'Big goal' Broberg balances pressure, excitement in Game 5

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As an avid Edmonton Oilers fan on X, previously on twitter, said Friday night, Philip Broberg now has more goals to play this spring than Quinn Hughes, Vancouver's formidable defenseman and potential Norris title winner, who played 317 minutes before the Oilers they put that. the team is out of Game 7 of round 2.

Who knew, eh?

Broberg, in his second playoff game this spring, ripped that 55-footer through the crowd in the second period as Matt Duchene blocked the view of goaltender Jake Oettinger for a 3-0 Oiler goal. As the puck passed Oettinger's glove, Broberg raised his hands to the sky.

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He sat out the first 15 playoff games before manager Kris Knoblauch made another move, replacing the senior Vincent Desharnais in Game 4. Things got tough as Broberg started the playoffs as the No. 8 on the depth chart behind Troy Stecher, but Stecher. he had a cyst on his ankle that became infected and underwent surgery in Charlotte, NC, on Friday.

Lordy, lordy, but a surprise goal by Broberg, who had five goals and 33 assists in Bakersfield before a late-season recall, was the exclamation point on another solid night for the two-way (13 minutes) 2019 first-round draft pick. . There were no signs of butterflies from Broberg, who was given every opportunity to make the team out of training camp but didn't catch it, returned to the AHL, dominated, and now, on the biggest stage of the NHL, he didn't give up. football, at all.

Maybe one day he'll replace fellow Swede Oscar Klefbom in the Oil Country Hearts as the top 4 left-handed D after Klefbom's NHL career unfortunately ended with a broken shoulder. That's the spelling word, but right now, maybe Broberg has arrived as a true NHLer, like Dylan Holloway, who also spent a long time on the farm and has three goals this playoff season.

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Broberg played a clean 14 minutes in Game 4 with Cody Ceci on third D and after two dunks early in Game 5, he went to the Oiler bench for a short chat and a pat on the shoulder from Paul Coffey. Broberg resumed playing and looked like a guy who has played in 22 postseason games, not the last two of which lasted less than 30 minutes.

A pat on the shoulder from Coffey

Good reinforcements from Coffey and Broberg showed up in a good way.

“Brobie was put in a difficult situation in Game 4, which we should have won by a lot. “He came in and played very well and tonight (Game 5), I thought he continued to build on his game,” Knoblauch said, applauding Coffey's performance.

“Paul was good, he pushed the buttons, he pulled the strings. He did a really good job during the season doing that (with the Oiler defense). When should the guys be strong and when should we push them, but in a game like this, Broberg doesn't need pressure anymore,” said Knoblauch.

“He doesn't need to be motivated. He made a mistake and to get a pat on the back from a Hall of Fame running back on the defensive end, that means a lot to him.”

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Broberg was all ears as Coffey spoke.

“I'm just trying to find my game, make plays there. Sometimes I make mistakes and things don't happen. He just said to raise his head,” said Broberg.

While Coffey was Broberg's motivator, captain Connor McDavid was also giving “gimme a B, gimme an R, gimme an O.”

“I thought he was amazing,” the Oiler captain said.

“Obviously a big goal from him,” said 97, “but he was skating all over the place, getting pucks out, getting them out of our zone. He was a one-man at times and that's what he had to do to be successful. His legs are a gift and he should use them.”

Broberg balance

Broberg played 20 solid shifts and had 49 seconds left in one of the Oiler's two penalty kills to extend their streak to 25 in a row, and 43 of 46 in the playoffs. He had three blocks, including a crucial one in the slot in the top of the third after Wyatt Johnston pinned him against the wall, as the Stars pressed.

“I'm just trying to play my game, I'm trying to help the team win,” said Broberg, who has yet to offer a salad when asked about himself. He said it's difficult to sit and practice for weeks, especially for an Oiler blueline that has played six Ds — Mattias Ekholm, Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse, Ceci, Brett Kulak and Desharnais — in every single game since the end. October so far.

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But entering, he has balanced the pressure like fire and the excitement well.

“I'm enjoying every second,” said Broberg, who laughed shyly when asked who he would call first to tell them about his first goal of the playoffs.

“I don't know, maybe my family and my girlfriend. It's good that I got a goal, it's good that we won,” said Broberg.

Knoblauch, who pushed all the right buttons in the playoffs, thought Desharnais, a big part of the leading PK in the regular season and playoffs, and the nurse's partner for much of the postseason, needed a reset. So in came Broberg, who had played in nine games last spring but at times as the seventh defenseman under Jay Woodcroft.

It seemed like a Hail Mary from Knoblauch playing him in Game 4, three rounds into the playoffs after a long layoff, but not now.

“In the first game, Broberg gave us everything we wanted. We wanted his ability to move the puck up the ice the way Darnell covers the ice with his reach. Similar to that, but not Darnell's strength,” Knoblauch said.

“You never know what you're going to get from a defender coming into his first game (after entering the playoffs). It's not easy..but he handled it well. We only saw him in a few games at the end of the regular season but we had confidence in what he could do, with reports of how well he played in Bakersfield.

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“It was a difficult decision to take Vinny out, but this time we wanted to do it and we had to change things a little bit. And he was a strange person.”

On the bench

In the first half, we got an unexpected collision between the two 39-year-old players when Star Joe Pavelski punched Corey Perry in the shoulder. Perry went to the Oiler's locker room with a bruised right arm and shoulder. He wasn't on the bench at the start of the second half but he came back later, maybe it was just a fluke. Pavelski was playing in his 200th playoff game and Perry No. 208, which tied him with Wayne Gretzky and Jaromir Jagr.

Another outstanding game from Nurse, who played a solid, consistent, smart game of hockey after his horrendous Game 4 in which he had 12 hits.

McDavid never lost a face-off, winning 10 of 12.

With his two assists Bouchard became the third-fastest defenseman to score 50 playoff points, doing so in 45 games. Bobby Orr (39) and Brian Leetch (41) did it quickly.

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