SUNRISE, Fla. — The Edmonton Oilers were a team that overcame everything it encountered, from a 2-9-1 start, to being buried at Thanksgiving, to multiple playoff deficits. They were going to be the ’42 Leafs, the only team ever to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the Stanley Cup.
Finally however, with spring turned to summer, they ran out of gas.
The sun set on these Oilers, ironically, in Sunrise, a 2-1, Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers.
“We gave it… Everything,” said Zach Hyman.
In their sixth elimination game of these playoffs, the magic simply ran out. Neither Conn Smythe Trophy winner Connor McDavid nor Leon Draisaitl could forge a point in Game 7, and a team that gets to three goals more consistently than any team in hockey somehow stalled at one, a Mattias Janmark breakaway goal just 6:44 into the game.
They were disconsolate afterwards, as hockey players are when they play this hard for this long, and watch someone else hoist big Stanley.