from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,
The hike to the peak is never a constant ascent. It comes with dips and detours, dashed hopes and the odd switchback.
It’s a merciless process, one that doesn’t care when the climb began or what spring you had planned on planting your flag.
In a season where the path to ol’ Stanley was wide open, the Edmonton Oilers ran out of oxygen before the halfway point, losing their Round 2 series to the Vegas Golden Knights in six games. The longer this series went — culminating in a 5-2 clincher on Sunday — the clearer it became that this version of the Oilers was not yet the one.
“It feels like every team that wins, that goes on a stretch of winning, kind of experiences this,” began captain Connor McDavid, valiant with 20 points in 12 playoff games this spring. “Obviously, it's not what you want to do, not what you want to feel. That being said, I really feel that you’ve got to go through some of this to win. I think we've seen that all the way through.
“Let's hope it’s the last time.”...
“It's tough to find words right now,” Draisaitl said in the post-game dressing room. “When you start a season, you're in it to win it. We're at that stage, and if you don't complete that then just feels like a failure. Like a wasted year, almost. So that hurts.
“I’ve got to take a lot of ownership myself. I wasn’t good tonight.”
I thought Edmonton had a real shot to go all the way this year - IF - they could play a decent amount of defense.
I just could not stay up late to watch their games this year. But what's the deal with these guys? While their goaltenders will not remind anyone of Terry Sawchuck, Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur or Dominik Hasek.....were Skinner and Campbell THAT bad? Were the Knights the second coming of the '77 Canadiens or '81 Islanders?
# 97 is UFA after 2027 # 29 after 2026 Bouchard coming off ELC now....gets a raise for 2023-24....Jack Campbell 5mm until 2027 Skinner 2.6 thru 2026...
Big challenge here. As games go deeper in the playoffs - less power play opportunities as teams are more reluctant to take penalties and the refs swallow the whistle.
Edmonton's Power Play was supberb most of the time - but I wonder how they fared on 5x5?
Anyone closer to the situation - what's up for the Oilers?
Funny thing - I am in the office talking with the young guys and I just was learning more about Microsoft Bing's new AI feature (I suppose like chat gpt?) and asked it about "How can the Oilers improve to win the Stanley Cup" and below was it's answer ( I suppose Bing did not yet know the Oil lost last night)
*******
The Edmonton Oilers have been making progress in terms of playoff success last season, advancing to the Western Conference Final1. According to NHL.com, lessons learned about how important defense is in the Stanley Cup Playoffs will be the biggest reason the Edmonton Oilers will win their sixth Cup championship and first since 19902. The Oilers adopted a difference-making attention to defensive details under coach Jay Woodcroft, who took over when Dave Tippett was fired on Feb. 102. Under Tippett, Edmonton was outscored 100-88 at 5-on-5. After Woodcroft took over, the Oilers vastly improved in that department, outscoring the opposition 93-73 for the rest of the regular season2.
In addition, according to The Hockey Writers, there are four reasons why the Edmonton Oilers will win the Stanley Cup this year:
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Received message. The Edmonton Oilers
That's an impressive answer from the chatbox. They just didn't bring it hard enough, I guess. It will be interesting to see if any of these super top heavy teams ever win a cup.
Another take: Bottom line: two men and a powerplay cant beat a team https://edmontonjournal.com/sp...
Ken Holland is not happy today. Edmonton like Toronto had defensive issues (again) during this years playoffs.
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