Lazerus: Oilers superstars edge out Stars' super depth in riveting conference final opener

Source: The New York Times
Author: Mark Lazerus

DALLAS -- There should be a word for that singular sensation you get when the puck finds Connor McDavid's stick -- that creeping dread you feel as an opponent, that instant shot of adrenaline you feel as an Edmonton Oilers fan, that atmospheric riptide that pulls you in closer to the ice, closer to your television, as an unbiased observer.

It always feels like McDavid's going to score. When he's flying down the wall? He's gonna score. When he's soft-shoeing his way through the neutral zone? He's gonna score. When his back is to the net and he's digging the puck out of the corner? Yeah, he's still probably gonna score. There's simply no one else in the league who can create that feeling so easily, so consistently.

Well, except for maybe McDavid's teammate Leon Draisaitl. That touch. That vision. That shot. And, hey, the Germans have a word for everything, so maybe he can come up with one.

Heck, Zach Hyman is starting to create that feeling a little bit, too. If the puck finds him -- or more accurately, if he finds the puck -- in that 6-foot radius around the net where he seems to permanently reside, that puck's going in. He's got Dennis Rodman's uncanny sense of where a puck will bounce and Bill Laimbeer's elbows to boot. The way he outmuscled the Dallas Stars' Chris Tanev and Esa Lindell before jamming home a goal in the second period of Thursday night's Game 1 of the Western Conference final was a thing of brutal beauty.

The Oilers are exhilarating, a big moment just waiting to happen.

The Stars are different. They don't have any forwards on the level of Edmonton's big three; hardly anybody does. No 50-goal scorers, no 100-assist playmakers. But they're bursting with really, really good players. Tried-and-tested veterans such as Joe Pavelski, Matt Duchene, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin; All-Star-caliber guys at their peak such as Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz; rising young superstars such as Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston and Logan Stankoven.

Dallas comes at you in waves, never letting up. Witness how dominant the third line of thirtysomethings -- Benn, Seguin and Evgenii Dadonov -- were in the second period Thursday night, with Seguin burying a Benn cross-crease pass with a second and third effort. It was the first of two goals for Seguin, who sent the game to overtime with the equalizer late in the third in a vintage, mid-2010s-era performance. That's what the Stars do. Any line can beat you, any player can beat you. Only one Stars forward has averaged more than 20 minutes per game in these playoffs, the 21-year-old Johnston, at 20:42. Four Oilers have. Five Colorado Avalanche had.

The Stars are exhausting, an inevitability just waiting for you to drop.

It's what makes this Western Conference final so enticing, so intriguing. On paper, the Stars are better at every position -- deeper at forward, better on the blue line, superior in goal. But while the Oilers are top-heavy, they're top-heavy with two of the best players in the world, an ascendant star in Hyman, and a Norris Trophy-level defenseman of their own in Evan Bouchard. The rational part of your brain says the Stars will win this series in five or six games. But your lizard brain sees one unfathomable McDavid speed burst and blurts out Oilers in, what, three?

Both make a good case, too.

"Hey, listen, they've got great players over there," Seguin said softly following the Oilers' wildly entertaining 3-2 double-overtime victory in Game 1. "That's one of their main strengths. And one of our main strengths is rolling four lines. We were one shot away tonight."

One shot. It could have been Robertson hitting the post on an early first-overtime power play. It could have been a Dadonov breakaway just two minutes into the game, or Benn on the rebound. It could have been McDavid, with all the time in the world and all the net to shoot at, getting denied late in the first overtime by a spectacular combination of a sprawling Jake Oettinger and a battling Tanev, or Mattias Ekholm or Hyman a few minutes earlier. That's how these games, these series, between different but dynamic and often dominant teams usually play out.

And it was McDavid -- of course, it was McDavid -- who finally got that one shot, atoning for his earlier miss by chipping in a centering feed from Bouchard, beating Oettinger 32 seconds into the second overtime and sending Dallas to its seventh consecutive Game 1 loss. McDavid, Draisaitl and Hyman all scored. Bouchard set up the winner. On this night, superstars beat super depth. The big guys came up big. Game 2 could be a different story, especially if Hintz comes back from injury, as Stars coach Pete DeBoer hopes.

Settle in, folks. This could be a long one.

What makes the series even juicier is the ticking clock looming above both teams. This is the ninth season for McDavid, already one of the greatest players hockey has ever seen, and this was the first game he's ever won beyond the second round. Draisaitl has one year left on his contract and his future is a mystery. Will he stay on as McDavid's running buddy, or will he want to run his own team somewhere else?

Dallas, meanwhile, has become an absolute factory for instant young stars, but Pavelski is 39 and a pending unrestricted free agent. Benn and Seguin aren't getting any younger. The Stars will be good for a long time; general manager Jim Nill has made sure of that. But they'll be different. And these veterans are aching for a shot at the Stanley Cup -- on both teams.

This is Edmonton's second trip to the Western Conference final in three seasons. In 2022, the Oilers were no match for Colorado in a disappointing but educational sweep. This is Dallas' second straight trip to the conference final, and the Stars reached the Stanley Cup Final in the bubble playoffs in 2020. DeBoer has lost in the conference final four times since 2019 and lost in the Stanley Cup Final in 2012 and 2016.

So let's not kid ourselves. In this sport of one shift at a time, everyone's looking ahead. Even if it's just a little.

"I don't think there's any harm in pointing out, or the players looking -- you're not near the finish line, but at least it's in your sight now," DeBoer said. "You can see it. That should be a motivating factor. ... It feels like you've run 80 percent of the marathon, but you've only gone 50 percent. I think it's important to point that out to your group, that there's still work to be done. But there's a different energy because at least you can start to see it."

Robertson and Stankoven echoed their coach, saying it's OK to let your mind wander a bit to potential future glory but to remember that you still have as far to go as you've come. Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse was a little more traditional, saying "staying in the moment, not thinking about anything else" was most important. But his next answer undercut that just a little.

"The more experience you get in different situations, the more comfortable you get, and that's no different here (with) this being our second time in three years being in this position," Nurse said. "Obviously, the first time we didn't make the most of the opportunity. So this is a good opportunity to show what we've learned over the last couple years."

What we learned in Game 1 is that both of these teams can win doing what they do best -- the Oilers with their biggest stars stepping up, Stuart Skinner continuing to defy his doubters in goal and the postseason's best penalty kill smothering the Stars power play; the Stars with their anyone-can-be-the-hero lineup, structured team defense and stellar goaltending.

One shot away. Get used to that. Nothing will come easy in this series. The teams are too good and the stakes are too high. The Oilers and Stars are about as different as two teams can be, but they share one thing in common -- they can damn sure win the Stanley Cup.