Oilers have 'unshakable belief' heading into Game 6 of Stanley Cup Final

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Kris Knoblauch remembers how the Edmonton Oilers were feeling earlier this season, not long after he was named coach following the firing of Jay Woodcroft on Nov. 12.

It seems that’s when the oft-discussed resilience of the Oilers was born.

“You look back to November where this team hit pretty much rock-bottom,” Knoblauch said Wednesday. “The expectations were very high from the outside and definitely inside, wanting to have a successful season and getting off to a slow start, and when you're dead last in the NHL at one point, you knew things were going to rebound. Things were going to start going in a positive direction.

“But I think guys were just able to say, 'OK, let's just start playing hockey right now. It can't get worse than this. We can't worry about falling back anymore.' I think that was a big lesson.”

They applied that lesson through the regular season, just playing hockey, going 46-18-5 under Knoblauch and finishing second in the Pacific Division. They've applied it through the Stanley Cup Playoffs, too, and will reach for more of it when they host the Florida Panthers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).

The Panthers lead the best-of-7 series 3-2, but the Oilers have won the past two games by a combined score of 13-4. Edmonton is 10-1 in Games 4-7 this postseason.

The Oilers putting belief into action has been evident. They believe they’ve been the better team for most of the Final, despite losing the first three games.

“That’s one thing, but I think the belief comes from (the fact that) we’ve crawled our way out of holes before this year,” Oilers forward Connor Brown said. “We’ve put together winning streaks when we’ve had to this year. We have that belief when you can draw on past experience not too long ago. That’s where the belief is, and that unshakable belief is growing.”

The Edmonton leadership has played a big part as well. Captain Connor McDavid has been here, trying to get the Oilers back to their glory days since they selected him No. 1 in the 2015 NHL Draft. The same goes for center Leon Draisaitl, the No. 3 pick in the 2014 NHL Draft. Those two have been through the lows and the highs, the negatives and the positives, and have led the charge on and off the ice.

“It's been a lot on those two,” Knoblauch said. “They've had a lot to do with the success of this team and us being resilient. They're very driven, obviously driven to be successful individually, but also wanting the team to have success and playing the right way.

“For superstars to dump the puck in and forecheck and backcheck and finish checks, they've been committed and bought in to doing that. And when your two star players play that system, the rest of the team has no choice but to tag along and do the little things that are required to be successful.”

Some individual performances have stood out, namely McDavid and goalie Stuart Skinner. After having three assists through the first three games, McDavid has eight points (three goals, five assists) in the past two. It’s similar to what he did against the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final, when he had four points (two goals, two assists) through the first three games and six points (one goal, five assists) in the last three.

Skinner is 13-8 with a 2.53 goals-against average, .898 save percentage and one shutout in 21 starts this postseason, but has come through in clutch games. According to NHL Stats, in Games 4-7 of this year’s playoffs, he’s 9-0 with a 1.56 GAA, .936 save percentage and one shutout. In elimination games this year, he’s 4-0 with a 1.75 GAA and .928 save percentage.

The Oilers are closing in on accomplishing something special. They’re not there yet, but their resilience, their ability to “just start playing hockey” when their backs are against the wall is coming up big at a critical time.

“It seems to be that we’ve been able to grind it out, we’ve been able to go through those types of experiences where we have to figure it out,” Skinner said. “Again, we put ourselves in a little bit of a hole and we’re just going to keep on digging and climb our way out.”