Dimitri Filipovich

Two very evenly matched teams.

Also two teams, I do wonder, because I know this Drance was talking about this a lot, that

the games were so disappointing from an entertainment perspective for the most part.

That game four that went to overtime was really fun, but otherwise I completely agree.

I think part of it is we know that if you give NHL coaches enough time, they're going to find a way to suck the fun out of every single game and every single situation.

And these are two coaches who had three, four months to prepare for their round one opponents.

And so I think that's probably what's going on.

Yeah, I certainly felt that way coming out of Games 3 and 4 in Anaheim, where despite how close it was, it obviously required this...

highly controversial review in overtime and a coin flip game in overtime to settle game four, I did feel like Anaheim was really kind of overwhelming them with their youth and talent and just offensive firepower.

Quickly out of the gate in game five, that changed.

And I do wonder, it's not the most like analytical take, but I think back to that Canucks-Oilers series a couple of post-seasons ago, and even when the Canucks went up 3-2 in that series, I think most people viewed it as like,

well the Oilers are going to need to stop messing around now and there's going to be a level of desperation that is probably going to be enough for them to win this and that was the case and I wonder if some of that is happening here not that they were like taking this series win for granted or overlooking the Ducks because we know how talented they are offensively but I think it's a different beast trying to win a fourth game against them and Florida has really been the only team that's been able to do so the past couple years and

I'm at the point where I'm going to need to see it to believe it in terms of this Oilers team losing, particularly this early in the postseason.

I know it could go off the rails very easily with their goaltending and the Ducks just scoring a bunch of rush goals, but I'll be surprised if they certainly... I expect them to win tonight and ultimately this series despite having been down 3-1.

yeah no for sure I mean they could they could easily beat you I maybe it's just me being unfair to the Ducks because I always feel like whenever the Oilers lose or give up goals against I view it through the lens of like what they did to mess up right and oftentimes it's like questionable decision-making or effort getting back defensively or just kind of like boneheaded mistakes and now that the margin for error has shrunk to the point where they can't afford to play one of those games I

I wasn't surprised to see the effort, especially out of the gate where they just completely steamrolled Anaheim in game five at home.

And it'll be tougher to do so on the road here in Anaheim.

But I would expect something similar.

And ultimately, I think if the Ducks are going to win, it's going to be because they just make a couple of shots and beat the Oilers goalies and not the Oilers making the same mistakes they did in their first three losses in the series.

There is a certain, like, benefit of doubt they burn.