Before Saturday night, the Panthers had a 3-0 lead in this Stanley Cup Final, and that was, in part, because the Edmonton Oilers were sleeping on the gas and not doing anything good offensively.

Saturday night, we may have seen the real Oilers. Maybe.

These Oilers, who had only scored four goals in the first three games of the final, decided this time to play hockey, play their own hockey, and do what they are supposed to do, which is i.e. score goals.

The final score: Oilers 8, Panthers 1.

This time, on this evening of game number four in Edmonton, the Oilers obtained a decisive victory, and their supporters will say that it was about time, they who are not used to offensive droughts.

Let’s get right to the important part: goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, to whom several experts already wanted to give the Conn-Smythe before the game even started on Saturday, was taken out of the game during the second period, after giving 5 goals on just 16 shots, by far his worst performance since the start of the final.

Another important end, this time in the category of “the best who must be the best”: Connor McDavid, scored, for the first time since the start of this final, and then also, he added three assists, to thus thus offering a very nice evening of four points. The Oilers can’t dream of anything without their captain and without this kind of evening.

We know, and we have repeated it at least 150 times, that only one club has managed to come back from 0-3 in the Stanley Cup final, namely the Toronto Maple Leafs, who managed to do it …in 1942. It’s probably not an example to follow because it’s been over 80 years, but the Oilers are here, hoping, because this Saturday night gives them at least that: an opportunity to hope .

The Panthers now have the luxury of returning home, if the rain doesn’t submerge all of Florida, and that’s not a simple detail, because the Oilers haven’t won once in Florida. since the start of this final. We assume that Paul Maurice, with his legendary calm, will remind his guys that they are still in a very good position.

So this is it.

For the Oilers, if this Saturday evening will have served any purpose, apart from the victory of course, it will have served to prove that it is possible to force the Panthers to play a style of play that they do not want. For the first time since the start of this final, it was the Oilers, and not the Panthers, who set the pace.

Now the Oilers’ challenge is to do the same thing for three more nights, at least. It won’t be that simple.