ANAHEIM — Chris Pronger knows Edmonton-Anaheim. And he knows about Stanley Cup teams, having been there three times in his Hall of Fame career.

In 2006, Pronger anchored the long-shot Oilers to a Game 7 loss in the Final, and had my vote for the Conn Smythe Trophy (which went to Carolina goalie Cam Ward). The following season Pronger manned the blue-line of a 110-point Anaheim club, where he and the Ducks won the only Stanley Cup of either’s hockey existence.

One team surprised everyone. The other, with Pronger and Scott Niedermayer on the top pair and J.S. Giguere in goal, surprised nobody.

Pronger watched his two old teams go at it in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal Wednesday night from the comfort of his St. Louis couch. We asked him if there is a moment in every Cup run where an unlikely team like Edmonton — which finished 29th last season and hadn’t made the playoffs since 2006 — gets the inkling that perhaps this could be their year?

Perhaps, despite what we may have thought a month ago, the Oilers are a team that could win more than just a round or two this spring.

“It’s how you’ve played against the top teams that defines how you compare yourself to the teams you’re playing,” began Pronger, whose body has forced into retirement a hockey mind that is still as sharp as it is competitive. “Now you’re looking at the matchups and saying, ‘He’s not better than me…’ or, ‘This guy can handle that guy.’ ‘This defence pair can shut down that guy…’

“Then it becomes ‘Why can’t we beat these guys? Why can’t WE win?’”

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Here’s a stat you should know:

Since the NHL became a 30-team league in 2000-01, no team has advanced to the Stanley Cup Final the season after finishing in 29th place. The closest was Anaheim, 24th in 2001-02 and losers to New Jersey in seven games in the 2003 Cup Final.

Suddenly, we’re getting that feeling about this Oilers club. That maybe you could say Edmonton and Stanley Cup Final in the same sentence, even if that sentence begins with, “What if…?”

The Oilers won four of the last five games against a dinged-up Sharks club, then walked into Anaheim and won a very physical hockey game against an intimidating Ducks team in Game 1. They had the best goalie in Round 1, and do again, to our eye, in Round 2.

And now the rest of the playoff karma is coming together.

This franchise’s very first Stanley Cup in 1984 began with a Game 1 win on Long Island in which the game’s only goal was scored by plugger Kevin McLelland. Some still call that the most important goal in franchise history.

In ’06, they got five game-winners from Fernando Pisani. Of their 13 wins, 11 game-winners came off the sticks of players who were not top-six forwards or top-pairing defencemen. This spring Edmonton has five game-winners so far: two by Zack Kassian, and singles by Anton Slepyshev, David Desharnais and Adam Larsson.

And if Pronger is right about confidence coming from regular season results against your opponents, then what is it worth to know that Edmonton had the best record against the Pacific Division of any Pacific team, and the best record against the West of any Western team?

“There is your answer right there,” Pronger declared. “Something they can put in their heads and say, ‘Why can’t we?’

“Look,” he explained, “the only people who need to believe are the people inside that locker-room. As long as those 23 guys believe they can win, then why cant they?

“If they match up well versus the Pacific and Western Conference, why can’t they win?”

Ex-Oiler Shawn Horcoff, now a development coach for the Red Wings, recalls the moment it all became clear back in ’06.

“After we won the first round,” he said. “We’d beaten Detroit, the best team in the league. Now, we had no reason to think we couldn’t beat anyone. That was the defining moment — if we could beat Detroit we could beat anyone.”

Now, these Oilers finished ahead of San Jose in the Pacific. It’s unlikely their epiphany has happened yet.

“They’ll feel the same way if they can get through Anaheim,” Horcoff promised. “Anaheim has been the best team in the West all year, in my opinion.”