If Evander Kane and Evan Bouchard are back, Edmonton Oilers have a fighting chance

If you’re going to go on a decent playoff run or, in the case of the Edmonton Oilers Friday night, you only have a matter of minutes to slip a life-saving goal through the Grim Reaper’s five-hole, you’ll need a little magic.

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Like a dust-covered veteran who missed the entire season and a blundering defenceman who spent the first two games of the playoffs setting up opposition goals joining forces to stave off a cataclysmic defeat and breathe life back into the series.

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Go figure. If you had to predict which two guys were going to bring the Oilers back from life support in Game 3 against the Los Angeles Kings, Evander Kane and Evan Bouchard probably wouldn’t have been your first-round picks.

But in a playoff series that has been defying logic from the start — 30 goals in three games between two teams that were promising 3-2 hockey — Kane and Bouchard appeared, like rabbits out of hats, when the Oilers needed them most.

After looking very much like a guy who hadn’t played in a year when he returned to the lineup in Game 2, Kane was all over Game 3. He set up Connor Brown to tie it 3-3 in the second period and then tied it himself with 6:42 left in regulation — on a greasy doorstep play that prompted an ill-fated goalie interference challenge that led to Bouchard’s game-winner 10 seconds later.

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Two key moments from the 33-year-old winger changed the course of the hockey game. Instead of being down 3-0 with zero chance of winning the series, the Oilers are one home-ice victory away from turning this into a best-of-three.

“He’s one in a million, man,” grinned Brown. “It’s unbelievable what he’s able to do when the lights are on. Kaner is incredible.

“I missed a full season, and it took me 60 games to score. It took him six periods. I thought he had a great game.”

This is what the Oilers and their fans were hoping for when Kane returned for the playoffs. He’s a unique personality who doesn’t always mesh with everyone, but he’s a big-time player, and he’s the kind of guy you want in your foxhole when the going gets tough.

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“It’s nice to have him back,” said Leon Draisaitl. “He brings an asset to our lineup that we don’t have a lot of. He’s obviously a guy who doesn’t overthink these big moments. He’s just a guy who wants to score and wants to play. We’re very happy to have him back.”

The best-case scenario for Kane’s return, at least at the start, was him being able to throw some hits, get into some scrums, maybe crowd the goalie and drop the gloves. For him to be providing clutch setups and clutch goals in just his second game back is a very good sign for a team that needs all the help it can get.

The Oilers are still down 2-1 and still have some concerns in the areas of penalty killing, goaltending and team defence, so having another impact player joining the fight is big. It gives the Kings something else to think about.

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“Evander, talk about what a factor he can be in a series or a game,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Being able to finish checks, he had a couple of big hits, and obviously the two goals he was a part of. Huge game from him.”

Kane is just glad to be back and happy that he’s able to make a difference.

“You’re never going to feel perfect when it’s your first game back after that long,” he said. “But tonight, in terms of my legs and my feel out there, it was night and day, and I’m sure it’s going to continue to get better.

“It was nice to pull through. It was only one win, and we have to take care of business on Sunday night and try to get this thing tied up 2-2.”

If anybody’s comeback rivalled Kane’s, it was Bouchard’s. He was a mess in the first two games, making careless, costly defensive errors that looked like something you’d see from a U-14 player.

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Instead of folding under the scrutiny and criticism, he single-handedly revived Edmonton’s dormant power play, scoring three seconds into their first man advantage to make it 2-0 and 10 seconds into their next man advantage for the winning goal.

Fighting back the way he did in Game 3, showing everyone the clutch, high-end skill that made him the third-most important player in Edmonton’s playoff run last year, is even bigger than what Kane did.

If THAT Evan Bouchard is here to stay, the Oilers are about to find another gear.

rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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