Despite being outscored with the shots heavily in Edmonton’s favour, Coach Knoblauch didn’t sense his team’s confidence waver from the exceptional hockey they were playing at both ends of the rink in Game 5.
“Very focused and very driven,” he said. “I didn’t feel any frustration from our guys the other night. Nobody was feeling sorry for themselves for not missing an opportunity or anything like that, just a lot of guys saying ‘stick with it. We’re gonna come out on top if we just continue playing like this and stay with the process’. We’re the oldest team in the league.
“I’d assume we’d be up there for playoff games played, so that experience for me being behind the bench and seeing the guys respond, I feel it’s paying off.”
Klingberg has been a revelation on the Oilers blueline this series along with Jake Walman, who was plus-2 while contributing two shots and three blocks in 20:07 of ice time in Game 5. Both defencemen were carrying injuries into the playoffs, but they’ve done a massive job making up for the loss of Ekholm.
“Just thinking about Walman joining us at the trade deadline, playing some games and then getting hurt and not being part of it going down the stretch where we were missing a lot of guys. So we didn’t have our team and didn’t really know what our team was going to look like and how we’re going to play together. Certainly, I liked how our team played the other night and hopefully we can get more games like that.
“But also Klingberg, who didn’t play for about a year and then coming back and playing a handful of games, getting hurt again and then playing a couple games. It’s not easy for anybody to do, and I think he has been a strong addition to our team and he’s been great back there.”
Calvin Pickard made 21 saves in his third straight victory in Game 5 and will no doubt get the start again for the Oilers on Thursday night. The 33-year-old has only made 17 career playoff starts over 17 seasons of junior and professional hockey, but he’s running away with the crease in Edmonton right now.
“I want to pitch in any way I can,” he said. “Obviously, getting the start in Game 3 and being down 2-0, you just want to take it one game at a time and those were kind of roller-coaster ride games. But coming back [to LA] tied 2-2, we felt good about where we were at and how we finished off last game and it carried it over, but the next one’s going to be the hardest.”
