Edmonton Oilers have plenty of reasons to be optimistic ahead of Game 7 

The Edmonton Oilers have had plenty of reasons to feel doubt over the years in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Despite having likely the two best players in the world in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers have advanced past the second round just once in the past nine seasons.

But they have the chance to do it again, playing in Game 7 against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday for the right to advance to the Western Conference Final and face the Dallas Stars.

And this time around, Edmonton has plenty to be optimistic about.

After playing fairly inconsistent hockey over the first five games of this series and the entire playoffs, the Oilers found a way to get the job done in Game 6. In an elimination game, trailing the series 3-2, Edmonton scored four straight goals to rout the Canucks 5-1 and force a winner take all Game 7.

Despite going 0-3 on a lethal power play that has been one of the main reasons for their success so far, the Oilers got some depth scoring, killed all four Vancouver power plays and found a way to take over the game.

The confidence should be high.

Plus, it certainly helps going into Game 7 that Thatcher Demko is still out, Elias Pettersson is struggling mightily and Vancouver will be without leading playoff scorer Brock Boeser, who was recently ruled out for the rest of the season with a blood clot.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I think the first time in this series we have seen Edmonton be their ‘A’ level, ‘B+’ level for more than a 10-15-minute stretch. The Oilers looked very good… Connor McDavid woke up in this one, they got five 5v5 goals… There were a handful of reasons to feel optimistic walking out of Game 6 if you are an Oilers fan.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, that’s the first game all series long that the Oilers had a convincing start-to-finish win. It felt more like what the Oilers did instead of what the Canucks didn’t do. They found a way to take it to them after feeling each other out in an elimination game through the first 20 minutes. That is the most positive side. On a night when the Oilers couldn’t rely on their power play… They find a way at 5-on-5 to get it done… They controlled play for a vast chunk of that game, resulting in the first non one-goal game that we’ve had so far in this series.

You can watch the full segment and episode here: