The Edmonton Oilers were in a near must-win situation in game 4, after a disappointing game 3 that ended with a brutal cross check on Connor McDavid. Late in the game with the score close, Corey Perry was still up to his rat behaviour on ice.
While a scrum ensued, Corey Perry simply held his stick up in Brock Boeser's face, seemingly daring him to step into the stick. After game 3 ended with plenty of controversy surrounding cross checks, there's no way this wasn't intentional from Perry.
For this cross check against McDavid, Nikita Zadorov was fined, and Carson Soucy was suspended one game. The Canucks players and coach even publicly called for Zach Hyman to be suspended for a cross check too, but thankfully the NHL didn't agree. Tor see Perry try to bait Boeser with his stick directly in his face, it was surely a reference as to what happened the game before.
Perry wasn't made available to the media after the game to discuss this event, but he'll surely be asked next time. As one of the veteran leaders of this team and one of the best pests in the NHL, Perry drags the Oilers into the fight and gets under the opponents' skin. Still, he hasn't fully arrived in the playoffs yet with a big goal or even a big play - but there's no doubt Playoff Perry will have a big moment.
