Brad Marchand. Again. As if the Florida Panthers taking a 3-2 series lead in front of a passionate Edmonton Oilers crowd wasn't brutal enough, it had to be the NHL's premier pest who orchestrated the 5-2 win in Game 5 on Saturday night. After scoring the team's last two goals in Game 2's OT win and following that up with the play that kicked off a blowout in Game 3, the 37-year-old trade deadline pickup from Boston scored Nos. 9 and 10 of his playoffs to help the Panthers to within one win of their second straight Stanley Cup. All Edmonton could do in response is curse him and pray for two straight victories.
With Game 4's exhilarating comeback win, the Oilers took back home-ice advantage in this series, and the fans flaunted it with a beautiful "O Canada" singalong before puck-drop. But what followed was pretty depressing from start to finish, and it began with Marchand's opening goal 10 minutes into the first, which came from pure hustle and speed. Watching a face-off after an out-of-play, Marchand pounced on what was technically a Draisaitl win before any other Oilers could get to the puck. He was so quick, and in such good position, that he instantly eliminated most of the opposing skaters from the play. Taking the puck right down the middle, he swerved around one defenseman and protected himself from the other, lasering a shot high on a Calvin Pickard that had gone low.
The Panthers scored again to go up 2-0 before intermission, and they maintained their grip on the game through a scoreless second. Before the Oilers mounted a nominal charge, it was Marchand who gave them another sharp stab with what turned out to be the game-winner. If it wasn't so blasphemous, I might venture to call it "McDavid-esque." Taking a puck-poke from Eetu Luostarinen as the Panthers forced a turnover in their own defensive zone, the counterattacking Marchand again got himself in front of almost all the other skaters. He only had one man left to eliminate, and that was Jake Walman. Marchand's path was such that there was no avoiding Walman, so instead he just slipped through him like a curtain. Lifting his stick high into the air to avoid contact as he moved the puck into the slot, he totally wrong-footed Walman, who could only flail helplessly as his target passed him by. Marchand still had to beat Pickard, and he did it with simplicity: a little backhand tap through the five hole. Because of this move, Edmonton needs to hope for a Game 7.
Marchand entered these playoffs coming off his least productive season in a decade, but now that he's healthy and surrounded by the league's most terrifying roster, he's shown everybody a ridiculous new gear. His six goals, with as many as two games to spare, are the most by a player in a Stanley Cup Final since 1988, and he's the first guy ever to score at least five in the Final with two different teams. That stat becomes doubly impressive when you're aware that the previous time, with Boston, was all the way back in 2011. I'd say the longevity is because his game is amendable to aging—that he's often the smallest guy on the ice and relies more on out-thinking his opponents than overwhelming them, so it's less obvious when he loses a step physically. But the skill and speed on display in these two goals made Marchand look anything but Florida's oldest skater. He didn't just have the mental edge; he beat Edmonton with his skates and his stick.
That first goal, coming as it did after Edmonton's 0-3 comeback and OT winner in Game 4, also speaks to what's so frustrating and awe-inspiring about these Panthers: They just seem completely immune to momentum shifts. Time and again these playoffs—Game 3 against Tampa, Game 6 against Toronto, Game 4 against Carolina—Florida has been hit with a bad-looking loss and then just expertly taken care of business the next time out. It's telling that, in a postseason where every other team that made it past the first round used multiple goalies, Sergei Bobrovsky has stayed steady in net no matter the circumstances. Florida's so experienced in the playoffs, and so unfazed by adversity, that they feel unstoppable in the Terminator sense. Knock them down once, and they get up so calmly that you start to question if you ever even hit them.
The Oilers, by contrast, have made it this far despite looking out of control at multiple points of this postseason. They lost their first two games to LA in chaotic fashion but seized the reins for four straight wins. Then they lost Pickard and had to rely on the goalie who'd looked so out of his depth in those initial contests, but Stuart Skinner turned out to be great for a little while. And in Game 4 of this series, they went face-to-face with their own doom but scraped together a comeback to keep the series tight.
Can they deliver another escape act for Tuesday? Not if Brad Marchand has anything to say about it.
