Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) clubs have long been viewed lightly and even with some ridicule due to their unsuccessful attempts to win the Stanley Cup. Not least of all, this applies to the Edmonton Oilers, for whom a pair of perhaps the best hockey players in the world play – Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. In the regular championships, star forwards score a ton of points and break record after record, but in the playoffs their mere presence in the Oilers’ camp was no longer enough. With McDavid and Draisaitl's multimillion-dollar contracts taking up a huge chunk of the team's payroll, the Oilers simply didn't have enough flexibility to build a truly Cup-winning team.
This was the case until this season. The Oilers started this competitive year badly: McDavid came down with an injury at the very start of the championship, and the team suffered defeat after defeat (including from the San Jose Sharks, one of the main outsiders in the league), which led to the expected resignation Jay Woodcroft as head coach. His successor was Chris Knobloch. At one time, the Canadian specialist already worked with McDavid when he was just a young man. Now their union has reunited at the highest level, and here things are looking up for Edmonton: a 16-game winning streak, a sharp rise up the standings, phenomenal performance from McDavid, who has returned to the race for the Art Ross Trophy…
These accomplishments were still viewed through the lens of the Oilers' recent playoff results. But this time Edmonton surprised. On their way to the long-awaited championship (the Oilers last won the Stanley Cup back in 1990), they traditionally eliminated the Los Angeles Kings (4-1), suffered with the Vancouver Canucks (4-3) and sensationally knocked out tournament of one of his main favorites, the Dallas Stars (4-2). Even such an experienced, skilled and balanced team as the Stars did not have enough arguments to stop this Edmonton.
The Oilers excel in everything: creating chances, converting them, convincing play from the club's leaders (the top 5 playoff scorers include four Edmonton players, and McDavid and Draisaitl between them scored 59 points in 18 games), efficient special teams of the majority, as well as reliable defense and even confident goalkeeper play, which were previously considered the weakest points of the “oilmen”. To understand: during the entire series of the Western finals, Dallas was unable to convert any of the 14 attempts on the power play. In total, Edmonton's series of “killed” minority attempts already totals 28 attempts in a row. Moreover, in the last, decisive game of the battle against the Stars, McDavid’s team only needed 3 shots on target from the start of the match for two goals (both on the power play) to win and reach the final.
Edmonton will play in the decisive Stanley Cup series for the first time since 2006. This will be the first final for Connor McDavid. To win the title, the star Canadian will have to beat the Florida Panthers, for whom Sergei Bobrovsky, Vladimir Tarasenko and Dmitry Kulikov are playing. If McDavid and Co. manage to achieve what they want, then Edmonton will break the grandiose streak of Russian victories.
Since 2016, at least one Russian hockey player has won the Stanley Cup. In 2016 and 2017, Evgeni Malkin became the NHL champion; in 2018, Alexander Ovechkin, Dmitry Orlov and Evgeny Kuznetsov achieved a historic triumph with the Washington Capitals; in 2019, Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Barbashev led the St. Louis Blues to a sensational championship, and in 2020 the Stanley Cup went to Andrei Vasilevsky, Nikita Kucherov, Mikhail Sergachev and Alexander Volkov. A year later, Vasilevsky, Kucherov and Sergachev became two-time trophy winners. In 2022, the championship throne was taken by Valery Nichushkin and his Colorado Avalanche, and in 2023, Ivan Barbashev won the “cup” again, but in the camp of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Either Bobrovsky, Tarasenko and Kulikov will be happy together with “Florida” also their home country, or the “Oilers”, who do not have Russians on their roster, will give Connor McDavid a historic victory, but will put an end to the Russian series.
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