BLOG: Pushing the needle

EDMONTON, AB - "You've got to win the first round to advance," forward Leon Draisaitl said. "That's where it starts."
The Oilers will be one of the final eight teams remaining in the Stanley Cup Playoffs when the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs begins next week and will contest the right to play in the Western Conference Final against one of either the Dallas Stars or the Calgary Flames.
Countless elevations of play needed from the Blue & Orange over two do-or-die efforts with their backs against the wall pushed themselves over the hump and into the second round with a 2-0 shutout victory in Game 7 over the Los Angeles Kings.
"There are 16 teams that are really good teams, so it's tough to get past that first round," Draisaitl said. "You saw it in our series, LA is a really good team, but we stuck with it and eventually ended up being successful. That first series is a tough one, every series obviously is, but getting over that hump feels good right now.
"We plan on continuing to play for a while."
Players and coaches are going to celebrate their comeback in the series and the experience of advancing to the second round on home ice with one of their most complete performances of the 89 games they've played during the full 2021-22 campaign, but only for so long. There are bigger games ahead, and the challenges they'll face will only mount the further they go.
It's further adversity they're ready for and embrace.
"It's big of course," Draisaitl said. "It feels good. We're obviously not done. This isn't the end, we haven't reached anything yet, but it feels good to do it with this group. We've been through stuff all season and a lot of years even; ups and downs and negative stuff, so it feels great to have this feeling right now."

The German didn't let a noticeable lower-body ailment suffered in Game 6 stop him from delivering the assist on Tyson Barrie's game-winning goal or prevent him from playing 22:38 in Saturday night's Game 7 triumph which represented the second-most ice time out of Oilers forwards behind 27:23 from Connor McDavid, who performed at an unthinkable but not unexpected level with a goal and assist.
Cody Ceci's second-career playoff goal -- a snipe over the left shoulder of Jonathan Quick in the middle frame - ended as the game-winner, with the defenceman's showing serving as a microcosm of an undeterred performance by the Blue & Orange blueline in Games 6 and 7 with their backs against the wall facing elimination.
"I think it had a lot to do with work and dedication to what we've been doing down the stretch," Ceci said. "Just trying to stay up on them as much as possible, hard track, getting them to turn it over and spending as little time in our zone. I thought we really bought in the last couple of games, played desperate, and showed we can be a tough team to beat."
Mike Smith, who owned up to a mistake in Game 1 that played into a series-opening defeat, posted two shutouts the rest of the way that included Saturday's 29 saves where he made stop after stop when needed in a high-pressure scenario at home in Rogers Place.
"It's an experience, right? It's an experience you can gain confidence from," Smith said. "Being down and never panicking, going to LA and playing solid hockey game to get it back to home ice into Game 7, and playing our best game of the series in the biggest moment. You can't help but gain confidence from that.
"Getting through the first round has been a crook for a while, so I think it's a big boost for the group."

The forwards bought into the preaches of Head Coach Jay Woodcroft by tracking back to their own end, cutting out lanes, and commanding possession in the offensive zone.
"I thought [Saturday] in one of the most pressure-filled situations of our year, and in fact the last two elimination games that we were facing, we had habits that held up under pressure. That's a good sign for us as we move forward."
Sacrifices and steps made by the Oilers over a hard-fought, adversity-filled seven-game series with Los Angeles pushed the boundaries for what the players and coaching staff inside the locker room know they can accomplish with the right mindset and approach.
"As we move forward here for our team, that series pushed us in a certain way that made us grow," Woodcroft said. "We learned a lot about ourselves over these last two weeks and the price that needs to be paid to have success at this time of the year.
"I don't think we're planning on stopping here. We're trying to get some rest and some regeneration to prepare for the next challenge. For me, we said to our group [Friday] that we didn't come this far just to come this far. We're here to progress and continue to move our needle forward."

Putting every improvement from disappointing seasons past and over the course of the '21-22 campaign into Saturday's victory makes the feeling that much sweeter to Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who will play second-round playoff hockey for the first time since '16-17 alongside teammates Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zack Kassian, Darnell Nurse and Kris Russell who were there for the Oilers last appearance beyond the opening series.
Advancing from the first round remains, however, only the first step before the real end game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs begins.
"It's definitely up there," McDavid said of the accomplishment. "But that being said, it's just one round. There's a long way to go here. We're happy to move on to the second round, but that's all we did. We survived another day."