Ducks vs Oilers Game 5 PREVIEW: Best of 3

Round 2 Game #5

Anaheim Ducks @ Edmonton Oilers

Friday, May 5th, 7:30 PM PST

Honda Center

TV: NBCSN, TVAS, SN

Radio: Mighty 1090AM, AnaheimDucks.com

Your Enemy: Copper N’ Blue

Is everyone settled down now?! Because I am not! After NBC and her McPrince-kissing analysts all but tossed the Ducks to the golf course, it is now a race to two wins. You can thank the captain and Jakob Silfverberg for that. That’s right folks, Anaheim’s hockey club is right back in this.

And yet, the work is far from over.

We have all seen this before, the Ducks taking a critical game 5 to grab a 3-2 series lead and then game 6...and then our least favorite of all: game 7. However, this team has proven (so far) itself to be a resilient group who never calls it quits. The pressure is truly on now as the home team has yet to send the fans home happy and with the WCF just two wins away, both clubs ought to be as hungry as ever.

Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers have got to be feeling that hunger as they’ve blown a 2-0 series lead while having the luxury of home ice. Not to mention the Oil just blew a two goal lead in game 4. But it cannot be said that their stars haven’t come to play. Former Duck, Patrick Maroon, has had at least one point per game in this series while being a physical presence. Duck killer Leon Draisaitl has put up 7 points in the second round (not very surprising), while NBC’s darling McDavid has been held to a mere 3 points. But “Anaheim is not going to beat this team”, right Keith Jones?

As for SoCal’s team, Ryan Getzlaf has his dirty mittens in just about every scoring play and now leads the franchise as it’s all time playoff goal-scoring leader, passing the Finnish Flash. The man has carried the Ducks and leads them with 13 points in this years playoffs. Not to be overshadowed is Silfy: he has been wonderful scoring in all 4 games against Edmonton. No news yet on Major Eaves and Kevin Bieksa is still out. But with Gibson making huge and rather timely saves, the Ducks have to be feeling good. Let’s make the Pond rock and jeer Talbot, that sounds good to me.

Don’t let up on the gas boys. Let’s Go Ducks!