoffs past, when players like Ethan Bear were banned to the press box for the mistakes of youth.
What’s next?
Edmonton is in need of three victories with no wiggle room.
Knoblauch’s handling of this roster over the season, the playoffs and now the final, should give the Oilers organization and fans plenty of confidence moving forward.
Notes
Looking back on this season and playoffs, there are things the organization may look to improve in an effort to have more success.
Edmonton’s hesitancy to play NHL-ready youth (Broberg, Holloway) in the regular season limited the trust Knoblauch had in these players early in the playoff run. More audition time for both may have allowed the coaching staff to deploy each man in a bigger role sooner.
There’s also enough evidence to suggest the club ran veterans who were playing through injury in an effort to make the postseason.
These two issues dovetail in a way. If the club had recalled Holloway more often, and allowed Evander Kane time for surgery on his sports hernia, the roster could be more complete now. Same goes for Broberg and the fading of Vincent Desharnais in the postseason.
What’s next?
Edmonton’s newest hockey star wears a suit, has a calm demeanour and makes decisions that work in real time.
Knoblauch and his coaching staff have uncovered layers of skill on this team that were not known to be there just a few short weeks ago.
The Nurse-Broberg pairing could represent a major solution for the team over the rest of the series and into next season.
The Henrique line, with Janmark and Brown, is a throwback trio doing the chores often left to the Michael Peca line (2006), the Craig MacTavish line (mid-1980s) and the Ken Linesman line (1984) during previous runs to the final.
The new general manager would be wise to bring back the entire line for 2024-25.
Are there three more wins from this roster over the rest of June?
Based on Knoblauch’s roster deployment, it’s safe to say everyone should stay tuned.
(Photo: Dave Sandford / NHLI via Getty Images)
