Thank you Oilers!!! Much better than expected..

You had a great run, Edmonton Oilers, and you did your city proud. Looking forward to next season already! #yeg #letsgooilers Rachel Notley(@RachelNotley)

City of Leduc(@CityofLeduc)

What a great season and playoff run Edmonton Oilers!!! Can't wait to see what next season holds for this talented team! Thank you!

GO OILERS GO!!! –  Our Videos

http://edmontonrussianschool.blogspot.ca/2017/04/may-2017-news.html

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUXN89B2lILSdPy5Cu7RCgzrNiAqnmDCe

http://edmontonrussianschool.blogspot.ca/2017/05/go-oilers-go.html

ANAHEIM -- The Anaheim Ducks ended a streak of four consecutive Game 7 losses at home with a 2-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Second Round at Honda Center on Wednesday.
The Ducks advanced to the Western Conference Final and will play the Nashville Predators in Game 1 here Friday. It is the second time in three seasons Anaheim has reached the conference final.
"We deserved to win that because we kept coming and kept playing," Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano said. "It just feels awesome."
  [WATCH: All Ducks vs. Oilers highlights | RELATED: Complete Anaheim vs. Edmonton series coverage]
 Nick Ritchie scored at 3:21 of the third period to give Anaheim a 2-1 lead. He received a pass from Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen and shot it under the right arm of Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot.
"I just kind of looked up and shot it," Ritchie said. "I [saw Ryan Getzlaf] put his hands up. He had a good view of it."
John Gibson made 23 saves for the Ducks, who won four of the last five games in the best-of-7 series but lost Game 6 7-1.
"The overall feeling right now is disappointment," Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said. "But we basically got a college degree in a month."
The Oilers took a 1-0 lead at 3:31 of the first period off a mistake by Ducks defenseman Shea Theodore. Anaheim forward Ryan Kesler avoided a forecheck by Patrick Maroon by making a short pass to Theodore behind the net. Theodore had Josh Manson open for a pass as he skated out from behind the goal but elected to cut in front of Gibson.
Oilers forward Drake Caggiula checked Theodore as he moved in front of the crease, knocking him into Gibson, who fell back into his net as the puck slid through his pads and across the goal line. It was Caggiula's third goal in the past four games.
"We were down 1-0 for a little bit, and we didn't panic," Ritchie said. "We actually started to play better once they scored."
Anaheim tied the game at 1-1 at 8:55 of the second period on Cogliano's first goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"I thought our learning process was good," Getzlaf said. "We had some adversity to start the game and we were able to overcome it."
The Ducks outshot the Oilers 16-3 in the period.
"It's going to take some time to get over it, but there are a lot of positives," Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. "We battled hard up and down the lineup."

Goal of the game

Ducks defenseman Brandon Montour sent an off-speed shot at the net from the right point and the rebound came to Kesler. His backhand was stopped by Talbot, who rolled onto his stomach making the save. Cogliano beat Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse to the puck and put it into the net.

Unsung performance of the game

Manson had 11 hits to surpass his previous NHL career-high of 10 set against the St. Louis Blues on Jan. 15. He led Anaheim to a 39-23 edge in hits.
 They said it
"The guys should not hang their heads. What we did this year was truly amazing. The future is bright for this team. We're a really good hockey team that can do some damage in the near future." -- Oilers forward Patrick Maroon

"We're playing with a lot of confidence and we believe in each other." -- Ducks goalie John Gibson

Need to know

The Ducks were called for offside as Cam Fowler shot into the net at 14:55 of the first period. … Teams that do not score first in Game 7 are 43-125. … Anaheim won a Stanley Cup Playoff series after trailing 2-0 for the first time. … The Ducks are 22-12 since the 2015 playoffs started, the best winning percentage in the NHL (.647). … The Ducks gave up the first goal in the first 6:19 of their past five Game 7 appearances. … Perry has six points (one goal, five assists) in the past four games. … Cogliano had not scored since March 26. … Nashville finished its six-game series against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday. … Anaheim lost the 2015 conference final to the Chicago Blackhawks in seven games.

What's next

Oilers: season over
Ducks: Game 1 of Western Conference Final against Nashville Predators at Honda Center on Friday (9 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports)

Pain or pleasure awaits the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7

GO OILERS GO!!! –  Our Videos

http://edmontonrussianschool.blogspot.ca/2017/04/may-2017-news.html

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUXN89B2lILSdPy5Cu7RCgzrNiAqnmDCe

http://edmontonrussianschool.blogspot.ca/2017/05/go-oilers-go.html

Dan Barnes, Edmonton Journal
 An ode to Game 7 penned only by the victor would be a vapid transit of hockey’s highest plane.

For the vanquished, Game 7 is a brick wall, a broken heart, the last stop. Their pain is integral to the mythology. It’s also the strangest part of the reality.

Because the Game 7s played on your cul-de-sac, back yard rink, in the alley, the tennis court, the boulevard, you never lost any of them. You were Bobby Orr, horizontal. You were Wayne Gretzky or Stevie Y letting fly down the wing. Your arms were always raised, teammates always mobbed you, the crowd chanted your name.

“You always win. It’s funny the way that happens when it’s going on in your head,” then-Oiler Chris Pronger said in 2006, on the eve of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Precious few of these Edmonton Oilers have turned their boyhood Game 7 dream into either version of the adult reality. Matt Benning, Drake Caggiula, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse and others are all new to it, notwithstanding the fact they just won an elimination game.

Milan Lucic has Game 7 experiences good and bad. Patrick Maroon has played and Todd McLellan coached in the pressure-cooker of a Game 7. They’re not looking backward or telling old tales to the fresh faces in the Oilers room.

Griffin Reinhart #8 of the Edmonton Oilers hits Chris Wagner #21 of the Anaheim Ducks in Game Six of the Western Conference Second Round during the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Place on May 7, 2017 in Edmonton. Codie McLachlan / Getty Images

“If you think any of us are standing up on a soap box and telling the inexperienced people, ‘I’ve been here before, listen to me,’ it doesn’t happen that way,” said McLellan. “We’ll talk about our group and what opportunity we have moving forward as a group. We get to make our own history. We don’t have to rely on another team’s.”

Before the puck drops on Wednesday, Edmonton’s most recent and relevant Game 7 was played 11 years ago. Going in, the 2006 Oilers had the dream. Pronger won every Game 7 he played on St. Charles St. in Dryden, Ont. Shawn Horcoff did the same in Castlegar, B.C. And Fernando Pisani in his Castledowns crescent.

Until June 19, 2006. In the Stanley Cup Final.

Related

• Ducks insist they're not thinking of recent Game 7 failures
• Barnes: Draisaitl leads Oilers to convincing Game 6 win
• Jones: Young Oilers maturing rapidly over NHL playoffs

“To lose in Game 7 in the first round, it’s disheartening. To lose in Game 7 in the Final, that’s just heartbreaking,” Pisani said recently. “There’s a difference. I just remember that feeling when that final buzzer went in Carolina, that’s the most gut-wrenching feeling you’ll ever have as a player.

“Looking back, you don’t get a lot of opportunities as a player to make it that far. To come that far and come up empty-handed, it’s probably the toughest thing to get over. And you know what, I don’t think you ever get over it, just because it’s always, ‘we were that close.’”

Close enough to watch the Hurricanes raise the Cup. Close enough to hurt.

The 2017 Oilers aren’t that close. But there is a Game 7 to play on Wednesday in Anaheim. Passage to the Western Conference Final awaits the victor, an off-season of regret or perhaps reflection for the vanquished.

Anaheim Ducks’ Corey Perry (10) tries to screen the net as Edmonton Oilers’ goalie Cam Talbot (33) makes the save during the third period in game six of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series in Edmonton on May 7, 2017. JASON FRANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS

These Oilers are treading in largely uncharted water. They will have to be careful, but not too careful. That’s the advice from a few old Game 7 pros with Edmonton ties.

“You have to play exactly the same as regular season. In the playoffs, you can’t get nervous. I loved to play those games because every one of them counts,” said Esa Tikkanen.

Play the simple game. Stay on the right side of the puck. Don’t make the one mistake that turns the game and haunts your dreams.

“You get into a Game 7, a lot of times it comes down to one play, a bounce that goes your way,” said Horcoff. “Those games are usually pretty simply played because no one wants to make that mistake.”

In 2014, Jarret Stoll and the Los Angeles Kings were down 2-0 early in Game 7 in Chicago, the crowd was going nuts and it wasn’t looking good.

To lose in Game 7 in the first round, it’s disheartening. To lose in Game 7 in the Final, that’s just heartbreaking.

Fernando Pisani

“But you get a timely save, claw your way back in and find a way to win the game,” Stoll said.

“You just play the game. You know what’s on the line and you’ve just got to execute. The room for error is very slim, for taking a bad penalty or for a goalie to give up a bad goal. Those are things in a Game 7 that can’t happen. Those are the little things that add to the pressure. But at the end of the day, you play the game and hope your teammates are ready to go.”

The Kings won that Game 7 in overtime and went on to take the Cup from New York. And it helped heal the pain from 2006.

“We were playing for the City of Edmonton and basically for all of Canada at that point, and you think of the fans, the pride the city has in the Oilers,” Stoll said. “That would have been special to win for the fans and the city.”

Today’s Oilers aren’t even close to doing anything that special yet. There is a Game 7 to be played on Wednesday. Win it, and be halfway to the dream. Lose it, and be wiser for the experience on hockey’s highest plane.

Goal-scoring droughts continue to dog Oilers' Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins

Edmonton Journal-3 hours ago

How can the Edmonton Oilers be one win from the Western Conference final when Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have 52 shots ...

Oilers ticket holders could lose seats if caught trying to scalp
CBC.ca-1 hour ago

Oilers expect Klefbom in lineup for Game 7
Opinion-TSN-8 hours ago

Unheralded Mark Letestu becomes a force for the Oilers
In-Depth-The Globe and Mail-2 hours ago

Anaheim Ducks vs. Edmonton Oilers in NHL playoffs Game 7: Time ...
Live Updating-OregonLive.com-1 hour ago

How the Ducks-Oilers Game 7 impacts the upcoming Stars' draft
Blog-Dallas News (blog)-20 minutes ago