The Oilers Came Up Just Short
The Oilers Came Up Just Short
The agony of tight margins
It all comes down to a moment. Maybe a couple, two or three. Sports imitate life that way. You can trace a lot back to very little.
In a hockey season, for instance, you can point to the moment the Edmonton Oilers lost their chance at history and ceded the floor to the Florida Panthers.
With about 5 minutes left in the 2nd period, and the game knotted up at 1-1, the Oilers’ Warren Foegele very nearly scored the go-ahead goal. He did not, and on the counter moments later, it was instead the Panthers’ Sam Reinhart who made the most of a defensive miscommunication and scored what would prove to be the game-, series-, and Cup-winning goal.
Edmonton didn’t score again. They had many chances. I was beside myself at a few of the moments in which they somehow did not get one in there. Remember when Bobrovsky was off his feet for what felt like 30 seconds in the 3rd?
Contemporaneously, we see history being written in those moments. The Oilers will watch the tape of this game — if ever they’re so inclined; personally, I might skip it, but then I’m not a pro athlete — zero in on the same few moments and ask themselves: how did we not win this game?
Those guys will remember what happened. They were there. But us? The fickle residents of Fansville? We won’t. 20 years from now, a handful of us might remember the goal that won it. Most of us won’t. They’ll just know, when Matthew Tkachuk or whoever else on this team is up for the Hall of Fame, that he won a Stanley Cup in 2024. That’ll be on his resume. And people will cite that accomplishment — free of context, free of Tkachuk’s play in that game/series, free of the near-total collapse in Games 4-6 that let the Oilers back in this series — as evidence that he was a great player who deserves a place in history.
To be clear, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I can barely remember what happened yesterday. And Tkachuk is the caliber of player who might’ve gotten there without one. Had his career continued apace for another productive decade, playing comparably well, he’d have had a case. That case just wouldn’t have been quite as strong if the season didn’t break his way this one year.
It’s a fallacy of the way we remember athletes. Our most famous example, or at least the one who’s still hearing the most about it these days, due to his continuing presence in our lives, would be Charles Barkley. You don’t need to know the first thing about basketball to know that going up against Michael Jordan might have had an impact on the extent of his success, but you better believe — no matter how confident Barkley is and rightly should be about his career — the #1 feeling you get from winning one, and you only need one to be magically exonerated of failure in the eyes of an expectant public, is relief.
We saw it on Jayson Tatum’s face in Boston a week ago. We saw it on Matthew Tkachuk’s a few days ago.1 And we saw just the opposite on the face of Connor McDavid, during what must have been an excruciating postgame interview.
He is, by all accounts, the greatest player alive, and he cemented that status this postseason. In Games 4 and 5 of this series, he seemed to be willing the Oilers’ improbable run all on his own.
There was something uniquely painful, then, watching him run out of steam in the closing minutes of Game 7. The last time he had the puck, it looked like he finally crumbled beneath the burden he’d been carrying for several months — several years — now. He went to a knee, exhausted. Defeated.
Not quite enough to do the impossible. He did enough throughout these playoffs to pull the Jerry West (RIP) and snag the MVP in a losing effort. He was singularly brilliant for so much of this run. But he did not have a point in this game, and Edmonton lost by a single goal. Nearly there, just not quite.
He’ll be hearing that refrain until he wins one. I suspect he will, but no matter his talent, success is not guaranteed. It’s a game of agonizingly tight margins, and all it takes is one break that doesn’t go your way. There was one more break that went Florida’s last night. They win. Throw the parade.
The pain in Edmonton is real, but as far as the game goes, this was an affirmation of what’s to love about hockey. In the minutes leading up to that moment, the whole game was frenetic in a way that, for my money, no other sport can replicate. When it’s desperation time, and the skill level is up for it — as it tends to be in the Stanley Cup — there is so much dynamism packed into so compact a space that the tension can abate only briefly. The threat is constant.
And then the clock hits zero, and the danger’s over. You’ve done it. You get to raise the cup that the weird guy with the gloves takes care of all year.
I’ve made repeated mention of my lacking bona fides as a hockey fan. That remains true, so I do apologize for trespassing, but it was fun to skate around. Congrats to Florida, condolences to Edmonton, and I’ll see you next year.
Also, This
🍻 And don’t think I didn’t catch STL legend Keith Tkachuk trying to crack a Modelo with his son out on the ice before seeing the camera. Good stuff, ‘Chuk. Never change.
🏟️ A few months ago, I wrote about the NHL’s ownership odyssey in Phoenix that took the Coyotes to Utah and left the Arizona market as a bit of a question mark going forward. That’s now truer than ever, as the owner who still has the rights to a future team in Phoenix appears ready to call it quits. Tough break for the Grand Canyon State.
😸 The Villanova ‘18 reunion is officially on. You love to see it. The vibes are immaculate, and call me crazy, but I think the basketball fit is there too. That’s a good roster in New York. They’ll have trouble keeping Hartenstein, which would not be a small loss, but since they’ve managed to keep OG, that’s a strong wing rotation of Bridges, Anunoby, Hart, and DiVincenzo to supplement Brunson and Randle, who I keep forgetting is still on the team. Add McBride, Burks, and Robinson to the mix, and I’d say that’s pretty competitive in the East. ECF competitive, with a couple breaks.
⛏️ <—— it’s a pick. Get it? For the draft? I gave some of my thoughts on the latest 5x5 roundtable here (thanks as always,
) but here are a few more I didn’t have room for:Bronny James is off to LA to play with his father, which is really a beautiful thing. I’m a little surprised that no one stepped in to fuck this up, but hey. He’s staying right where he is. On a separate front, I can’t imagine the Lakers can play the “LeBron had nothing to do with this” card on this too, can they? I’ll be fascinated to see if they even try. No way they asked him about hiring his podcast co-host, either, of course. What a world.
Zag alert! I’m not sure I like Rob Dillingham in Minnesota. I think it’s a good pickup to grab a sort of Malik Monk/Jordan Clarkson sparkplug scorer for when that offense gums up, but then it’s also being made out to be a Mike Conley insurance plan? Not sure I see Dillingham as a lead guard who can or should play that ‘steady hand’ role. I don’t see it. Sure sounds fun though!
This one isn’t a zag, but if it’s not Clingan on the Blazers, then Ron Holland to the Pistons might be the worst team-fit pick of the draft. That’s a worst-case scenario on so many levels. Skill set, position fit, franchise competency… it’s getting dark in Motor City.
I like Utah’s draft. I don’t love it, but I like two high-pedigree, high-upside guys for a team that’s going to be waiting a while regardless.
Couple of more pro-ready guys who landed in good spots:
Dalton Knecht to the Lakers. That’s silly at #17. Lotta talent.
Da’Ron Holmes to the Nuggets — yup. Honestly, anybody’s gonna have a good time playing next to Jokic, and I like this a lot.
Baylor Scheierman to the Celtics. Always been a fan of this guy’s game and I bet he’ll perform with light minutes in Boston.
☘️ Not to detract from the accomplishment, because the roster-building in Boston was unqualifiedly masterful, but I’ve been wondering lately as people pay tribute to the Celtics’ patience in keeping the Js together all these years. Was their decision not to deal Jaylen Brown entirely their own? Are we sure he wouldn’t have gone out in the Anthony Davis trade that AD’s dad foiled? That seems like the closest call, though I remember similar smoke around Paul George a while back. Can any keepers of NBA lore confirm or deny this for me?
? ? ? The way we’re talking about this strikes me as a conveniently misremembered version of events. No shade, I should reemphasize. But sometimes you’re lucky not to get the thing you want (like, say, Anthony Davis).Did you hear those guys were friends in high school? Crazy!