Even by the standards of playoff overtime hockey, where the tension isn't unlike that of watching a toddler juggle steak knives, the bonus frame of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final was a heart-in-mouth affair.
There was Edmonton's Trent Frederic accidentally hitting a back-heel pass off the post before shoveling the puck with his stick, where it was blocked by a random Florida skate.
There was Florida's Sam Bennett with a perfect one-timer from the slot, only for Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard to deflect it off his glove, off the crossbar, and away from harm. Racing back the other way, Connor McDavid reached for a tap-in goal off an odd-man rush, but the timing wasn't quite right and the puck slipped past him.
Finally, after another Pickard save off a dangerous shot from the slot, Leon Draisaitl heaved a one-handed pass toward the goal, only to see it deflect off a Panthers defenseman and into the net.
And, exhale.
Cameras caught Taylor Swift at one point tapping her chest in the universal "my heart is thumping" sign. Lady, you don't know the half of it. Imagine being an Oilers fan, your season in the balance, and watching all that.
But after all the chaos, the three straight Florida goals to open the game, the four straight from Edmonton to roar back, the very late tying goal to send it to overtime, and the fluky winner, what we're left with as Game 5 looms in a tied series is a final that couldn't be more unpredictable. It's the terrifying randomness of playoff hockey distilled to its absolute essence.
Consider the following: three of the four games so far went to overtime. Two of them were only tied up in the dying seconds of regulation. Each team has won once at home and once on the road. When the Panthers appeared to be putting a relentless stranglehold on the series, the Oilers ripped off their most dominant stretch of the final. The betting odds for the Cup winner at this point are essentially dead even: the Oilers have home-ice advantage, but the Panthers have been there and done that.
Meanwhile, McDavid still hasn't scored in the final, though he does have six assists, one of them a breathtaking all-timer, and the Oilers, at this extremely late point in the season, are still not entirely sure who their top goaltender is. You may think that answer is obvious, given Pickard's now 7-0 in the postseason after replacing Stuart Skinner in Game 4, but the two goalies have almost identical numbers in the playoffs.
After the furious Game 4 comeback and the Edmonton net now (presumably) belonging to Pickard, would you be surprised if the Oilers closed this thing out behind the firepower of their top-heavy lineup? You wouldn't.
But would you be surprised if the Panthers, who avoided collapse against the Oilers in the final last season by pulling out a Game 7 win, rallied to snuff out Edmonton's momentum before it can even do anything with it? You also would not. After the first period Thursday, with a 3-0 lead that could have been larger, the narratives about a Florida dynasty were already being polished.
And all of the things said about the Panthers as they were on the verge of seizing control of the series are still true: they're physical, and annoying, but also deep and skilled, and they have solid veteran goaltending and an excellent coach. Had any of their excellent scoring chances in overtime of Game 4 been converted, there would have been days of stories about their absurd stockpile of big-game players. (That sentence was not intended as a shot at the Toronto Maple Leafs, but you'd be fair to interpret it that way.)
Instead, after Draisaitl's lucky winner - which, it should be noted, might have been a game-winning assist to Corey Perry had it not been deflected into the net - it's the Oilers receiving all the praise about their heart and resilience and ability to respond to adversity. (Apologies again to Leafs fans.) Two-plus periods earlier, the Oilers were the same team outscored 12-2 over the previous six periods (and a brief overtime) and looked very much like a group being undone by its familiar flaws: shaky goaltending, and not enough depth scoring beyond its all-world top two.
And then it all changed. This is what playoff hockey does: take all of the factors that combine to forge a group of players into a strong regular-season team, throw it all into a blender, and shoot out an uncertain result.
By Saturday night, or quite possibly early Sunday morning, one team will have won the pivotal Game 5. And the series will be far from over.
Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.
