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

[koyvoo]

Been saying it for years. Having that sort of high end talent and banking on the diet of goaltending they have is inexcusable and generally insane.

A halfway better goalie than Skinner and they have a 2024 cup banner in the rafters.

 

[Pablo El Perro]

Not really. If they had, they'd have a cup.

 

[nowhereman]

Lolol in what world did the pens have less??

Ill wait.

Crosby was groomed the proper way also wheen he came into the league. The vets he had around him his first year or so, living with lemeuix. Guy had every corner covered to go with his talent

lollol, indeed.

The first year the Penguins won the Cup with Crosby and Malkin in 2009, the two of them doubled the production of their 3rd and 4th highest scoring players: Ruslan Fedetenko and a 38 year old Bill Guerin. Jordan Staal (who was still only 20 years old) helped compliment a strong center spine and Chris Kunitz was a serviceable second-line-quality winger but the rest of the team was mostly composed of bottom of the line-up journeymen like Tyler Kennedy, Maxime Talbot, Matt Cooke and Craig Adams. On the back end, Gonchar was still a decent low-end #1D but the rest of the group was made up of mostly average stock guys: Brooks Orpik, Alex Goligoski, Rob Scuderi, Mark Eaton and sophomore Letang who wasn't even cracking 20 minutes a night. MAF put in a good effort but was just over a .900 save percentage.

I don't care if Crosby lived in Lemieux's basement. Anyone who takes an objective look at that 2009 Penguins team cannot make any sort of claim that they are superior to last/this year's Oiler squad. And Sid and Geno also went on to win another Cup with Brian Dumoulin and Ron Hainsey logging top-pairing minutes with Letang injured. No other pairing of superstars has won more with less than those two.

A lot goes into winning a Cup and McDavid/Draisaitl have done enough on their part. They aren't any better or worse for not having sealed the deal. But continually using their team/management as an excuse is just getting old.

 

[MessierThanThou]

Been saying it for years. Having that sort of high end talent and banking on the diet of goaltending they have is inexcusable and generally insane.

A halfway better goalie than Skinner and they have a 2024 cup banner in the rafters.

2023 as well. It's baffling how fanatically loyal many Edmonton fans are to Skinner, regardless of how hard and often he's dropped the ball and the obvious fact that we'd have one or two cups with a league average goalie in 2023 or last year.

The biggest argument of his supporters is that the Oilers can't afford one...yet Vegas won the Cup and beat the Oilers with a league minimum Adin Hill. Jordin Binnington was pretty inexpensive at the same, so was Matt Murray...

The best summary of Skinner is when he had that amazing shutout against Boston where he stood on his head, and then let in four of the first 8 shots the very next game. Yet these Skinner fans will bring up his amazing performance and conveniently forget how often he's let in bad goals and totally collapsed early in a game. Oh, and his supposed clutch performance last playoffs was arguably the worst statistical performance of any goalie ever to make it to a Stanley Cup Final... But hey, remember that one game against Dallas?

Another argument is that the Oilers have a terrible record with goaltending and a moron goalie coach, both are true, but give me the same Mike Smith the Oilers had in 2022, and even he outperforms Skinner in 2023 and 2024...

 

[nbwingsfan]

Completely disagree. McDavid didn't have any points in game 6, and all his points in game 4 were after the team already had a 2-goal lead, the only thing they did was run up the score.

That said, imo he won game 5 pretty much by himself, and he should be commended for that. But if the Oilers hadn't previously won game 7 against the Canucks (without his help on the scoresheet), as well as game 6 in the SCF (again without his help on the scoresheet), and game 4 in the SCF (with his help but after the game was already well in hand), they wouldn't have got to a game seven either.

***

To be clear: I'm not trolling McDavid, I think he's undeniably an amazing offensive player. But, as a neutral, I think this idea that he and Drai are 100% carrying the Oilers offensively is very dumb -- and the more I look into this the more wrong this narrative actually is.

The Oilers are a deep offensive team led by arguably the best offensive player of this generation. But that roster, at least offensively is very, VERY deep -- this year they have Jeff Skinner, Adam Henrique, and Zack Hyman on their 3rd line, that's at least an average 2nd line on most teams. Multiple people in this thread have said or implied some version of, "Oilers scoring depth is shit" and in my opinion (after looking into this) nothing could be more wrong

You mean Jeff skinner who has 15pts in 40 games?

Hyman is struggling as well with only 25 in 38

Henrique in with 13pts?

What exactly do you think the average second line produces

 

[MessierThanThou]

lollol, indeed.

The first year the Penguins won the Cup with Crosby and Malkin in 2009, the two of them doubled the production of their 3rd and 4th highest scoring players: Ruslan Fedetenko and a 38 year old Bill Guerin. Jordan Staal (who was still only 20 years old) helped compliment a strong center spine and Chris Kunitz was a serviceable second-line-quality winger but the rest of the team was mostly composed of bottom of the line-up journeymen like Tyler Kennedy, Maxime Talbot, Matt Cooke and Craig Adams. On the back end, Gonchar was still a decent low-end #1D but the rest of the group was made up of mostly average stock guys: Brooks Orpik, Alex Goligoski, Rob Scuderi, Mark Eaton and sophomore Letang who wasn't even cracking 20 minutes a night. MAF put in a good effort but was just over a .900 save percentage.

I don't care if Crosby lived in Lemieux's basement. Anyone who takes an objective look at that 2009 Penguins team cannot make any sort of claim that they are superior to last/this year's Oiler squad. And Sid and Geno also went on to win another Cup with Brian Dumoulin and Ron Hainsey logging top-pairing minutes with Letang injured. No other pairing of superstars has won more with less than those two.

A lot goes into winning a Cup and McDavid/Draisaitl have done enough on their part. They aren't any better or worse for not having sealed the deal. But continually using their team/management as an excuse is just getting old.

I don't think Skinner gets enough blame for the Oilers losing the last two postseasons. He wasn't just bad in the playoffs, he was historically bad for any goalie who ever made it that far!

The postseason before that he was outplayed by a guy who isn't even good enough to be a backup...yet the coach stubbornly played him to the team's demise. No chance Malkin or Crosby win a cup with the goaltending Skinner has provided over the previous two postseasons.

 

[MessierThanThou]

What a waste of a career. Being a lock for the Hall of Fame, winning a trophy room’s full of awards, contending nearly every year of his career, and being paid the highest player in the League in both salary and endorsements.

Would have been much better off in Buffalo or Arizona. The two teams closest to drafting McDavid instead.

And from this response it's abundantly clear that you don't really care if "your team" actually wins a cup with McDavid.

 

[TheNumber4]

And from this response it's abundantly clear that you don't really care if "your team" actually wins a cup with McDavid.

My comment was sarcasm you know right?

 

[MessierThanThou]

Foegele and Mcleod were complete nothings in the playoffs. In Foegele's case, worse than nothing, he actively hurt the Oilers this past playoffs. 3 Years in a row now for Foegele being complete shit in the playoffs by the way. He could score 100 pts in LA and I wouldn't want him back. Ceci and his 3.25M has been effectively replaced by Emberson at 950K, literally no big loss there. Desharnais was a healthy scratch in the playoffs, he was good in a 3rd pair role but replaceable and has been. Our 3rd pair doesn't miss him.

Unbelievable take.

So, in the FINALS, Foegele had 4 points in all three of the Oilers comeback wins... In the FINALS, Foegele finished second in scoring to only McDavid on the Oilers.

You know, there's a reason some sports leagues only award a FINALS MVP...

2024 NHL Stanley Cup Final: EDM vs. FLA | Hockey-Reference.com

2024 NHL Stanley Cup Final: EDM vs. FLA

www.hockey-reference.com

 

[TheNumber4]

Unbelievable take.

So, in the FINALS, Foegele had 4 points in all three of the Oilers comeback wins... In the FINALS, Foegele finished second in scoring to only McDavid on the Oilers.

You know, there's a reason some sports leagues only award a FINALS MVP...

2024 NHL Stanley Cup Final: EDM vs. FLA | Hockey-Reference.com

2024 NHL Stanley Cup Final: EDM vs. FLA

www.hockey-reference.com

46 PLAYOFF GAMES this guy played for us. I'm supposed to be impressed that he had 3 OKAY games for?

Woopty doo, he had the 2ND ASSIST on the 8th Goal in an 8-1 drubbing in one of his "good games". And 2 decent other showings.

You know what else he did in the finals, take a dumb penalty in Game 7 leading to the first goal against. Know what else he did in the most recent playoff run? Hurt us with dumb turnovers and completely ineffective play, the same ineffective play he brought through TWO full playoff runs. He was a complete ghost at best, and when he wasn't doing that he was hurting us.

There's a reason there was ZERO talk about bringing Foegele back. Even though we had the money for it, Arviddson/Skinners contract could have easily been offered to Foegele.