Oilers hope Sharks experience helps vs. Ducks

ANAHEIM, Calif. – In the first-round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Edmonton Oilers went through a crash course on how to survive in the postseason.

In their six-game win over the San Jose Sharks, the Oilers – a team that was in its first playoff series since 2006 – ran the gamut of emotions and quickly learned how to deal with them to come out with the victory. Edmonton hopes that this will serve them well against the Anaheim Ducks in the second-round of the playoffs. Game 1 is Wednesday night at Honda Center.

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“For a group that hasn’t been in the playoffs for a decade and never together, there were a lot of learning moments or teaching moments in that series,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “Number one, the energy in the building – both buildings, all buildings. The home team seems to capture that for the first 10 minutes. We learned the officiating standard. We learned a lot about momentum. We learned how to respond from a blowout. We learned how to hold leads. We learned how to play in a closeout type situation. We learned a lot about the rigors of the playoffs and how you empty the tank and find a way to reload it without a lot of practice time and we’re going to learn more lessons as we go forward. I think this is a great opportunity for our team.”

Whether the way the Oilers beat the Sharks – last year’s Western Conference champion – helps them with the Ducks remains to be seen. Though the Sharks and Ducks are built similarly with depth down the middle and a bruising puck possession style, Anaheim isn’t nearly as wounded as San Jose was in that series.

Sharks forward Joe Thornton played with torn knee ligaments and forward Logan Couture needed extensive dental work done after the series. Forward Patrick Marleau also played that series with a fractured thumb.

Still the Oilers saw San Jose’s survivalist mentality and eventually learned they had to match it to advance.

“We played the San Jose Sharks and they went to the Stanley Cup Final last year, so that’s a veteran group there,” Oilers forward Zack Kassian said. “People say we were inexperienced … we were, but it was a matter of learning on the run. No matter how good of a player (you are) eventually you’re going to have to experience those things. I thought our young guys did a great job of learning on the run. We took a lot of learning tools from the previous round and we’re going to use them this round and I’m sure this round there’s going to be teaching moments for our group but we have the skill level, the talent and the veteran presence in here that we can manage that on the go.”

The biggest teaching moment may have come after Game 4 where Edmonton lost 7-0 to the Sharks. After that contest ended they figured out a way to lick their wounds, not sulk and come back with their Game 5 win.

“It was a good lesson for us. There’s not a lot of momentum I feel in playoff series. There are momentum changes in a game but I feel like they don’t change from game-to-game very much,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. “We lose 7-0, everyone has us down and out and then we come back and win two in a row. I don’t think anyone had us doing that after that kind of game. I feel like in a playoff series momentum isn’t very ‘game-to-game.’”

The Ducks, a team that went to the Western Conference Final in 2015, will take the same approach to the Oilers that they did with the Calgary Flames in a first-round sweep. Experience is important for them and they’ll lean on it in tough times, but it’s not the end-all-be-all. Ultimately the team with the most talent and best structure wins in the playoffs.

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“I think you want to hope it (is an advantage), your experience but I think at this point they’re a good team. They have a lot of energy. This is a big series and they want to keep winning just like we do,” Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano said. “Hopefully at certain times of the game we can draw on experience but I think at this point it’s two hockey teams that are very good playing against each other.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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