The team was right back on the ice for a spirited skate on Tuesday as they shift their focus to Game 4 on Thursday with a chance to bring a split home to Edmonton
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – This is when having a veteran-laden team comes in clutch.
Yes, the Oilers were dominated by the Florida Panthers to the tune of a 6-1 score on Monday in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. But they were quick to remind themselves that it was only one game in a best-of-seven series that they could turn into a best-of-three heading back to Edmonton with a win in Game 4 on Thursday.
“I closed that book last night as I did with Game 1 and I did with Game 2,” Mattias Ekholm said Tuesday as the team got right back to work with a spirited skate at Baptist Health IcePlex. “You gotta look at it as it’s one game. We’re looking for the whole series. We know we’re down 2-1 and we gotta be better next game… but we’re one win away from having the best out of three with two home games.”
Mattias talks after the team’s skate in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday
The 35-year-old Swedish stalwart is one of many experienced Oilers players who have been through the highs and lows of lengthy playoff runs, providing the team with plenty of levity when adversity hits.
“I’ve heard this a million times this year and maybe I’m wrong, but I think we’re the oldest team in the NHL, so to have all that experience on our side is also huge,” he said correctly, as Edmonton did indeed have the highest average roster age in the league this season.
“In situations like this, you gotta go game by game, you gotta go day by day, and just make sure you don’t let that flow into each other too much. We knew before this series that it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be tough… Getting together again today, getting on the ice, we all feel a lot better about it and yeah, we’re going to be ready for Game 4.”
Leon & Corey speak following Oilers practice on Tuesday afternoon
The eldest statesman on the squad is of course 40-year-old Corey Perry, who scored Edmonton’s only goal on Monday for his fourth tally in the last five games. As frustrating as the lopsided loss was, the veteran of 234 career post-season appearances said there’s nothing the Oilers can do about it now so they may as well shift their focus.
“You can’t dwell on things you can’t change,” Perry said. “You can’t change the outcome after the game has ended. You look at what you didn’t do right or you could improve on, or however you want to say it, and take some positives out of it or whatever, but you have to flush it. The next one’s the biggest one, and that’s how we think about it. Yeah, we lost the game. Get ready for the next one. Move on.”
Head Coach Kris Knoblauch referenced his team’s ability to bounce back from heartbreaking losses against the Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights earlier in the playoffs and is confident they’ll be able persevere past back-to-back defeats to the Panthers as well.
“We’re very fortunate to have the group of guys that we have in the room,” Knoblauch said. “They are fabulous, they are mature, they’re focused and they handle success very well, but they handle adversity very well. And we’re just going to need that maturity to move forward.”
