Ekholm making a difference for Edmonton Oilers in return from injury
Just how badly did the Edmonton Oilers miss Mattias Ekholm in these playoffs?
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Sure, they might have gone an impressive 11-4 in his absence, while the veteran defenceman was doing everything in his power to come back from an undisclosed injury that also saw him miss 16 of the last 21 regular-season games.
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And, yes, they only allowed a total of two goals in their previous five wins prior to him returning for the final game of the Western Conference Final, where he earned an assist on a Connor McDavid breakaway goal that sealed the win against the Dallas Stars.
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And he followed up with the tying goal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday, forcing the overtime period where Leon Draisaitl ended up scoring the 4-3 winner to give them a 1-0 series lead over the same Florida Panthers they lost to in seven games exactly one year ago.
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Two games. Two crucial points. Two more wins of the 16 the Oilers need to surpass the 15 from last year's near-miraculous ride.
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At this point, you might even say the Oilers were missing Ekholm more for his offensive prowess than the staunch defence he's known for on the team's top pairing alongside Evan Bouchard.
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And it would be hard to argue.
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Especially after watching Ekholm snap home a puck that was threaded to him on a seeing-eye pass by McDavid in the third period to knot the score 3-3, returning the favour from one game earlier.
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'I don't know if he sees me or not, but it was a great pass,' Ekholm said. 'He put it on a platter for me. It was kind of one of those I have to score.
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'Obviously, you try to focus on the game but it's one of those things you sit back tonight and focus on before going to bed and you can enjoy that knowing that I put in a lot of work to be back in this position to help the team. Whether I score goals or not, it's not important who does it, the biggest thing is to be able to contribute to wins and tonight I was able to do that.'
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Even if his job since coming to Edmonton in a trade with the Nashville Predators midway through the 2022-23 season has been primarily focused on keeping pucks out of his own net.
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And he's choosing the NHL's grandest stage to show just how much more dynamic his game can be.
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'Mattias is so important to our team, he's a guy that's on the power play and penalty kill. That's probably the biggest area that we missed him, on the penalty kill,' said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. 'But also just a steady defender, whether it's playing against other team's top lines or contributing some offence and moving the puck out well.
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'He is such a smart hockey player and is hard to play against. He's tough to get to the net against, tough to beat him and very rarely makes mistakes. He is good at scoring goals and his offensive numbers would be much higher if we had him on the first-unit power play, but he's not needed there.'
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