Are the Oilers a top 5 contender next season with Jack Campbell?

[BB88]

To be a true contender they need an upgrade on the Dgroup.

But the West is far worse than the East so who knows

 

[RipsADrive]

All this thread makes me think is how badly I want the season to start.

I also question the motives of a Flames fan creating it.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Still drinking away his sorrows from when the oilers stomped the flames


Oh there are a ton of fans here besides you who think their biased opinions are fact.

That's right. Just invent stuff when you don't know what else to say. It's rather on point.

 

[Ninety7]

You should hear all the delusional excuses Oilers fans make for being swept in the WCF. Injuries were near the top of the list of their excuses. But when it comes to Calgary having injuries in the Oilers-Flames series, they suddenly don’t matter.

Lmao the only player that was injured in that series was Tanev.

No excuses, the avs were simply the better team and a juggernaut this year.

But you’re a troll if you think that the flames lost that series because of injuries.

 

[Bleedred]

Ha ha ha ha.

Honestly, I laughed even more about Nashville and Minnesota. Although I am so high on Kaprizov that I could see them really doing better than I think.

Nashville is kind of just there for me. I see nothing special about them other than just a playoff team. They’re kind of like Pittsburgh to me (only maybe not even quite as good) in that they were a legit cup contender (cup winner in Pittsburgh’s case) and presidents trophy winner several years back, but are only in the window of where they’re still making the playoffs and the cup window as is has shut. I feel Washington is also the same. They haven’t even won a round since the cup win in what will be 5 years ago.

I do think Vancouver will be better than last year and maybe even make the playoffs, but I don’t see them ahead of Edmonton.

Calgary can really go either way for me. They could wind up finishing ahead of Edmonton or they could wind up finishing quite a bit behind them. They’re a bit of a boom or bust for me. Edmonton is the safer bet to finish higher IMO, but also not close to a sure one.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Still drinking away his sorrows from when the oilers stomped the flames

Still drinking away your sorrows from when the avs stomped the oilers?

 

[John Mandalorian]

Lmao the only player that was injured in that series was Tanev.

No excuses, the avs were simply the better team and a juggernaut this year.

But you’re a troll if you think that the flames lost that series because of injuries.

If someone disagrees with you, they're a troll? Does this sandbox logic work for you most of the time?

There were plenty of comments by Flames fans complaining about injuries in the playoffs. I remember it because several made this comment in response to lucky with health during the regular season.

 

[blankall]

To be a true contender they need an upgrade on the Dgroup.

But the West is far worse than the East so who knows

The West is not far worse. The east had eight good teams and eight horrible teams last year. You just had to be better then the Islanders to make the playoffs. The best team in the east was Florida, and they've likely taken a big step back this year.

Pittsburgh, Boston, and Washington are all relying on aging stars, and are likely to be worse. Toronto also looks worse, with their current goalie and bottom six taking a step back from previous years.

The best contenders in the east are Carolina and Tampa, and Colorado spanked Tampa just a few months ago.

 

[Connor McConnor]

Still drinking away your sorrows from when the avs stomped the oilers?

Imagine being a Leafs fan and coming into a thread to backup the Flames because you haven't been born to witness a single playoff round victory. Jesus that's sad.

Stay out of an argument between two rival fanbases when you have literally NO basis to get involved. Better yet, before you start catching some strays.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Still drinking away your sorrows from when the avs stomped the oilers?

yeah

but we're not making threads about them

 

[Ninety7]

If someone disagrees with you, they're a troll? Does this sandbox logic work for you most of the time?

There were plenty of comments by Flames fans complaining about injuries in the playoffs. I remember it because several made this comment in response to lucky with health during the regular season.

Wtf are you on about?

Id wager that maybe ONE person has ever thought the flames lost that series because of injuries. Injuries had nothing to do with it and their own fans know that so I don’t even know why you keep making that up.

Give your head a shake.

 

[barry halls]

The best part about delusional Oilers fans (outside of them thinking the WCF was a very close series) is them thinking that Campbell is an upgrade on Smith/Koskinen. Holland paid double for a goalie that is, at best, a lateral move.

View attachment 583167

The Maple leafs had the worst goaltending of any playoff team. And Campbell was a huge part of that.

You're right, they're putting a lot of faith in an unproven tandem and it worries me. If the season goes of the rails for the Oilers it will be because of the goaltending, which is exactly what happened last season before they righted the ship under Woodcroft.

I try to be optimistic but all summer I've been confused by the pundits and fans saying the Oilers clearly upgraded in net when that's not based on anything but wishful thinking. It's a lot of counting chickens before they hatch. Campbell has had the reigns as a starter for just one full season and in the back half of it he was really bad.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

So will Toronto get some respect back around here once we finally win a series? took Florida since what 96 to win that 1st round then they got swept right after? not sure there's much to brag about

and the bottom line makes sense towards Toronto but why did you mention Edmonton? They atleast won a series, actually they won 2 series this year
Florida and Calgary both got embarrassed in the 2nd round

Yes

 

[Morbo]

this is because of that Spector article isn't it.

 

[Soundwave]

The funny thing is, there are only so many teams in the league that the leafs can say that about. Just goes to show how much of a dumpster fire the Oiler's D core really is.


Toronto and Edmonton do not belong in the same class as Florida, Calgary, and St. Louis. Toronto should try winning ONE series first before even thinking about that.

lol, Edmonton just waxed Calgary, playoff no show Huberdeau is going to change their fortunes?

Edmonton and yes, even Toronto can play with Florida or St. Louis very easily too, those teams are not on a different level at all, sorry.

Colorado is the only team as an Oilers fan I really am concerned about, anyone else bring it the f*** on. It's not so easy to slow down McDavid and Draisaitl with even half way decent wingers around them anymore and and a coach that coaches a more aggressive system.

 

[Morbo]

The Leafs might have a better D, but the gap up front when it comes to the playoffs is pretty huge the other way.

Draisaitl had 1 less point in this year's playoffs than Matthews has in six playoffs haha.

Your top players actually showing up makes a big difference.

yeah they had a great couple of rounds.

 

[Mr Positive]

You're right, they're putting a lot of faith in an unproven tandem and it worries me. If the season goes of the rails for the Oilers it will be because of the goaltending, which is exactly what happened last season before they righted the ship under Woodcroft.

I try to be optimistic but all summer I've been confused by the pundits and fans saying the Oilers clearly upgraded in net when that's not based on anything but wishful thinking. It's a lot of counting chickens before they hatch. Campbell has had the reigns as a starter for just one full season and in the back half of it he was really bad.

Campbell may have his issues but imo of course it is better than Smith/Koskinen. I also love that we have Skinner to take the lesser workload and possibly evolve and make this tandem truly great and not a bandaid solution we've been going with since Roloson, or perhaps that year of Talbot. So yes, this new tandem still has to prove itself but this is the best move in net the Oilers have done in years. I'd compare it to the Markstrom addition by the Flames. That move also was met with a lot of bashing. Such is life for a goalie who isn't Shesterkin.

The real measure of contender for the purpose of this thread is regular season performance. Smith was good for us, and in that way it is perhaps a bit of a lateral move, but the issue with Smith is that he wasn't there. It was a yearly tradition that Smith would go down with injury and then Koskinen sewered. Even if Campbell is worse than Smith at the top of his game, just having stability will go a long way to stopping the wild swings in the standings that we've seen in the past couple years. I do see the Oilers being near the top of the standings this year for this reason alone. Well, that and that I do think Woodcroft had a great and lasting effect so a full year of him will be even better, even if his win percentage goes down a bit.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

Still drinking away your sorrows from when the avs stomped the oilers?

Jesus Christ Leafs fan. You’re aware that the Oilers got “stomped” in the WCF. Which is better than losing in the semi finals and the quarter finals, something you’re all too aware about.

 

[Soundwave]

Top 5 in the division, but that is about it.

Everything went right last year for them to luck into beating Kings and Flames.

"Everything went right", lol yeah like having Draisaitl playing on one leg and basically losing any kind of effectiveness from Nurse as he tore his hip flexor the week before the playoffs started.

Sooooooo lucky, lol.

Flames got gifted a series against the Oilers with Draisaitl and Nurse basically crippled and still could not win more than 1 game.

Also funny the Flames knew Draisaitl was injured and being the dirty POS' they are were trying to slash his injured leg, but they were so stupid they were slashing the wrong leg, lol.

 

[AvroArrow]

Why is Toronto in your top 5 then? Their D is worse and their goaltending is significantly worse. Both their goalies combined SV% in the last 2 years is less than .899. Also 6ix straight 1st round exits with that core

joke list lmao

Torontos D is significantly stronger than Edmontons, like not close. They were a top 5 D almost the entire season last year. More depth as well, it's not a 2 man show. Our goaltending couldn't be worse if Murray tried to score on our own net. Campbell was really bad for us after January, we had the worst svp in the entire league since January. He was mediocre in the playoffs, not great but not horrible either.

I don't wanna derail and turn this into a Toronto thread so I'll leave it at that. Dude is really this salty because I said Edmonton is a top 6-10 team in the league and not top 5, chill out lol. You have Nurse and that's it, the rest of the blue line is god awful. I mean if you think they're a top 5 team in the league cool, I just don't and I highlighted the reasons why. Blue line issues, no scoring depth, inconsistent goaltending.

 

[Pucklington]

You can make the case that Vancouver is more balanced and has the better goalie.

You could make the case Vancouver missed the playoffs last year and the Oilers made the conference finals.

You can make the case that Vancouver is more balanced and has the better goalie.

Edmonton is the better team... Just admit it...

You could make a case the world is flat... doesn't make it so.

 

[Pucklington]

Still drinking away your sorrows from when the avs stomped the oilers?

Did the Flames play the Colorado? I guess that means they would have lost in 2 games to Colorado?

 

[Soundwave]

Toronto's problem is this:

Playoff production

Draisaitl - 1.59 ppg
McDavid - 1.49 ppg
MacKinnon - 1.32 ppg
Kucherov - 1.13 ppg
Matthews - 0.85 ppg
Marner - 0.85 ppg

Leafs top players are a mile behind the Oilers top players when the playoffs start.

 

[leafsfan5]

Jack Campbell is a horrible goalie.

He's not horrible lol. He has peaks where he looks like a top 5 goalie in the league, then valleys where he looks unplayable. Overall an average to slightly below average starter

If the Oilers can get lucky and have the peak during playoff time they're good to go. Problem is he hasn't shown he can do that since November of 2021

 

[MuckOG]

No