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Rank the eliminated teams

PuckG said:
LA, DAL, VGK were all favoured to beat the Oilers by panels across ESPN, NHL, Sportnet etc.

Irrespective of the that - I doubt this iteration of the Oilers cares about underdog vs not, just like they don’t give a shit about touching the cup or not. They’re on a mission.
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Were they the same ones that predicted the McDrais would hoist the cup back in September?

Everyone got fooled by the results towards end of the season when the McDrais weren't in the roster

It was a smart move to push E Kane to play in Game 84 and it was a smart move to give McDrais some 20 games rest during the season

but let's not pretend like they were limping into the playoffs , all of a sudden they're all super healthy and can play some 20 playoff games no problemo LOL people are gullible
 
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For fun, I'll take the 14 eliminated playoff teams and arrange them into a single-elimination format and speculate on who would win in a best of seven series between them. I'll seed them by regular season standings, and give the top two seeds a bye to the quarterfinals, with the remaining 12 facing off against each other to cut the field down to 8. Teams will be re-seeded after each round. So to start, we have:

1. Winnipeg Jets
2. Washington Capitals
3. Vegas Golden Knights
4. Toronto Maple Leafs
5. Dallas Stars
6. Los Angeles Kings
7. Tampa Bay Lightning
8. Colorado Avalanche
9. Carolina Hurricanes
10. Ottawa Senators
11. Minnesota Wild
12. St. Louis Blues
13. New Jersey Devils
14. Montreal Canadiens

Winnipeg and Washington get the byes. This produces the following matchups:

3. Vegas Golden Knights vs. 14. Montreal Canadiens: Vegas should take this quite handily.
4. Toronto Maple Leafs vs. 13. New Jersey Devils: Toronto wouldn't have much trouble making quick work of New Jersey, mostly because of injuries to the Devils.
5. Dallas Stars vs. 12. St. Louis Blues: Calling an upset by the Blues. I have no particular reason why.
6. Los Angeles Kings vs. 11. Minnesota Wild: Kings dispatch the Wild, but Minnesota gives them a run for their money.
7. Tampa Bay Lightning vs. 10. Ottawa Senators: Same as the above. Tampa Bay takes care of Ottawa, but not necessarily easily.
8. Colorado Avalanche vs. 9. Carolina Hurricanes: Another close one; Colorado gets it done but just barely.

Now we have quarterfinals of:

1. Winnipeg Jets vs. 12. St. Louis Blues: As much as I think St. Louis might pull it off if they did face each other a second time, the Jets actually did prevail, so I stick with them.
2. Washington Capitals vs. 8. Colorado Avalanche: Washington escapes with the win, but just barely.
3. Vegas Golden Knights vs. 7. Tampa Bay Lightning: These two teams are lucky that one of them has to win. I think it's Vegas here.
4. Toronto Maple Leafs vs. 6. Los Angeles Kings: Leafs fall short. It's the "second round" after all.

And finally:

1. Winnipeg Jets vs. 6. Los Angeles Kings: Winnipeg's luck runs out. Kings edge them out.
2. Washington Capitals vs. 3. Vegas Golden Knights: The difference is goaltending. Logan Thompson edges out Adin Hill, and @hangman005 is in shambles. :P

2. Washington Capitals vs. 6. Los Angeles Kings: LA's physicality gives them enough of an edge to win the theoretical bronze medal.

I guess this means I think the Kings are the best team of the 14 eliminated teams? If I actually followed the thread's instructions I'm not sure I'd actually put them at the top, but... here we are. :laugh:
 
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Frank Drebin said:
Were they though? Oilers from round 1 isn't the same team that we saw in round 2 or 3.
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That's true. But while LA lacked some offense, they played the Oilers very hard through much of the series. The Oilers had to come back frequently. Honestly, I never felt any real concern in the Vegas series but LA made me nervous.
 
I actually think LA was Edmonton's toughest test in these playoffs so far. Fiala and Kempe were nightmares when they had the puck in the Oilers offensive zone. Kempe was easily the most dangerous player the Oilers had to play against so far. LA was a strong team, had some speed, Kuemper was really good in a lot of the series also. LA would have beat a lot of other teams in the playoffs if they didn't have to face Edmonton.
 
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Frank Drebin said:
That’s kind of the point, that series doesn’t go 6 games with solid goaltending does it?
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No, but even once we had solid goaltending we still had an OT game and two 1-goal (+EN) games that were very tight. They were a tough out even after our goaltending stabilized, and they had enough offensive punch to keep us nervous/on edge in each of those games... that was the point.

The Vegas series was also close on a game-by-game basis, but with Eichel having to neutralize (and being neutralized by) McD (at home) or Drai (on road)... after that it was just a steady dismantling by our depth. And similar with Dallas except that they put up even less of a physical fight.

LA was the best opponent we faced so far.
 
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As a Kings fan…no, no they are very much not the best of the rest.

The people saying that are ignoring that fatigue is a factor the further into the playoffs you advance and that the Kings are a team that insists on playing 35+ age players the most minutes. Kopitar and Doughty were already out of gas by Game 4 of the 1st round as has become tradition every year.

LA would’ve also lost to COL or DAL in the 1st round and would’ve struggled to beat a MIN or STL had they been matched up in round 2 with the way they distribute their minutes. We would’ve been easy pickings for any team in the WCF.
 
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PuckG said:
Not sure how “beatable” the Oilers were but LA is better than people credit them for and should be high on most lists. LA was also fortunate to run into a crippled EDM for the first few games.
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If we assume that the 4th line (LA) that barely played would perform as well as the rest of their team, I think the Kings could have defeated any team in the east not named the Florida Panthers. IMHO, LA didn't match well against Vegas/Dallas historically, so the west is hard to judge. But LA was one of few teams that brought consistently high effort and urgency that Dallas and Vegas clearly lacked.
 
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Best of the loser bracket?
How about which from the loser bracket has the best chance to advance further next year?
Clubs either younger cores are the ones I see improving. So Montreal and Ottawa. Ones I see regressing, are Toronto and Washington.
 
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Colorado and Toronto probably tops

Dallas sucked a lot in the conference finals which drops them, bad matchup against Oilers

Carolina didn't belong in the conference finals

Montreal didn't belong in the playoffs
 
1. LA
2. Toronto
3. Tampa Bay
4. Dallas
5. Colorado
6. Winnipeg
7. Vegas
8. Carolina
9. Washington
10.St Louis
11. Minnesota
12. Ottawa
13. Njd
14. Calgary
15. Montreal
 
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