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Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers had some bad luck and lost that game themselves by letting a very fast Vegas team capitalize.

No worries though, for we are going to win in Edmonton and then take it to them in 7.
 
Don't want to entirely blame last game on the refs as the Oilers didn't play fantastic either. However the Knights didn't have much going until that horrendous call on Broberg. The others were penalties, but extremely unlucky (Janmark tries to stick check and it rides up the guys stick directly into his face, Foegele is stick handling and once again clips the opponents stick directing it inot his face). Also the first goal shouldn't have counted as, while Eichel wasn't in the crease as the panel continued to emphasize Skinner actually was which means no Eichel isn't allowed to plow into him to get to the loose puck. If the Knights don't get that 5 on 3 they lose that game regardless of the goalie interference no-call. Could the Oilers have played better, absolutely, but they had that game completely under control until the 5 on 3, which wouldn't have happened if the refs did their job properly.

Either way, we battled back last year against LA with our backs against the wall and can do it again. This group is a lot less fragile than Oilers teams of previous years, Nurse being back will help out our transition significantly as well.
 
Lot's of single and pairs for $250-275 available right now which is pretty good considering our same discounted seasons are 196.
 
We did it to ourselves and could not mount the right plan.

D was subpar

G was ok

O was lacking when we needed it.

Here's to next year!
 
The Oilers were on/off and were not consistent enough, nor dedicated enough to make this happen.

Our D-breakdowns were BAD, but our lack of consistency was worse.

Don't blame it on the refs, we didn't compete enough when we had the space.

See you next year:(
 
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we all know how important goaltending is, especially in the playoffs and woodcroft might have overthought it too much with skinner.

campbell earned a start three times and should have been given one so the team could rally in front of him with the score tied instead of down two goals.

don’t get me wrong, I’m a woodcroft fan, particularly in how he thinks the game and manages his assets but occasionally he can overthink it, particularly when it involves players he has a relationship with and is loyal to.
 
Hindsight I suppose, but I'm not sure it would have had much of an effect given how poor our D-zone play was, turnovers for odd-mans and very bad luck with a number of bounces going the wrong way that we simply didn't get.
 
Skinner simply had to make one of those saves. Once in a while a goalie has to steal a game for you and he wasn’t even close.
 
I'd agree with that and the one that he dove across and just missed might have been that save and given us a chance, alas.

But we simply didn't play well in our own zone and could not score 5v5.
 
What a depressing end to an otherwise outstanding year.

The Oilers screwed themselves on this one--I doubt they're going to get a better opportunity to win a Cup going forward given that these playoffs Florida and Seattle cleared the path by eliminating the record-setting Bruins and the defending Cup champ Avalanche. This should have been Edmonton's year to reach the Finals at least.

Skinner's play is deeply concerning. With his success during the year and his Calder nomination-worthy exploits, it was looking as if the goaltending situation was stabilizing and the OIl had a netminder they could count on during big games. That is clearly not even remotely the case. Fortunately for Skinner, the playoffs aren't taken into account with regards to Calder voting.

How a team with a record-setting PP, three 100+ point players and one guy who became the first skater in 27 years to tally 150+ points, had so much trouble scoring in these playoffs is mystifying.

The more worrisome issue concerns the team's top two players: the club keeps wasting seasons in which it has both Draisatl and McDavid under contract. Very soon it's going to lose one of them, and the time for going deep in the playoffs and contending for a Cup is supposed to be right now. Draisatl almost certainly will be gone first--even if he wanted to stay in Edmonton, it will be difficult for the club to try and keep him without gutting the lineup. Both players badly want to win a Cup--the only knock on McDavid around the league is the fact that the Oilers have never gone anywhere during his tenure. At what point do both guys decide that Edmonton is never going to be the place where they can hoist a Cup?

Looking back on 2022-23, I'm reminded of Gretzky's bitter words about the OIl's 1982-83 loss to the NY Islanders: "A whole year of hard work, down the drain."
 
Imo, Vegas flat out was better than us over the course of the series, the Oilers had their moments and in particular definitely deserved to win Game 6. Vegas was marginally better in the second period and got all the goals they needed to win during that time (Skinner needed to make at least one of those saves). Period 1 and 3 were all Oilers but Adin Hill turned into a brick wall the second after he let in the first 2 shots.

If the high stick on Ekholm would have been called the end result could have been very different as it would have put the Oilers on a 4 minute powerplay. But they should have never been in the position of being down in the first place if Skinner had been decent. Last game we got goalied, but Vegas overall was the better team and deserved to win, outplaying us significantly 5 on 5.

I was very surprised Woody went back to Skinner after 3 pulls in the series and didn't go with Campbell who has been super clutch so far, with the season on the line but c'est la vie.

Offseason necessities:

The Oilers are very close to a Stanley Cup right now, towards the end of the year we saw flashes of what was probably the best team in the league (though an asterisk being they were playing against much easier competition than the start of the year). The Oilers need to do their best to bring back as much of the bottom 6 free agents as we can, fill the gaps with the farm team or additional FA signings if it's too much to bring players back.

McCleod: bridge deal, we won't be able to afford a long term contract for him right now so a 2-3 year bridge is good.

Ryan: Bring him back for a reasonable price, very good glue guy and while he will never wow you with his offensive talent he legitimately never makes a bad play, literally ever.

Bjugstad: May walk in FA though I would like to see him stay for the right price, he was slightly underwhelming in the playoffs but played well in the regular season and is a great 3-4 line centre.

Kostin: Sign him to a 2-3 year contract, it was unrealistic to expect him to continue the production we saw at parts of the season but he's a good physical player that can occasionally chip in offensively and scored a couple big goals in the playoffs. He struggles defensively however.

Now the big one:

Bouchard: Rumors are the Oilers want to bridge him which makes sense given our cap situation right now however it will cost us in the long run. Right now the Oilers have the leverage to lock him up long term to a sub 8 million dollar number long term and in my opinion should take that. Because if they give him 2-3 years at a lower number it will likely cost them 10 million plus to keep him as I expect him to be at or near the top of league defensive scoring in the next few seasons and in todays NHL that's the going rate for an elite offensive defenseman (It could be even higher later if the cap keeps moving up). Bridging him will be a mistake that will cost the Oilers in the long term.

Other moves:

Trade Ceci: he's eating up a lot of salary and while he's a legitimately good defensive d-man he costs too much for what he brings. Move him for cap space. But since he's legitimately good we probably wouldn't need to sweeten the pot at least too much. A destination like Vancouver or New Jersey would work well for him.

Trade Yamamoto: Costing us 3.1 million for the next 2 years and not worth that at all. He hasn't been able to rediscover the form he found a couple years ago with Drai and Nuge where he was a point per game player over just under a half a season. I love Yamo but it's time to move on. I could see a number of teams being interested, he'd fit well on the Kraken in particular as he is from Washington state and fits perfectly into their system. We likely wouldn't need to sweeten the pot with picks here either.

Trade for a Jets top-6 winger: More than likely the Jets will blow it up this offseason, which they should have done 3 seasons ago when their defense imploded on itself as they lost Big buff, Trouba and Myers in very short succession and have been running on band aid solutions since then. Kyle Connor or Nikolai Ehlers are my intended targets here, Connor is unlikely but Ehlers could be possible. His contract is very reasonable and he would immediately be one of our best players, he can play LW or RW so can fully complete the Oilers top-6 which has a hole at 2 RW. Just have to hope he stays healthy.

Lastly sign a right handed defenseman to replace Ceci:

My first choice would be Severson, who is criminally underrated but a less flashy option like Scott Mayfield or Niko Mikkola would do the trick as well for a lower price.

Roll with the same goalie tandem as last season. I would expect both goalies to improve. Campbell had an awful season that's for certain, but towards the end of the regular season and into the games he did end up playing in the playoffs, he gave us the best chance to win, which for a team as offensively gifted as the Oilers is all they need. Skinner was a rookie, he had a great regular season, I legitimately believe that if he wasn't excellent in the regular season we would have been a wildcard team or might have even missed the playoffs with Campbell in the funk he was in. I think the pressure got to Stu in the playoffs and this year was a great experience for him to come back better next year.

Holloway will likely break-out next season and become a mainstay in the top-6. If we add Ehlers he could push Hyman or Kane out of the top-6.

Ideal line up for next year:

Nuge - McDavid - Ehlers
Kane - Draisaitl - Hyman
Foegele - McCleod - Holloway (Could be switched with Hyman)
Kostin - Bjugstad - Ryan

Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Severson
Kulak - Broberg

Skinner - 1a
Campbell - 1b

Extras: Raphael Lavoie, Vincent Desharnais

This team should easily crack 50 wins again and could definitely win the Presidents Trophy and the Stanley Cup.

Stay the course, this year was disappointing but we now have a 2-3 year window of being one of the top teams in the league, that could be extended if Connor and Leon resign. I believe the Oilers will win the cup in the next 5 years if they don't I will be deeply shocked and disappointed.
 
erudyk_29 said:
Imo, Vegas flat out was better than us over the course of the series, the Oilers had their moments and in particular definitely deserved to win Game 6. Vegas was marginally better in the second period and got all the goals they needed to win during that time (Skinner needed to make at least one of those saves). Period 1 and 3 were all Oilers but Adin Hill turned into a brick wall the second after he let in the first 2 shots.

If the high stick on Ekholm would have been called the end result could have been very different as it would have put the Oilers on a 4 minute powerplay. But they should have never been in the position of being down in the first place if Skinner had been decent. Last game we got goalied, but Vegas overall was the better team and deserved to win, outplaying us significantly 5 on 5.

I was very surprised Woody went back to Skinner after 3 pulls in the series and didn't go with Campbell who has been super clutch so far, with the season on the line but c'est la vie.

Offseason necessities:

The Oilers are very close to a Stanley Cup right now, towards the end of the year we saw flashes of what was probably the best team in the league (though an asterisk being they were playing against much easier competition than the start of the year). The Oilers need to do their best to bring back as much of the bottom 6 free agents as we can, fill the gaps with the farm team or additional FA signings if it's too much to bring players back.

McCleod: bridge deal, we won't be able to afford a long term contract for him right now so a 2-3 year bridge is good.

Ryan: Bring him back for a reasonable price, very good glue guy and while he will never wow you with his offensive talent he legitimately never makes a bad play, literally ever.

Bjugstad: May walk in FA though I would like to see him stay for the right price, he was slightly underwhelming in the playoffs but played well in the regular season and is a great 3-4 line centre.

Kostin: Sign him to a 2-3 year contract, it was unrealistic to expect him to continue the production we saw at parts of the season but he's a good physical player that can occasionally chip in offensively and scored a couple big goals in the playoffs. He struggles defensively however.

Now the big one:

Bouchard: Rumors are the Oilers want to bridge him which makes sense given our cap situation right now however it will cost us in the long run. Right now the Oilers have the leverage to lock him up long term to a sub 8 million dollar number long term and in my opinion should take that. Because if they give him 2-3 years at a lower number it will likely cost them 10 million plus to keep him as I expect him to be at or near the top of league defensive scoring in the next few seasons and in todays NHL that's the going rate for an elite offensive defenseman (It could be even higher later if the cap keeps moving up). Bridging him will be a mistake that will cost the Oilers in the long term.

Other moves:

Trade Ceci: he's eating up a lot of salary and while he's a legitimately good defensive d-man he costs too much for what he brings. Move him for cap space. But since he's legitimately good we probably wouldn't need to sweeten the pot at least too much. A destination like Vancouver or New Jersey would work well for him.

Trade Yamamoto: Costing us 3.1 million for the next 2 years and not worth that at all. He hasn't been able to rediscover the form he found a couple years ago with Drai and Nuge where he was a point per game player over just under a half a season. I love Yamo but it's time to move on. I could see a number of teams being interested, he'd fit well on the Kraken in particular as he is from Washington state and fits perfectly into their system. We likely wouldn't need to sweeten the pot with picks here either.

Trade for a Jets top-6 winger: More than likely the Jets will blow it up this offseason, which they should have done 3 seasons ago when their defense imploded on itself as they lost Big buff, Trouba and Myers in very short succession and have been running on band aid solutions since then. Kyle Connor or Nikolai Ehlers are my intended targets here, Connor is unlikely but Ehlers could be possible. His contract is very reasonable and he would immediately be one of our best players, he can play LW or RW so can fully complete the Oilers top-6 which has a hole at 2 RW. Just have to hope he stays healthy.

Lastly sign a right handed defenseman to replace Ceci:

My first choice would be Severson, who is criminally underrated but a less flashy option like Scott Mayfield or Niko Mikkola would do the trick as well for a lower price.

Roll with the same goalie tandem as last season. I would expect both goalies to improve. Campbell had an awful season that's for certain, but towards the end of the regular season and into the games he did end up playing in the playoffs, he gave us the best chance to win, which for a team as offensively gifted as the Oilers is all they need. Skinner was a rookie, he had a great regular season, I legitimately believe that if he wasn't excellent in the regular season we would have been a wildcard team or might have even missed the playoffs with Campbell in the funk he was in. I think the pressure got to Stu in the playoffs and this year was a great experience for him to come back better next year.

Holloway will likely break-out next season and become a mainstay in the top-6. If we add Ehlers he could push Hyman or Kane out of the top-6.

Ideal line up for next year:

Nuge - McDavid - Ehlers
Kane - Draisaitl - Hyman
Foegele - McCleod - Holloway (Could be switched with Hyman)
Kostin - Bjugstad - Ryan

Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Severson
Kulak - Broberg

Skinner - 1a
Campbell - 1b

Extras: Raphael Lavoie, Vincent Desharnais

This team should easily crack 50 wins again and could definitely win the Presidents Trophy and the Stanley Cup.

Stay the course, this year was disappointing but we now have a 2-3 year window of being one of the top teams in the league, that could be extended if Connor and Leon resign. I believe the Oilers will win the cup in the next 5 years if they don't I will be deeply shocked and disappointed.
Click to expand...
Excellent and very thorough post. Great analysis.

The problem is that this team has no more than two seasons left as a contending group--I fully expect Draisatl to sign elsewhere at the end of 2024-25 when he becomes a UFA. If the OIlers haven't won a Cup or been runner-up in that time period, I expect McDavid will soon follow, either by requesting a trade or by the Oilers deciding that their window has passed and the team may as well get some value instead of losing #97 for nothing.

In addition, while RNH deserves plaudits for an outstanding regular season, I predict this was his high-water mark and we won't see him break 100 again. RNH may retire as an Oiler, Draisatl and McDavid won't.
 
I’m not sold on Skinner. He looks robotic in the net as if he has to think ab every move he makes. He should be more fluid and intuitive there is no time to think.
 
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers told the media the team will have a “cup or bust” mentality going forward. “When you look at the group here, everyone is signed on for the next number of years,” said McDavid. “Everyone is in the prime of their career.”
 
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