The Oilers haven\u2019t spent much time leading, tied or trailing in this series, but they are down 3-1.<\/p>\n
GAMES<\/p>\n
LEADING<\/p>\n
TIED<\/p>\n
TRAILING<\/p>\n
1<\/p>\n
9:11<\/p>\n
33:48<\/p>\n
17:01<\/p>\n
2<\/p>\n
3:50<\/p>\n
20:11<\/p>\n
35:59<\/p>\n
3<\/p>\n
10:04<\/p>\n
26:37<\/p>\n
23:19<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
48:09<\/p>\n
14:20<\/p>\n
0<\/p>\n
Edmonton didn\u2019t trail in Game 4 until Anaheim scored the OT winner, but they were unable to hold 2-0 and 3-2 leads. In the series, Edmonton has led for 71:14, trailed for 76:19, and been tied for 94:56. Game 4 was the only game where they were able to score first and hold the lead for a significant period of time. Give Anaheim credit: they have been great all season at coming from behind, but in the regular season Edmonton won 75 per cent of the games (30-5-5) when scoring first. They had the sixth best winning percentage when scoring first, but they have dropped to 25 per cent in the playoffs. They need to do a better job of playing with a lead.<\/p>\n
And they need to kill penalties better in the second period. Anaheim is 4-for-5 on the PP in the second period thus far. Each team has four five-on-five goals in the middle frame, and the Ducks also have a shorthanded goal. The Oilers have been outscored 9-4, but the shots are only 47-43 in favour of the Ducks. The Oilers\u2019 inability to kill penalties, which has been an issue all season, has been magnified in this series, and especially in the second period. Kris Knoblauch and Mark Stuart need to look at other options.<\/p>\n
Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard have been on for four of the six Ducks\u2019 PP goals. Darnell Nurse and Connor Murphy have only been on together for one, and they are starting most penalty kills, except when Nurse is in the penalty box. Would they consider using Jake Walman and Ty Emberson on the PK? Emberson knows the system, and Walman is pretty good at blocking shots. I asked Kris Knoblauch if they are considering using those two on the PK.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be a lot of mixing of defence, especially with some penalty kill rotation,\u201d said Knoblauch. \u201cBoth of those guys (Walman and Emberson) can kill, and maybe Ekholm and Bouchard some more five-on-five time. Especially Emberson. He has been a very good penalty killer for us, and I think we will see more of Emberson killing tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
I like this for a variety of reasons. It gives Bouchard more time at five-on-five and on the PP, where the odds of scoring are significantly higher, and Emberson has been pretty solid on the PK.<\/p>\n
The other element they have to look at is altering how often their forwards are leaving the zone. Too often the Oilers blueliners have no outlet option on the boards as the forwards are near the blue line or in the neutral zone. I asked Knoblauch about their usage of the stretch pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are times to use it and times not. When you have someone stretching at least it pushes them (ANA) back. And you know whether you use them or not, it\u2019s often, if you do make that pass, it\u2019s can be a home run, it can be a breakaway, although that very rarely happens and usually gets broken up, and it ends up being a one man forecheck.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be nice to get more guys carrying that puck up together as a group, but at this time (playoffs) everyone\u2019s back checking so well and getting above and it\u2019s hard making a pass to the forwards, you\u2019ve either got a defenceman sitting on you or another forward. So sometimes, unfortunately, the only option they have is to make that long stretch pass. So yeah, we\u2019d like to get away from it, but often it\u2019s the only resource we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
We could see the Oilers carry the puck more out of the zone, but more so, I\u2019d like to see the forwards come back deeper in their zone more often. The Oilers don\u2019t need major tweaks, but a few minor ones will go a long way to determining if they are playing on Thursday or cleaning out their lockers.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777461608_859_image.jpeg\"\/)
SNAPSHOTS\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2014 NHL teams are 2-2 so far in the playoffs when facing elimination. Pittsburgh has won twice since going down 3-0 to Philadelphia, while Ottawa and Los Angeles both lost Game 4 and got swept by Carolina and Colorado, respectively. In the past two seasons, Edmonton is 5-2 when facing elimination. Both losses came against Florida, but so did three of their victories. The Oilers have won three games in a row against an opponent in three of their last five playoff series. It is difficult, but it can be done.<\/p>\n
\u2014 The Oilers need to manage the puck better. Anaheim has scored nine goals within 10 seconds of a takeaway so far this series (stat courtesy of Mike Kelly from Sportlogic). They have been able to make the Oilers pay. The Oilers need to manage the puck better tonight. Two goals last game were a direct result of their inability to clear the puck.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Here\u2019s a comparison for shots and goals thus far in the series. Anaheim has nine high-danger goals compared to the Oilers\u2019 six, and they\u2019ve generated more HD shots.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777461608_871_image.png\"\/)
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777461609_658_image.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The Oilers need to get to the middle of the ice more. They need more traffic in front of the net and get some rebounds, like Kapanen did on the opening goal in Game 4.<\/p>\n
\u2014 The Ducks have seven players averaging one point\/game in this series: Jackson Lacombe (eight points), Mikael Granlund (six), Alex Killorn, Troy Terry, and Leo Carlsson (five) and Cutter Gauthier and John Carlsson (four). Meanwhile, Edmonton has six players with 4+ points: Draisaitl (seven), Kapanen (five) and McDavid, Walman, Podkolzin, and RNH (four).<\/p>\n
\u2014 Offence hasn\u2019t been the issue for Edmonton in the series, but the Oilers could use a timely goal from one of Matt Savoie, Jack Roslovic, Trent Frederic, or Colton Dach tonight. Jeffrey Viel has two goals for the Ducks while Ryan Poehling has three.<\/p>\n
LINEUPS\u2026<\/p>\n
Podkolzin \u2013 Draisaitl \u2013 Kapanen
RNH \u2013 McDavid \u2013 Hyman
Savoie \u2013 Dickinson \u2013 Roslovic
Dach \u2013 Samanski\/Lazar \u2013 Frederic<\/p>\n
Ekholm \u2013 Bouchard
Nurse \u2013 Murphy
Walman \u2013 Emberson<\/p>\n
Ingram<\/p>\n
Connor Ingram starts. I thought Jarry played well, specifically on screened shots. He stopped all five screen attempts. The Ducks have scored three of those on Ingram, and they will look for more long shots with traffic. Ingram will need to get across quickly so he can look around the shortside screen.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777461609_226_image.webp\"\/)
<\/p>\n