Long read, bear with me;
Well here we are. Well into the playoffs and now quite clear the Oilers are a much different club than was shown in regular season. The Oilers finished 9th place in 32 team league and 3rd in division not even having home advantage in any series.
One can never really know if a team is hanging back, hanging in the weeds or whether a club in regular season is just what it is.
The Oilers under present coaching staff have pulled wool over eyes, including mine.
Based on Regular season performance I often stated "this dog won't hunt" I was basing that on Age of team, performance, how little players were going in regular season etc. For instance we had only 3 players over 50pts. Everybody knows who they are. Everybody else seemed to struggle to produce in regular season. The team as a result struggled to gain any traction on the way to a fairly pedestrian 3rd place finish and down the stretch only 5pts up on the Calgary Flames in the out of playoffs rear view mirror.
Suspicions were had that the club were taking a different approach this season Parking Kane all year, Parking McD, Drai, other players down the stretch. Of note there's no other time where McD and Drai were off the lineup this many games down the stretch. Sure they were banged up with undisclosed condition. But they were getting rest.
This year is somewhat reminiscent to 1990 Oilers. A non stellar regular season and 2nd place in division and 5th place in standings in a then 21 team league. (This would equate to roughly 8th place today in a 32 team league, very similar) That year the OIlers had usual players going but didn't look like any world beater. Then they got the Kidline, they found goaltending in Ranford, and that team struggled immensely in first round against Winnipeg but once they got on a roll it was a wagon. By SC final the club was unstoppable polishing off the Bruins in 5 games even though Bruins had the best season in the league.
The other comparable is that I've often said that KK/Coffey are the best coaches we've had since Muckler. Period.
This playoffs Oilers started off rocky struggling with the Kings, then found a decent goalie, and then got rolling. The team are currently on a 7W 1L run and are walking games.
But suddenly everybody is rowing. The only real difference from regular season is getting Kane back, and also having Walman. but also consider not having Ekholm. So this club shouldn't be inordinately better than the regular season. Unless the whole club was simply playing possum.
Lets do some individual contrasts. As mentioned in regular season we only had 3 players with 50 or more pts. Suddenly in playoffs we have 9 players on that kind of heater and several of them looking remarkably different than they did all season.
In regular season we only had 3 players with 25 or more goals. Drai, Hyman and McD in that order. Suddenly in playoffs we have so many hothands now with 9 players on a 25 or greater goal pace.
Players that have significantly elevated are Perry, Brown, Henrique Janmark savvy veterans that had to have been saving it all for playoffs. All 3 have been going off like machine guns suddenly in games here or there potting and producing. Its like this is our "Kid line" haha, this season except in hockey respects its Senior Citizens this time with Perry leading the way at age 40.
A primary reason I was saying "this dog won't hunt" all year (and my prognosis was 2nd or third round Oilers exit ftr) I was basing that on a bunch of old players cannot play an 82 game season and playoffs balls out. That they would run out of gas. What I hadn't predicted is how many of the players really were playing possum just lying low starting with guys like McD and Hyman. Really the only way you would get blow the doors off energy from this club, right now, is if they had all taken it fairly easy on regular season and Only Drai went hard all year and now he looks a bit gassed (although still playing huge quiet role like last night in a shutdown performance.
The one thing though, still, is goaltending. The org ought to have acquired insurance in this position. Didn't have to be any elite goalie, Just somebody competent in case of injury or goalie struggles. Stu took the advice though, he simplified his game, stayed in net, didn't overcomplicate or overplay or go sliding around.
The org did though get a lot of insurance in the roster at other positions. We have more capable D now than we can dress and this even without Ekholm. So org gets big credit on this. Klingberg another one that at age probably didn't have tons of games left in him but can be good in limited games usage for playoffs. Walman has been better than I thought. Booch has returned to form. Kulak has gone back to playoff Kulak. At forward not much changed. We got Frederic but he's still not found his game and still may be injured. But of course we got Kane back which is huge. But we got so many forwards last night we parked Arviddson and again J Skinner and have Jones and Ryan in the reeds somewhere as well. We parked Kapanen all playoffs and last night he was a sparkplug, so was Stecher. so when guys get tired we have plug ins this post season.
Well here we are. Well into the playoffs and now quite clear the Oilers are a much different club than was shown in regular season. The Oilers finished 9th place in 32 team league and 3rd in division not even having home advantage in any series.
One can never really know if a team is hanging back, hanging in the weeds or whether a club in regular season is just what it is.
The Oilers under present coaching staff have pulled wool over eyes, including mine.
Based on Regular season performance I often stated "this dog won't hunt" I was basing that on Age of team, performance, how little players were going in regular season etc. For instance we had only 3 players over 50pts. Everybody knows who they are. Everybody else seemed to struggle to produce in regular season. The team as a result struggled to gain any traction on the way to a fairly pedestrian 3rd place finish and down the stretch only 5pts up on the Calgary Flames in the out of playoffs rear view mirror.
Suspicions were had that the club were taking a different approach this season Parking Kane all year, Parking McD, Drai, other players down the stretch. Of note there's no other time where McD and Drai were off the lineup this many games down the stretch. Sure they were banged up with undisclosed condition. But they were getting rest.
This year is somewhat reminiscent to 1990 Oilers. A non stellar regular season and 2nd place in division and 5th place in standings in a then 21 team league. (This would equate to roughly 8th place today in a 32 team league, very similar) That year the OIlers had usual players going but didn't look like any world beater. Then they got the Kidline, they found goaltending in Ranford, and that team struggled immensely in first round against Winnipeg but once they got on a roll it was a wagon. By SC final the club was unstoppable polishing off the Bruins in 5 games even though Bruins had the best season in the league.
The other comparable is that I've often said that KK/Coffey are the best coaches we've had since Muckler. Period.
This playoffs Oilers started off rocky struggling with the Kings, then found a decent goalie, and then got rolling. The team are currently on a 7W 1L run and are walking games.
But suddenly everybody is rowing. The only real difference from regular season is getting Kane back, and also having Walman. but also consider not having Ekholm. So this club shouldn't be inordinately better than the regular season. Unless the whole club was simply playing possum.
Lets do some individual contrasts. As mentioned in regular season we only had 3 players with 50 or more pts. Suddenly in playoffs we have 9 players on that kind of heater and several of them looking remarkably different than they did all season.
In regular season we only had 3 players with 25 or more goals. Drai, Hyman and McD in that order. Suddenly in playoffs we have so many hothands now with 9 players on a 25 or greater goal pace.
Players that have significantly elevated are Perry, Brown, Henrique Janmark savvy veterans that had to have been saving it all for playoffs. All 3 have been going off like machine guns suddenly in games here or there potting and producing. Its like this is our "Kid line" haha, this season except in hockey respects its Senior Citizens this time with Perry leading the way at age 40.
A primary reason I was saying "this dog won't hunt" all year (and my prognosis was 2nd or third round Oilers exit ftr) I was basing that on a bunch of old players cannot play an 82 game season and playoffs balls out. That they would run out of gas. What I hadn't predicted is how many of the players really were playing possum just lying low starting with guys like McD and Hyman. Really the only way you would get blow the doors off energy from this club, right now, is if they had all taken it fairly easy on regular season and Only Drai went hard all year and now he looks a bit gassed (although still playing huge quiet role like last night in a shutdown performance.
The one thing though, still, is goaltending. The org ought to have acquired insurance in this position. Didn't have to be any elite goalie, Just somebody competent in case of injury or goalie struggles. Stu took the advice though, he simplified his game, stayed in net, didn't overcomplicate or overplay or go sliding around.
The org did though get a lot of insurance in the roster at other positions. We have more capable D now than we can dress and this even without Ekholm. So org gets big credit on this. Klingberg another one that at age probably didn't have tons of games left in him but can be good in limited games usage for playoffs. Walman has been better than I thought. Booch has returned to form. Kulak has gone back to playoff Kulak. At forward not much changed. We got Frederic but he's still not found his game and still may be injured. But of course we got Kane back which is huge. But we got so many forwards last night we parked Arviddson and again J Skinner and have Jones and Ryan in the reeds somewhere as well. We parked Kapanen all playoffs and last night he was a sparkplug, so was Stecher. so when guys get tired we have plug ins this post season.
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. He wins at losing.
