Oilers Are Surging Towards A New NHL Record
Oilers Are Surging Towards A New NHL Record
EDMONTON – This playoff run is turning into a Cinderella story.
The Edmonton Oilers were down 0-2 when they hopped on the plane back to the City of Champions in their first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings.
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Then came the wins.
Four consecutive wins to send their divisional rival to the fairways for (yet) another year. However, winning those games in a come-from-behind fashion is unprecedented. Or at least, it's getting really close.
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They have the most comeback wins in NHL playoff history, and that record could soon include the regular season.
The Oilers are tied for the second-most comeback victories in NHL history, whether in the regular season or the playoffs. Seven is the magic number for comeback wins.
This Oilers team can't shake the comeback victory. They know the importance of scoring the first goal and have gone on record detailing how they want to start games better.
On Thursday night, it was the same script but a different movie. The Oilers were down 1-0 after the opening period. But no quit was to be found in their game.
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They stormed back with three unanswered goals from Jake Walman, Vasily Podkolzin, and Darnell Nurse to take a commanding 3-1 lead over the Vegas Golden Knights.
A squandered lead would force the game to overtime, where Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid worked their magic.
So on Saturday night, when the Oilers defend their home turf, don't worry if they find themselves in a similar position to the previous six games.
They would love to flip the script, but like the Marvel Universe, they can't help but create a sequel.
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Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
Dallas Stars Fire Pete DeBoer After NHL Coaching Vacancies Get Filled
Pete DeBoer got the Dallas Stars to the Western Conference Final in all three of his seasons behind their bench. But it wasn't enough. On Friday, the team announced that it had terminated his employment, eight days after the Stars were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in five games. 'After careful consideration, we believe that a new voice is needed in our locker room to push us closer to our goal of winning the Stanley Cup,' said general manager Jim Nill in a statement released Friday. 'We'd like to thank Pete for everything that he has helped our organization achieve over the past three seasons and wish him nothing but the best moving forward.' Over his three seasons in Dallas, DeBoer guided the Stars to a regular-season record of 149-68-29 for a .665 points percentage. And this year's playoff run came in spite of an injury that kept top defenseman Miro Heiskanen out of action until the middle of the second round while forward Jason Robertson missed all of Round 1 with a knee injury. The Stars eked out a seven-game win against the Colorado Avalanche to advance out of the first round, then took down the Presidents' Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets in six games in Round 2 before falling to the Oilers for a second-straight year. Despite his success, DeBoer's tenure in Dallas will now be best remembered for his snap decision to pull starting goaltender Jake Oettinger after the Stars fell into an early 2-0 hole in their elimination game against Edmonton last week. His defense of the decision after the game raised eyebrows across the hockey world. 'The reasoning's always to try to spark your group, so that was the No. 1 reason,' he told the assembled media. 'We had talked endlessly in this season about trying to play with the lead and obviously we were in a 2-0 hole right away. I didn't take that lightly, and I didn't blame it all on Jake, but the reality is that if you go back to last year's playoffs, he's lost six of seven games to Edmonton and we gave up two shots, two goals in an elimination game. It was partly to spark our team and wake them up, and partly knowing that status quo had not been working. And that's a pretty big sample size.' The Stars lost Game 5 by a 6-3 score. The next morning, team owner Tom Gaglardi backed his coach in a conversation with Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News. 'He's a top-three, top-five coach in the league,' Gaglardi said. 'You think I want to be going into the coaching market right now, do you see who's getting hired? Pete's a seasoned coach. I'm just one voice in the discussion, but I don't see (firing) Pete being on anyone's agenda.' It appears the players were also important voices in the discussion. By the time their exit meetings were complete last weekend, word was trickling out that DeBoer's position was far from secure. At this point, it looks like DeBoer, 56, will have to wait awhile for his next opportunity. On Thursday, the Boston Bruins became the last team to fill their opening when they announced they'd hired Marco Sturm. Six other NHL teams have also hired new head coaches since the end of the 2024-25 regular season: The NHL is often labelled as a copycat league, and the same coaches often resurface on new teams. This list is a mix of established names and new faces. Quenneville, 66, ranks fifth all-time in games coached and second in wins, behind only Scotty Bowman. He's back in the NHL with Anaheim after resigning from the Florida Panthers in the fall of 2021 due to his part in the Chicago Blackhawks' sexual misconduct incident in 2011, when he was that team's coach. Mike Sullivan, 57, is a two-time Stanley Cup winner as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, now at the helm of the Rangers, and Tocchet, 61, is the reigning coach of the year who's back in Philadelphia, where he was inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame as a player in 2021. Lambert, 60, earned his first head-coaching position with the New York Islanders in 2022. He was fired in January of 2024, after one-and-a-half seasons. The other three names are all new as NHL head coaches: Sturm, 46, is a native of Germany, and played 308 of his 938 NHL games with the Bruins between 2005 and 2010. He was behind the bench for Germany's silver-medal win at the 2018 Olympics before coming back to North America as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings and then the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign. Muse, 42, spent the last five seasons as an NHL assistant coach, first with the Nashville Predators and then with the New York Rangers. Foote, 53, was a two-time Stanley Cup champion as a rugged defenseman with the Colorado Avalanche and an Olympic gold medalist with Team Canada in 2002. He has been promoted, after Tocchet brought him into the Canucks organization as an assistant coach when he took over in January of 2022. In addition to his run in Dallas, Pete DeBoer has also served as head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils and Florida Panthers. All told, he has been to the conference final six times and to the Stanley Cup Final twice — wth the Devils in 2012 and the Sharks in 2016. He has never been named a finalist for the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year, and he has never won a Cup.
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Pete DeBoer earned his firing, but the Stars' problems run deeper
It was the rashness of the decision, yanking goaltender Jake Oettinger after just two shots, neither of which was all that stoppable. It was the humiliating manner in which he made the decision, emphatically and animatedly calling Oettinger back to the bench for a globally televised walk of shame after a timeout. And it was the callousness with which he threw Oettinger under the bus in his very first response following the game, all but saying Oettinger was incapable of beating the Edmonton Oilers, and that there was 'a pretty big sample size' worth of proof. Advertisement Yes, Pete DeBoer got himself fired as Dallas Stars head coach with the way he treated Oettinger in their last game of the season, a 6-3 loss to Edmonton in Game 5 of the Western Conference final. Oh, sure, everyone said the right things two days later on locker clean-out day, but you have to think the exit interviews that day were a tad more blunt and a lot more truthful. In a battle between a famously peripatetic coach and a 26-year-old franchise goaltender, the goaltender wins every time. Oettinger is very well-liked and deeply respected by his teammates, and it's hard to imagine a coach winning back a locker room after such a public meltdown. Maybe if DeBoer didn't panic and instead let Oettinger work through it in Game 5, maybe if the communication had been stronger between the two, maybe if DeBoer fell on his own sword after the game instead of driving it through the back of Oettinger, he'd still be Dallas' coach. But he didn't. So he isn't. That's the business. DeBoer knows it all too well. Over the past 10 seasons, he's posted a sparkling record of 445-247-75, good enough for a .629 points percentage. For comparison's sake, Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper, the gold standard of head coaches for the past decade, is at .643. DeBoer is that good. He's reached the Western Conference final an astounding six times in the last eight seasons with three different teams. He's been to the Stanley Cup Final twice. Yet this is the fifth time he's been fired. He lasted just three lousy seasons with the Florida Panthers in the late 2000s. He took the New Jersey Devils to the Stanley Cup Final in his first season but was fired three years later. He took the San Jose Sharks to the Stanley Cup Final in his first season there, too, but was fired four years later. He took the Vegas Golden Knights to two straight conference finals and was fired the following year. And he took the Stars to the conference final in all three of his seasons, only to be fired yet again. The timing is cruel because there are no other job openings left in the NHL. But you can be sure DeBoer will get another job, and soon. Despite being fired so often, he's had a head-coaching job every year since the 2008-09 season. At just 56 years old, he'll get another. And then another after he wears out his welcome and gets fired from that one. Advertisement 'He'll be all right,' said Panthers coach and close friend Paul Maurice, who knows a thing or two about bouncing around the league. 'He's a good coach. I think you get elite teams, you've got to push them real hard to get to where they get to, and then at some point, you get a summer off. Pick your spot. He's going to be OK.' So, yes, DeBoer will be fine. But will the Stars? Because while DeBoer certainly earned his dismissal with the way things ended, he's hardly the reason Dallas fell a round short of the Stanley Cup Final yet again. Was it DeBoer's fault that Mikko Rantanen had no goals in the Western Conference final after all but singlehandedly beating the Colorado Avalanche in the first round? Was it DeBoer's fault that Wyatt Johnston was somehow a minus-16 through three rounds? Or that Matt Duchene was snakebitten throughout the playoffs, scoring just once in 18 games after a 30-goal season? Or that captain Jamie Benn disappeared for most of the postseason? What about Tyler Seguin? Or Mason Marchment? Or Evgenii Dadonov? Were their failures all DeBoer's fault, too? How about last spring, when Roope Hintz had fewer goals than Esa Lindell? And Hintz and Duchene and Thomas Harley and Joe Pavelski and Dadonov combined for zero goals against the Oilers? Was that all DeBoer's fault? Or Oettinger's, for that matter? The Stars are perennial Cup favorites because of their remarkable depth, with Duchene often saying they have 'three first lines.' But in these playoffs, Rantanen had to carry them early, and when he cooled off, nobody stepped up to shoulder the burden. Of course, DeBoer could have better tweaked the lines or switched up the matchups or benched a skater to try to spark things. But ultimately, hockey games are won or lost by players, not by coaches. And the players have failed in the conference final. For three straight years. Advertisement It's not for a lack of trying. General manager Jim Nill has built a powerhouse, and he's added to it at every trade deadline. Two years ago, he went out and got Max Domi and Dadonov for grit and goals. Last year, he added Chris Tanev, everyone's idea of a playoff defenseman. This year, he acquired Mikael Granlund, Cody Ceci and Rantanen, the latter of whom is one of the best players — and playoff performers — of his or any other generation. Still, it wasn't enough. 'You get things in place, but things always happen,' Nill told me early in the conference final, when I said he and his team were 'sitting pretty' for the present and the future. 'We've still got some work to do.' Yeah, things happened. Wholesale changes aren't coming. The Stars will continue to be trendy picks to win the Stanley Cup for years to come, and they'll do so with largely the same core they have now. Rantanen is signed for eight more years, as is Oettinger. Hintz is signed for six more years, Johnston and Lindell for five, Miro Heiskanen for four. Nill was adamant that Benn and Duchene, both unrestricted free agents, would be back next season, but you have to wonder if the way things ended will prompt Nill to shake things up — if just for the sake of shaking things up. Which brings us back to the coach. Who takes over now? The timing of the firing leaves Dallas with few big-name options, as the annual game of coaching musical chairs has left the Stars without a seat. Does Nill look within and promote Texas Stars coach Neil Graham, who has worked with Oettinger, Harley and Jason Robertson in the AHL? Does he try to pluck an assistant from another team's staff, perhaps even Oilers power-play mastermind and former Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan? Or does he target another rising AHL coach, such as former Stars assistant Todd Nelson? Do Peter Laviolette or John Tortorella, as abrasive and nomadic as DeBoer, hold any appeal? And most importantly, will any of them fare any better than DeBoer, one of the most successful coaches of the modern era? Or is this simply a conference-final level team, a group that performs better on paper than it does in the biggest moments? Advertisement This is now the big question facing Nill, bigger than Benn or Duchene: Who are these Dallas Stars, and what is their ceiling? 'We've been knocking on the door for a while, and you only get so many opportunities,' Nill told me. 'I've been talking to a few of the young guys here, who came in the last three or four years, and they think this is ordinary stuff, winning like this three years in a row. I tell them not to take this for granted. This is not easy. We've got an opportunity, so let's take advantage of it.' Dallas didn't. Again. Which leads to this kind of existential crisis, this kind of drastic decision. The Stars are a very, very good team. DeBoer is a very, very good coach. Together, they had very, very good results. But Dallas is looking for great. And so DeBoer is looking for work. We'll just have to wait and see who's looking for longer.
NBC Sports
3 hours ago
- NBC Sports
Panthers look to even the Stanley Cup Final against the Oilers in Game 2
EDMONTON, Alberta — Trailing the Stanley Cup Final after losing the opener in overtime, the defending champion Florida Panthers look to even things up in Game 2 at the Edmonton Oilers. Winning on the road has not been a problem for them so far, going 8-3 away from home, the third loss coming on Leon Draisaitl's power-play goal following a puck-over-the-glass penalty on Tomas Nosek. The task of going into a packed, loud arena is just another challenge the Panthers are embracing. 'It's that 'us against the world' mindset, but you really feel it especially being down in a series,' winger Matthew Tkachuk said. 'Us against the 20-plus guys you're playing against, the 20,000 that are in the rink, the 20,000 that are outside the rink. It's just us against everybody. That's what makes playing on the road so fun and rewarding when you can get a win.' If they do, it will wrestle home-ice advantage away from the Oilers with play shifting to Sunrise for Games 3 and 4. One of the toughest parts of being on the road is trying to defend Draisaitl and Connor McDavid when they're on the ice together. Coach Kris Knoblauch did that some late in Game 1, and it's difficult for Paul Maurice to counter without the last line change to control matchups. 'When they play together, they're obviously very creative players and they'll make everyone around them better,' Florida defenseman Seth Jones said. 'They like to look for each other, especially when they play together, little give-and-goes, things like that, and then they're dangerous off the rush, too. Whether they're playing together or apart, it's a five-man unit defending.' The Oilers remain without Zach Hyman, out for the remainder of the playoffs after his right wrist got dislocated on a hit during the last round. The Panthers could be close to full strength if A.J. Greer can return, and Maurice said fourth-liner Jonah Gadjovich is good to go after missing part of Game 1.
