Former Oilers coach Ron Low impressed how Edmonton has turned the tide against Florida

“Lots of gas, it would get you to Dauphin,” laughed Low, of the Manitoba town he used to play in as a youngster.

In the special teams battle in this Stanley Cup Final the McDavid dazzler on the power play book-ended their earlier shorthanded goal by Connor Brown.

“Brown’s a really, good skater… I mean he blew past Barkov,” said Low. “And I cursed at (Mattias) Janmark this year for stupid penalties but he’s played really well (with Brown on the PK). I kind of look at Janmark as a poor man’s (Esa) Tikkanen.”

And this is very much turning into a special teams story, as much as people are raving about McDavid putting the Oilers on his back at even-strength too, or the fact as one former NHL coach said “(Stuart) Skinner looks big in the net now and (Sergei) Bobrovsky looks small because the Oilers keep coming at him.”

The Oilers are also stretching the ice, working the weak-side winger coming across the ice for passes, taking a page out of Dallas’ playbook, and their top players are raising their games while Florida’s have gone quiet after Game 3.

But, the Oilers have killed 43 of the last 44 power plays over 15 playoff games, and while Evan Rodrigues, the Panthers’ most consistent forward in the Final, redirected a pass past Skinner for a power play goal in Game 2, that’s it. They’ve stopped Florida’s power play.

“What’s really demoralizing is the Florida power play is now giving up short-handed goals or it winds up with low-scoring chances,” said the unnamed veteran coach who wanted to remain anonymous.

“They get really nervous or jittery and that’s where their power play is right now. They look unsure of themselves, their casual plays are getting picked off by the Oilers.”

Not only did Brown scored on a short-handed deke, but Janmark got to the blue paint in Game 4 to finish off a penalty-kill pass from Brown for a short-handed goal, too.

And the Oiler power play, was 2-for-5 against Florida in Game 5.

“Two short-handed goals to start games off is freaking nuts,” said Low.

Killers,  although there was a somewhat more subdued commentary from Florida head coach Paul Maurice.

“We’ll fix it, that’s how I feel about it. We can fix it,” said Maurice.

Low said the biggest difference with the Oilers penalty kill is their speed aggressiveness.

“The Oilers penalty-killing has been so good because they’re using their speed, man. You need a special group of skaters to be able to press three guys into a corner, all at once. They’re out-gunning the power play guys, and they’re getting the puck. When I coached, we stayed in a box. These guys now, they’re way more aggressive,” said Low.