EDMONTON: Darryl Sutter has listened to all the theories surrounding the series and is not buying any.
“We have to win a game on the road at some point,” said the Flames coach, whose club has fallen 2-1 in a series against a growing Oilers squad. Game 4 is Tuesday at 9:30 pm ET / 7:30 pm MT and can be viewed on Sportsnet.
“Everyone has all these philosophies about how we are supposed to play or what we should do. We have to have a good road game, and it is very difficult. Maybe we’ll play our best game of the year tonight. But do you win or lose? We find out. “
Since the Flames lost the second game at home, they do need to win at least one game at Rogers Place if they want to win the provincial battle. And while Calgary had one of the best road records in the NHL during the season, the Flames are 1-3 on the road this spring, beating them 13-9.
Sutter said the atmosphere of the last game was a bit overwhelming for some of his younger players, before insisting that his goalkeeper was not one of them.
“They didn’t let it dry out,” said Sutter, who drew Jacob Markstrom with the club 4-0 in the third game.
“In fact, the last game was his best game.”
Of the 16 times Markstrom allowed four or more goals this season, six were against the Oilers. Only one other team did it more than once against him.
So far, the main candidate for the best date in this series is Milan Lucic, who said on Monday about his so-called charge against Oilers goalkeeper Mike Smith: “If he were accused, we wouldn’t both be playing night). ”
In fact, there have been far fewer extracurriculars than we expected from this series. Zack Kassian was asked on Monday if there would be the same pay for Lucic in a playoff game that would normally be there if it was a regular season affair.
“Scoring dictates a lot of the traps that go out there,” Kassian said. “We won the game, we are happy to have won the game. It’s a new game today and it’s a great game. ”
This is our prediction: the Flames have promised to return to the game that brought them here, and this is a physical hockey mark. Calgary will carry everything they have on Tuesday night, behind the 2-1 series, and that means more “shenanigans” than we’ve had in the first three games.
“This is a narrative that you (your media) are reproducing,” said Kassian, who wouldn’t want to bite our theory. “We are here to win a series. The way we have played the last two games, we have to keep playing like this. We have to be disciplined and we have to play fast.
“We have to stay out of shit.”
Recent memories of Game 4 differ between these two Alberta clubs.
The Flames won Game 4 in Dallas to tie their first-round series against the Stars, while the Oilers won Games 2 and 3 against Los Angeles by a combined score of 14-2, then were eliminated by Jonathan. Quick in a 4-0. 4th game lost on the road.
“We can learn from the latest series,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. “Game 4 was probably the worst in the series, and I think tonight is an opportunity for our group to show that we have learned our lesson and bring our ‘A’ game tonight.”
We’ve seen these series oscillate back and forth for years. Edmonton has been able to dictate the style of play through Games 2 and 3, and now it’s the Flames’ turn to take over the way the series is played.
The Oilers can expect a harder time going through the neutral zone, fewer weird breaks than they had in Game 3 and a harder road game mentality overall from Calgary. What it simply means is that Edmonton has done well so far, they will have to do even better to defeat a desperate side of the Flames.
“We want to play our best game in the series tonight,” head coach Jay Woodcroft said. “Yesterday was about that, today is about that. For me, it’s about doing simple things very, very well.
“I thought we did a good job of affirming our game plan to the other team,” he said of Game 3. “It’s something we set out to do every night, but our level of execution to be excellent. We will need it tonight. ”
Series by numbers:
• Flames are 3-11 of all time in the series at best 7 when they lose the series 2-1 (2-7 when the series starts at home).
• The flames are 36 of 39 in the penalty shootout this postseason. Its current PK of 92.3% would be the best in a single postseason in the history of the franchise.
• The Flames are 0-2 this postseason when Johnny Gaudreau runs out of points, as he did in Game 3.
• The Flames have lost eight of their last nine games when Gaudreau is without a point.
• The Oilers have an all-time 18-3 mark in the series at the best of 7 when they lead 2-1, but the Oilers have lost six 4s games in a row when they maintain a 2-1 lead in the series.
• McDavid has more points (23) and hits (33) in 10 games this postseason than in its previous 21 postseason games. His 23 points in 10 games this year is one more than he had in his 21 playoff games of his previous career.
• Despite all the talk about how the Flames want to play this 5-on-5 series, the Oilers are outscoring the Flames, 12-10, when both teams are in full force.
ALIGNMENTS
Edmonton
Kane-McDavid-Draisaitl
Hyman-Nugent-Hopkins-Puljujarvi
Foegele-McLeod-Yamamoto
Archibald-Ryan-Kassian
Nurse-That
Keith-Bouchard
Ear-Barrie
Smith
Calgary
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Coleman-Backlund-Mangiapane
Dube-Jarnkrok-Toffoli
Lucic-Lewis-Ritchie
Hanafin-Andersson
Kylington-Stone
Zadorov-Gudbranson
Markstrom