There’s nothing quite like the Edmonton Oilers playoff experience.

The city is buzzing with excitement, with everyone dressed up in their finest orange and blue silks, the festivities outside Rogers Place are jam-packed, and the arena is rockin’. And one thing you can count on is that the Oilers are never out of the fight.

In true Oilers fashion, they opened their postseason with another come-from-behind win, defeating the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in Game 1, led by their depth players. In this edition of Oilers Thoughts, we’ll talk about those depth players’ performances, along with some observations from my view behind the Oilers’ net.

I’ve heard many nicknames for Kasperi Kapanen, like “Cheeks” and “Klappy,” but at this point it should simply be “Clutch.”

The 29-year-old scored twice against the Ducks last game, burying the last one with close to two minutes remaining, as Rogers Place erupted, and the goal stood as the game-winner, sending the Oilers’ faithful home on a high note.

And with his latest game-winning goal, that now makes it two huge playoff game-winners in two seasons with the Oilers for the Finnish forward.

Looking back, Kapanen didn’t play for the first nine games last playoffs, and when he was inserted into the lineup, he was placed on Leon Draisaitl’s wing, with Vasily Podkolzin, on the other side, in the second-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights. Not only did that trio shut down the Jack Eichel line in the final two games of the series, but they also combined for the crucial Game 5 winner.

With Game 5 scoreless heading into overtime, Kapanen whacked in the rebound, becoming the OT hero to send the Oilers to the Western Conference Final.

On top of that, Kapanen has scored a couple of other massive game-winning goals in his hockey career, including burying the OT winner at the 2016 World Juniors to help Finland win gold, and scoring the double overtime OT for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2017 playoffs.

At this point, his knack for scoring in critical situations isn’t a fluke. Some players just have that clutch gene, and Kapanen is one of them. Moving forward, with the game on the line, expect Kris Knoblauch to tap the Kuopio, Fin., native on the shoulder as one of the first players called upon to be the difference-maker.

Overall, Kapanen played one of, if not the best game in Oilers’ silks against the Ducks. In Game 1, he played 18 minutes, scored two goals — one of them the game-winner — threw three hits, and according to Natural Stat Trick, led all Oilers at five-on-five with a 66.84 expected goals-for percentage (xGF%). Quite the signature game from Kasperi Kapanen.

Before the postseason started, I wrote about players who could be a playoff hero and, admittedly, I had pre-written Jason Dickinson as someone who had the potential to be one. Then he got injured, and I took him off the list, which, with how he played yesterday, turned out to be a big misstep on my part.

That said, despite mainly being a defensive specialist and recording only three points in 17 games with the Oilers in the regular season, the reason why I initially thought he could be a potential playoff hero, is simply because I couldn’t stop thinking about his 22-goal campaign he recorded only two seasons ago.

My initial thoughts were that you can’t just “lose” that type of skill to be a 20-goal scorer, and I’d reviewed all of his 22 goals from the 2023–24 season before the playoffs started, which showed this: 13 of his tallies came from in tight off rebounds and finishing off plays, five were shots from distance using either a slap shot or a quick snap shot, and four were from sneaky toe-drag, curl-and-wrist-shot moves — which, to me, suggests that despite being labelled a defensive specialist, he still has nice hands and skill ingrained in his muscle memory.

That said, my initial thoughts held up. Dickinson does, in fact, have some nice hands to go along with his defensive acumen, and he showed that in the first period against the Ducks.

The centre was sent in all alone late in the first period and showed that skill with a little fake shot, which initially froze Lukas Dostal in a similar manner to the “paralyzer” move former Oiler Matt Hendricks used to use. He outwaited the netminder before putting the puck in the net, sending Rogers Place into a frenzy for the Oilers’ first goal of the postseason.

He showed that finishing touch around the net, in which he scored 13 of those types just two seasons ago, when he banked home a rebound to tie the game with 8:30 remaining. That said, Dickinson, finding that offensive touch is huge for the Oilers, because now the third line should not just be seen as a shutdown line, but one that’s a threat to put the puck in the back of the net.

Also, Jason Gregor posted that Dickinson now has six career multi-goal games, and three of them have come against the Ducks. I don’t know Dickinson personally, or what his hobbies are, but so far it’s looking like duck hunting might be one of them.

It looks like Jake Walman might be getting his swagger back.

The 30-year-old blueliner had a tough regular season. He battled injuries that kept him out of the lineup for 29 games, and it seemed like he was a step behind for the majority of the games he did play in, finishing with a -17 plus/minus.

But it looked like he was turning the page with a big performance in Game 1 against the Ducks, and he showed it early on. He handled the puck with confidence, made nice stretch passes all night, and I was fortunate enough to be sitting behind the Oilers’ net, which gave me a clear look at what Walman was seeing on the ice in front of him.

In the first period, Walman made a nice flip pass that sprung Vasily Podkolzin for a breakaway, but he couldn’t beat Dostal. Later in the frame, Walman threaded a 50-foot pass to Dickinson with pinpoint precision, sending him in all alone on a breakaway, which he buried.

And then in the third, I wrote down “Walman juking and jiving” behind the Oilers’ net, as he deked out a Duck and passed it right onto the tape of Mattias Ekholm, which resulted in a Dickinson goal.

When Walman is playing at the top of his game, in addition to making nice passes, he’s delivering big hits, blocking shots, and scoring goals while adding a little spice to his play. Last game was a big step for him. He finished the night with two assists, and at five-on-five, when he was on the ice, the Oilers outshot the Ducks 11–8, with high-danger chances 4–2 in their favour as well.

If Jake Walman is on his way to getting his full swagger back, watch out for the Oilers’ blue line.

I was very fortunate to have gone to Game 1, sitting in a spot I hadn’t been in before in Section 129 behind the Oilers’ net, which gave a unique visual point of view for two periods of what the Oilers see on the breakout and in the defensive zone, as well as what Connor Ingram sees in front of him. Here are some observations:

– I’m not sure if this was mentioned on the TV broadcast, but Jack Roslovic made two great defensive plays — one in the first period, breaking up a near two-on-one with a great stick, and another in the third period when a rebound popped out in front, and had he not shown good anticipation and first steps to get to the puck, it would’ve resulted in a Ducks scoring chance.

For Roslovic, who’s likely trying to shed the perception that he’s not a playoff performer after being a healthy scratch six times last playoffs with the Carolina Hurricanes, it was encouraging to see him take care of the defensive side of the game.

-The Ducks did a very good job of stifling the Oilers’ power-play entries, as the PP went 0-for-2. Normally, the drop pass to McDavid and his zone entry is automatic, but in the second period on one PP attempt, the Ducks disrupted the captain’s entry three times, one of them being a Jacob Trouba poke check. I had never seen McDavid get stopped that often on the entry before, and the Oilers will need to adjust for Game 2.

-Vasily Podkolzin, Colton Dach, and Trent Frederic all had some big, heavy hits, combining for 18 of them, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Frederic knock Radko Gudas onto his keester.

-Ingram finished the night with a 0.893 save percentage (SV%) and gave up three goals, but in my view, he played great. He faced seven high-danger shots, stopping six of them, and there were a few that had me on the edge of my seat.

In the second period, Alex Killorn was left all alone in the slot, and Ingram made a big blocker save. He stopped Leo Carlsson when he broke in all alone with five minutes remaining in the game and maybe the most clutch of them all came in the dying seconds with a sliding pad save.

Sitting behind the netminder, you can see how positionally sound he is (for the most part) and how he doesn’t give shooters many spots to pick and shoot at. That view instilled even more of the confidence I have in Ingram. In Ingram we trust!

Overall, as Zach Laing noted, the Oilers’ big come-from-behind Game 1 win over the Ducks last game gave the Oilers just their sixth Game 1 win in the Connor McDavid era, moving the team to 6-12 over that stretch. Nevertheless, there’s never a dull moment in Oil Country, and I can’t wait for Game 2, which kicks off April 22 at Rogers Place.

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