Do You Think The Oilers Have Done Enough To Help McDrai Win The Cup?

[NVious]

Yes. Now it's time to put up or shut up. Sid and Geno had less to work with.

Absolutely no shot.

Letang>Bouchard
Murray in his first 2 years>>>>>>>>Skinner
Fleury>>Skinner (as a whole)
Kessel>Kane/Hyman/RNH

If Kessel and Murray don't play out of their f***ing minds, we could live in a world where Sid and Geno had just one cup which goes to show you how important help is (the two best players alone can't do it, i.e Edmonton right now).

 

[Video Nasty]

Absolutely no shot.

Letang>Bouchard
Murray in his first 2 years>>>>>>>>Skinner
Fleury>>Skinner (as a whole)
Kessel>Kane/Hyman/RNH

If Kessel and Murray don't play out of their f***ing minds, we could live in a world where Sid and Geno had just one cup which goes to show you how important help is (the two best players alone can't do it, i.e Edmonton right now).

Also a world where Crosby never won a Conn Smythe. That would have been fun.

 

[Three On Zero]

100%. McDavid was pointless against Vancouver game 7 as well, the rest of the team stepped up to win that game (and Vancouver has a good team too). Their roster is fine

Really with the parity, all teams that make the playoffs have done good enough to win the cup. Anything can happen, the biggest part is making it.

 

[nowhereman]

Absolutely no shot.

Letang>Bouchard
Murray in his first 2 years>>>>>>>>Skinner
Fleury>>Skinner (as a whole)
Kessel>Kane/Hyman/RNH

If Kessel and Murray don't play out of their f***ing minds, we could live in a world where Sid and Geno had just one cup which goes to show you how important help is (the two best players alone can't do it, i.e Edmonton right now).

Go check out that 2009 roster and get back to me.

The Penguins won a Cup without Letang, where Schultz and Daley were their best defenders. But do keep the excuses coming. I like hearing how a 50+ goalscoring-Hyman or a 100+ point-RNH are inferior to Kessel playing on the third line. MAF cost the Pens multiple Cups but we'll forget about that because, you know, Skinner...

 

[Iggys Dome]

No, they monumentally f***ed it up.

Still two years left on his contract, but I don't think it's a guarantee he stays past 2026. It heavily depends on how Edmonton performs in the next two playoffs, I think they at minimum need to be in the conference finals both years for him to still consider staying.

 

[PainForShane]

Edmonton's best acquisitions have either come from other teams passing on the player (Kane/Hyman) or internal development (Skinner, Bouchard), that said they have arguably the two best players in the game in their prime and they haven't swung for a true bonafide 1G/1D.

As good as McDrai are, if you need them to go 2ppg for you to have a chance, you're probably over relying on them. 1 cup finals is a fine result, but it's also not a great result either for players as good as them, 1 cup is the minimum and even then.... not that that's on them at all, just the management who hasn't gotten anyone (Ekhold is a good addition, but not exactly a game changer).

Ekholm absolutely is a game changer, he changes that entire roster. He's by far the closest thing they have to a 200 foot defenseman, he was the best available, and Edm gave up an arm and leg for him. Mgmt did that, correctly I believe. They also signed Leon to what in hindsight was an extremely good contract, obvi the Nurse deal sucks but their GM has been at least ok (the Kane and Hyman signings were also objectively extremely good).

Meanwhile when it mattered most, McDavid didn't score any points. And between games he's yelling, "Right f***ing now" like some hormonally raging teenager. He's a great player, but he's not blameless in their lack of winning, far from it

 

[TheLegend27]

Go check out that 2009 roster and get back to me.

The Penguins won a Cup without Letang, where Schultz and Daley were their best defenders. But do keep the excuses coming. I like hearing how a 50+ goalscoring-Hyman or a 100+ point-RNH are inferior to Kessel playing on the third line. MAF cost the Pens multiple Cups but we'll forget about that because, you know, Skinner...

Except Hyman isn’t actually a 50 goal player, nor RNH a 100 point player. Their numbers are massively inflated by playing with one of the most gifted offensive talents in history. Ultimately, the oilers didn’t need both of them to show up last year, a 2016 & 2017 MAF performance would have done the job. I think we can all agree the Penguins don’t win any single championship with .900 goaltending.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Absolutely no shot.

Letang>Bouchard
Murray in his first 2 years>>>>>>>>Skinner
Fleury>>Skinner (as a whole)
Kessel>Kane/Hyman/RNH

If Kessel and Murray don't play out of their f***ing minds, we could live in a world where Sid and Geno had just one cup which goes to show you how important help is (the two best players alone can't do it, i.e Edmonton right now).

What about the 09 Penguins?

And Letang didn't even play in 2017

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

The last 3 seasons their roster has been good enough to win the cup

Having Kane pop off or Hyman score 50 tells me that they really haven’t had much other offensive talent in their lineup. Remove those two players, that isn’t even close to playoff quality.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Except Hyman isn’t actually a 50 goal player, nor RNH a 100 point player. Their numbers are massively inflated by playing with one of the most gifted offensive talents in history. Ultimately, the oilers didn’t need both of them to show up last year, a 2016 & 2017 MAF performance would have done the job. I think we can all agree the Penguins don’t win any single championship with .900 goaltending.

No, we can't agree on that.

Given the changes in goalie equipment and rule changes, the Penguins essentially did just that. MAF in 09 had a .908 SV%, which was the league average that year. This year? League average is .900. Whoops!

 

[TheLegend27]

No, we can't agree on that.

Given the changes in goalie equipment and rule changes, the Penguins essentially did just that. MAF in 09 had a .908 SV%, which was the league average that year. This year? League average is .900. Whoops!

My bad, forgot about MAF’s 2009 stats. That 2009 cup run is insane looking back on it.

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

needs more Skinners imo

Yeah, they could use four Skins.

 

[PainForShane]

What about the 09 Penguins?

And Letang didn't even play in 2017

Wow. I just had a look at that roster. I would NOT have said that roster was cup contending, not even close. Esp if MAF ended up being league average in the playoffs.

In fairness, I do think Gonchar was criminally underrated for most of his career. But still, that roster shouldn't have contended for the cup let alone won it. Thanks for that callout, I learned something just now.

2008–09 Pittsburgh Penguins season - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Wow. I just had a look at that roster. I would NOT have said that roster was cup contending, not even close. Esp if MAF ended up being league average in the playoffs.

In fairness, I do think Gonchar was criminally underrated for most of his career. But still, that roster shouldn't have contended for the cup let alone won it. Thanks for that callout, I learned something just now.

2008–09 Pittsburgh Penguins season - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Gonchar was very good but he was crippled halfway through the second round from a dirty knee-on-knee by Ovechkin.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Wow. I just had a look at that roster. I would NOT have said that roster was cup contending, not even close. Esp if MAF ended up being league average in the playoffs.

In fairness, I do think Gonchar was criminally underrated for most of his career. But still, that roster shouldn't have contended for the cup let alone won it. Thanks for that callout, I learned something just now.

2008–09 Pittsburgh Penguins season - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It was definitely the weakest of the three cups. Malkin and Crosby played out of their minds but the pens had a bit of luck too. Managed to avoid both #1 in the East Boston and #2 in the East NJ both of whom the pens struggled heavily against. Got three defensively weak teams instead in Philly, Washington, and Carolina. Then Detroit was also banged up and without Datsyuk for the first few games of the finals.

Great run considering Crosby Malkin were 21 and 22 but nothing like 2016 where the Pens would have run any team in the league out of the building.

 

[Dirty Mind]

They had a lot go right though to get to that point. They likely lose to Vancouver if they weren't on their 3rd string goalie. It took a superhuman performance from McDavid last playoffs and it still wasn't enough.

Truly spoken like someone who didn’t watch 1 second of that series. Reductive af.

Remind me of Skinner’s SV% on that series again? .833? Can’t believe some people have the audacity to cry “Oh yeah? Well if we had Demko *sniffs*” to which I retort “Well if the Oilers actually had a goaltender who didn’t fold like a cheap lawn tent in big games they would have swept”

 

[Regal]

I legitimately don't understand this narrative. If McDavid scored 2 points in game 7 -- which everyone legitimately expected him to -- Edmonton would've won the cup this past summer.

Yes the Nurse contract stinks and it'd be great to have an upgrade in goal, but this is a cup contending roster regardless

I guess I look at it as asking more about career overall. It was a good enough roster to win last year but that also required a superhuman effort by McDavid. And while they were somewhat close the two years prior as well, they were even more reliant on their stars, and before that they weren’t all that close. These last three playoff teams are what should have been happening since 16-17, and if you get that many kicks at the can with a competitive roster, usually things will break your way eventually.

 

[SomeDude]

Wow. I just had a look at that roster. I would NOT have said that roster was cup contending, not even close. Esp if MAF ended up being league average in the playoffs.

In fairness, I do think Gonchar was criminally underrated for most of his career. But still, that roster shouldn't have contended for the cup let alone won it. Thanks for that callout, I learned something just now.

2008–09 Pittsburgh Penguins season - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

You also have to factor in who they beat in the Finals to win that Cup too. That Wings team is one of the best to not win a Cup in some time.

Sid and Geno were and are winners. McDrai are point producers.

 

[PainForShane]

It was definitely the weakest of the three cups. Malkin and Crosby played out of their minds but the pens had a bit of luck too. Managed to avoid both #1 in the East Boston and #2 in the East NJ both of whom the pens struggled heavily against. Got three defensively weak teams instead in Philly, Washington, and Carolina. Then Detroit was also banged up and without Datsyuk for the first few games of the finals.

Great run but nothing like 2016 where the Pens would have run any team in the league out of the building.

To be fair, every team does need some amount of luck to win a cup, but that was the year of that insane Pens Caps series which in hindsight was even more unbelievable than it was in real time. What a great series Pens didn't just get lucky to get through that team. And yeah, @bambamcam4ever I forgot about that Gonchar hit, I remember they're both friends and Ovi had to apologize to Gonchar's family in the offseason ha. He did play 22 games (out of 24) in the playoffs that year though.

Anyway, we're getting off topic. My point is that the Oilers mgmt assembled a good enough roster to compete -- as an anecdotal example, they did dominate Vancouver in the first half of game 7, Silovs played out of his mind to keep it close and Edm still took a 3-0 lead, none of that had to do with McDavid or Drai.

And I'd argue their roster is better than Florida's as well, at least on paper. At some point the responsibility has to lie with the players on the ice which absolutely has to include your superstars.

 

[Stickpucker]

No, look at all the turds on the rest of the roster.

I guess they traded for Ekholm?

Imagine if they had half the management talent Vegas does.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

You also have to factor in who they beat in the Finals to win that Cup too. That Wings team is one of the best to not win a Cup in some time.

Sid and Geno were and are winners. McDrai are point producers.

They're better about it under Knoblauch but the first 8 years they absolutely cheated for offense. Flying the zone early and cheating up ice every chance they got.

So i guess it's a bit of both. Management has failed them but they also didn't play a style conducive to winning until recently.

 

[SirKillalot]

No.

Holland despites some signing/re-signing mistakes was at least on the right path with those additions he made.

Overall haven't managed to build a deep roster.

 

[SomeDude]

They're better about it under Knoblauch but the first 8 years they absolutely cheated for offense. Flying the zone early and cheating up ice every chance they got.

So i guess it's a bit of both. Management has failed them but they also didn't play a style conducive to winning until recently.

They certainly haven’t been surrounded with a dream team. McDavid is like the 3rd best player of all time according to HF, though, so he should be able to carry them across the line.

 

[NVious]

Go check out that 2009 roster and get back to me.

The Penguins won a Cup without Letang, where Schultz and Daley were their best defenders. But do keep the excuses coming. I like hearing how a 50+ goalscoring-Hyman or a 100+ point-RNH are inferior to Kessel playing on the third line. MAF cost the Pens multiple Cups but we'll forget about that because, you know, Skinner...

The one with 3 1st overalls, a 2nd overall and a young Letang?

I agree that Maf is hit and miss, but at the end of the day he's still way better than Skinner. It's not even close in terms of:
Draft pedigree
Career accomplishments

Skinner isn't slated for anything that MAF has done, he's just a decent goalie and that's the "weak spot" in the Pens core. A guy who has:
4 playoff runs over 900 sv percentage
3 playoff runs over 910 sv percentage
3 playoff runs over 920 sv percentage
1 playoff run over 930 sv percentage

Talbot, Skinner, Campbell, Pickard aren't even sniffing MAF and that's the goaltending support 2 of the best guys in the NHL have had. Not a 1st overall Hall of Famer.

They certainly haven’t been surrounded with a dream team. McDavid is like the 3rd best player of all time according to HF, though, so he should be able to carry them across the line.

Except the best player of all time couldn't do it on his own and Lemieux only won the cup twice despite being the literal arguable GOAT himself.

 

[Schennanigans]

They were 1 period away from it last year. I do think they should be going all out though. Goaltending and defense needs an upgrade.