Q&A with Mac-T: Former Oilers head coach wasn’t surprised by the McDavid and Draisaitl magic in Game 2

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So there you have it.

The Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks in Game 2 Friday without leading for a single second until Evan Bouchard’s OT shot rips off fellow defenceman Ian Cole’s stick and past Arturs Silovs for a 4-3 win to tie the series 1-1. That’s playoff hockey, baby.

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Four points for Connor McDavid.

Four points for Leon Draisaitl.

And Bouchard and his defenceman partner Mattias Ekholm, who played 19 minutes at even-strength with McDavid, Draisaitl and right-winger Zach Hyman, were totally on the same wavelength. As a five-man unit the scoring chances were 19-2 when they were out there.

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They were fantastic together.

With that, let’s bring in Craig MacTavish, who has three Stanley Cup rings as an Oilers centre and later captain and coached the club to within one game of the 2006 championship against Carolina Hurricanes. MacT, who will be commenting after every Oilers game in this series, certainly liked what he saw.

MacTavish said after Game 1 the Oilers clearly had to have a large response after blowing a 4-1 lead and losing a shocker 5-4, and in his mind, it was there throughout as they came back three times to tie before Bouchard’s winner.

Q: It didn’t look like they were going to be denied, right? Especially in the third period after their fold in Game 1 when they looked to have the game in the bag. No way, could they go down two games in this series, against a team they had lost five straight to (regular-season and playoffs), right?

A: Yeah, I was really proud of them. You have to give them a lot of credit. As upset as I was, and everybody was, when they lost Game 1, to me, the Oilers were all over them. We talked about the Oilers getting the result they deserved in Game 1. Well this time, they deserved the win.

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Q: Game 2 was more physical, chippier than Game 1 wasn’t it? Lots of nasty stuff on both sides. And Leon, if he had a bad back, he was certainly involved. He took lots of punishment.

A: Yeah, the Oilers dug in and did what they had to do. I wasn’t sure they could. But they did. It was good to see Leon and (Adam) Henrique back (ankle) in the game. Leon? Yeah, he’s a tough S.O.B.

Q: Well, he was your draft pick when you were Oilers GM, third overall in 2014. So, OK to blow your own horn?

A: Yeah, good for us.

Q: Obviously, you can’t go down 2-0 to this Canucks team?

A: Yeah, a huge win. I would be completely worried about the Oilers coming back if they had lost the first two. But what did Gretz say? A series doesn’t start until somebody loses a home game?

Q: You said after the first game, the team would be waking up with regret and remorse after their collapse and the big boys came out didn’t they? McDavid, Draisaitl, on the same line 5-on-5, not just on the power play, and so bloody dangerous shift after shift with McDavid playing 28:12 and Draisaitl 27:05, huge minutes for forwards. Defencemen play that much, like a Drew Doughty or a Cale Makar, but those are huge minutes for forwards.

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A: I have to give Kris Knobauch a lot of credit. I think I would have done the same thing (as a coach) but he had a great intuition on that. It was brilliant by him. It’s always been if you split Connor and Leon can you get more that way than when you have them on the same line? But you need a dominant line and Connor and Leon and Hyman, they were really dominant. And the other lines? They held the fort while they were on the ice while Connor and Leon mopped it up. You have to know as a teammate (on other lines) that they’re playing together and you have to keep it level.

Q: Do you think Knoblauch played Draisaitl on the wing with McDavid rather than at centre because he was hurt last game and maybe he wasn’t 100 per cent after his suspected back spasms?

A: No, for me, it had to be Leon and Connor together with Hyman as I said. They had an impotent offence last game (23 minutes without a shot on goal).

Q: You weren’t surprised that McDavid, who loves a challenge, shined through? He didn’t have a shot in Game 1, first time in his playoff career, and Connor is all about leadership Same with Draisaitl? Gretzky was that way. Messier too.

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A: No, not at all. The burden of superstars to win is high. Connor understands that now and he plays incredibly well.

Q: Connor didn’t give Silovs much of a chance on his breakaway from 80 feet to tie the game 3-3 in the third, did he?

A: It was the chronic MVP of the league vs. the rookie goaltender. He mopped him up.

Q: When Stuart Skinner, who had a rough first game as did Silovs, gives up that bad-angle goal to Nikita Zadorov late in the second to put the Oilers down 3-2, how does a team react?

A: Stu has bailed them out many times. I thought it was a great shot. The goaltender is thinking it’s going to be a cross-ice pass and you have to get over there quickly or you can’t get too locked up on the short side.

Q: In the first game, J. T. Miller was against Connor and Elias Lindholm and his linemates Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua feasted away from McDavid. But Friday, Miller, Vancouver’s best forward, had to do double-duty as the Canucks centre against McDavid and Draisaitl. He did set up (Elias) Pettersson for a power-play goal but he had a tough chore, didn’t he? Out against the best player in the world and another in the top half dozen on many nights.

A: Miller can do a lot of things but who can negate those two and Hyman?

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