Special teams can be hit or miss. Sometimes goalies can steal a game. Other times a team can get a lead and then lock the door on defence.

This is the playoffs and anything can happen. It’s point-counterpoint for head coaches once they get behind the bench to square off in what might as well be a chess battle on ice.

But one thing a team can’t live without is ever-present physicality. No if they want to keep progressing down their playoff path, at least.

Leave that factor out of the equation and the math starts adding up the wrong way. Really fast.

After all, there is no point to the whole point-counterpoint thing if the other guys are going to answer back with punch-counterpunch.

It doesn’t matter how well your power play has been doing if you all of a sudden find yourself lying down, looking up at the other team’s penalty kill. Or the other way around, as the case may be.

And even if special teams or other areas of your game aren’t exactly clipping along as expected, throwing the body around might just open up some much-needed ice to get things back on track.

Exhibit No. 1: The Edmonton Oilers went without Evander Kane for the entire regular season, with the intent of getting him surgically repaired and back to full health in time for a big playoff push.

And push he has through the first two rounds, looking like a carefree youngster with a spring in his step as he launched into opposing players who have already endured 82 regular-season games and are reaching deeper into the tank to try and last the post-season.

“It’s good to feel good, obviously,” said Kane, who was playing through a sports hernia in last year’s playoffs, to the point where he had to take a seat three games into the Stanley Cup Final.

So, things didn’t exactly begin all that smoothly early on against the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference final. The best-of-seven series gives the Edmonton Oilers another chance to push back.

There is a reason, after all, they play best-of-seven series. And there’s also a reason it’s called pushing back.

“Regardless of what the other team’s doing in any facet of the game, when it comes to physicality we want to be just as physical as we normally are,” Kane said. “And I think as the series goes on, I’m sure it will continue to ramp up. You saw it a little bit at the end of the last game, but they’re a team that obviously is using their power play to their advantage right now and it won them Game 1.”

Of course, there is a fine line when it comes to physicality and pushing the pedal to the metal in the playoffs. Cross it, and you can wind up in the penalty box, which can prove nothing short of a death sentence against a team like Dallas.

“The types of penalties we’re taking, too, stick infractions, you don’t want to see,” Kane said. “You’re never meaning to high-stick a guy or get somebody up high, but those are things you just have to clean up.”

It’s not just Kane lining up bodychecks for the Oilers in these playoffs. He’s joined by newcomer Vasily Podkolzin, who is turning into a physical force here in his first year with Edmonton, as well as Zach Hyman. The 50-goal scorer from a year ago has shown a versatility to be comfortable playing on the top line alongside Connor McDavid one game, or taking a more physical role further down the lineup the next. He far and away leads the NHL with 90 hits in these playoffs heading into Friday’s Game 2 at American Airlines Center. The next closest player is barely in the 70s.

“He’s obviously doing a great job of that,” Kane said. “I can’t say I’m surprised. He obviously is a big kind of bull out there. When he puts his mind to it and wants to bear down on guys, he can obviously do it and I think he’s shown that and proven that.

“He’s one of those players that has multiple different skill sets and if he’s not scoring, he’s bringing other things to the table. And those are players that you really want to have.”

E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge