The Oilers are an old team

[jackjohnson]

At the end of it all, both teams won a banner that’s meaningless to the top players

Yep, in the end Oilers achieved as much as Canucks last season, both ended up on the losing end

 

[JianYang]

It's tough in this league to be the overwhelming favourite. I do believe they have a great shot to make it all the way again, as do a handful of other teams in the West. That's the reality. McDavid might win a cup this season, or he might not win one at all. Both are very possible. That's the reality. No other team is perfect. Their age doesn't bother me. Some of the supposed contenders are up there in average age, no? Are there any team with an average age around 25 that are contenders? I don't see it right now

They shouldn't be an "overwhelming" favourite.

Yes, they have mcdavid, and they are coming off a final appearance but looking strictly at the roster, they should be in the mix, but not a clear favourite over the rest of the league.

 

[Fatass]

Nurse can't read plays quick enough and by the time he acts the puck is already in the net. He needs a high IQ mobile D partner who can hide Nurse's flaws and make up for his questionable decisions on the ice. Someone like Erik Karlsson, though Karlsson isn't great defensively but he's still miles better than Nurse. And Karlsson moves the puck up the ice so well that it would cover up for most of Nurses weaknesses.

Nurse is definitely slow to process the game. I like his physicality though. In a capped league guys who are eating so much AAV are just expected to contribute a lot more. If Nurse was at 4 per he’d be fine.

 

[jackjohnson]

Dermott and Stetcher wouldn't even crack the lineup on just about all NHL teams. They're press box guys who only play when injuries occur. Stecher is okay as a #6 on a weaker blue line because he has the experience but it will be interesting to see how Dermott plays throughout the season on the 2nd pair. He has never played a full season in his career. Now he's expected to play 2nd pairing minutes on the cup favourite selected by all the media. That's pretty high expectations.

One injury to that top 4 and all of a sudden you got Kulak playing top pair minutes and Stetcher or Emberson playing 2nd pairing. Two pylons on the bottom pair.

They better hope they find a way to get a 2nd pairing RHD by the All Star game.

They might need not just one but probably 2. Nurse is a 3rd pairing dman at best. So basically need a complete 2nd pairing. I doubt they have cap space.

 

[Czechboy]

At the end of it all, both teams won a banner that’s meaningless to the top players

Which banner would you rather have?

Demolished the OIlers in regular season and won the Pacific, went on to win 1 round

or

Eliminated Nucks, won 3 playoff rounds and went to game 7 of the Stanley cup finals

Easy call for me.

 

[jackjohnson]

It's tough in this league to be the overwhelming favourite. I do believe they have a great shot to make it all the way again, as do a handful of other teams in the West. That's the reality. McDavid might win a cup this season, or he might not win one at all. Both are very possible. That's the reality. No other team is perfect. Their age doesn't bother me. Some of the supposed contenders are up there in average age, no? Are there any team with an average age around 25 that are contenders? I don't see it right now

The reality is that you need more than 2 superstars to win a cup. McDavid might win a cup? Yeah like if there is 0.0001% chance with his team the way it is, maybe need a miracle or divine intervension. But are they likely to win a cup this season with Dermott and Nurse playing as their 2nd pair and Skinner giving up goals left and right??? Highly unlikely.
Media hypes them up only because of having McDavid on the team. Switch Pettersson with McDavid and then Canucks would be named favorites.

 

[Three On Zero]

Nurse is definitely slow to process the game. I like his physicality though. In a capped league guys who are eating so much AAV are just expected to contribute a lot more. If Nurse was at 4 per he’d be fine.

His biggest issue is he tries too much to be a fancy defenceman and doesn’t use his athleticism and physicality. Nurse has the perfect skill set to be a Zadorov level defenceman but seems to refuse to simplify his game. If he just slowed down, didn’t go for the offensive plays and stuck to a punishing physical game he would be a valuable player

 

[Czechboy]

What happened was Oilers getting lucky off of Canucks misfortunes and facing an AHL goalie who probably had played a couple of NHL preseason games before starting in playoffs. They got even luckier having Skinner's kryptonite in Boeser out in game 7. Guess there is lots of luck involved in winning playoff games, cant deny that . The Oilers basically got lucky to draw the lousy Kings which they had experience beating in playoffs and the Demko-less Canucks. Thats how Oilers advanced to the finals. I doubt they will be this lucky this season.

So much luck for us. 6 rounds won over 3 years and made finals because Demko and Boesser were hurt.

You are missing out on a lot of details.

 

[Three On Zero]

Which banner would you rather have?

Demolished the OIlers in regular season and won the Pacific, went on to win 1 round

or

Eliminated Nucks, won 3 playoff rounds and went to game 7 of the Stanley cup finals

Easy call for me.

Really neither.

Canucks swept the regular season against a banged up Edmonton team. Edmonton squeaked by a Vancouver team using an AHL goalie with little NHL experience. Neither was a tremendous victory. Regular season is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme and the playoff series was pretty much down to a coin flip without either side showing they deserved to win

 

[jackjohnson]

Which banner would you rather have?

Demolished the OIlers in regular season and won the Pacific, went on to win 1 round

or

Eliminated Nucks, won 3 playoff rounds and went to game 7 of the Stanley cup finals

Easy call for me.

Show me a banner that says that?? Canucks have the divional winner banner which is not much to brag about just like your western conference winner banner. At the end of the day, only the cup counts. Just go ask McDavid

 

[Fatass]

His biggest issue is he tries too much to be a fancy defenceman and doesn’t use his athleticism and physicality. Nurse has the perfect skill set to be a Zadorov level defenceman but seems to refuse to simplify his game. If he just slowed down, didn’t go for the offensive plays and stuck to a punishing physical game he would be a valuable player

Nurse is a much better player than Zadorov.

 

[Czechboy]

Yep, in the end Oilers achieved as much as Canucks last season, both ended up on the losing end

Totally a tie.lol

Hate the Oil all you want. You make some great points that I agree with but this is textbook 'cope' and 'salt'.

 

[Three On Zero]

Nurse is a much better player than Zadorov.

Nurse tries to be but he really isn’t.

 

[Czechboy]

Show me a banner that says that??

You answered your own questions

Which banner would you rather have

Pacific and out after a round
Western conference and onto Stanley Cup Finals

Again, your franchise has won a single round since 2020. Tied with the Leafs.

 

[Fatass]

Show me a banner that says that?? Canucks have the divional winner banner which is not much to brag about just like your western conference winner banner. At the end of the day, only the cup counts. Just go ask McDavid

Yup. McDavid has his tirade in the dressing room when the Oilers were getting wiped out by the Panthers because he knows he has to win a Cup or his legacy will have a huge hole in it.

 

[jackjohnson]

View attachment 916567

So much luck for us. 6 rounds won over 3 years and made finals because Demko and Boesser were hurt.

You are missing out on a lot of details.

You dont need to show me your past 3 years of playoff records, everyone knows that you kept facing the lousy Kings in the 1st round 3 times in a row to advance then lost to legit contenders.

 

[Czechboy]

Really neither.

Canucks swept the regular season against a banged up Edmonton team. Edmonton squeaked by a Vancouver team using an AHL goalie with little NHL experience. Neither was a tremendous victory. Regular season is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme and the playoff series was pretty much down to a coin flip without either side showing they deserved to win

FWIW.. I didn't think we were banged up. I just thought you guys kicked the shit out of us in the regular season. I was fine with it. I was very much on record saying I wanted us both to meet in the playoffs and 100% healthy.

 

[Fatass]

Nurse tries to be but he really isn’t.

I’ll give you that both players aren’t the smartest. They are the dim bulbs on the Christmas tree.

 

[Czechboy]

lost to legit contenders

which explains our win over Vancouver.

 

[Three On Zero]

FWIW.. I didn't think we were banged up. I just thought you guys kicked the shit out of us in the regular season. I was fine with it. I was very much on record saying I wanted us both to meet in the playoffs and 100% healthy.

Wasn’t Ekholm playing through injury? That’s a pretty significant injury to the blue line. I may be wrong though

 

[BoHorvat 53]

and then what happened?

Finish the story...

Nucks were eliminated by ????? in round ?????

Oilers were eliminated by ???? in round ?????

I would take winning 3 rounds over the Pacific title 100 times out of 10. I'd take eliminating a team in the playoffs over a regular season sweep 1000 times over.

Meh, we took you guys to game 7 with our backup in net in place of our Vezina finalist goalie. Sure, at the end of the day you guys won the series but I think it's quite telling that you guys struggled against us pretty much the entire year last season

 

[jackjohnson]

You answered your own questions

Which banner would you rather have

Pacific and out after a round
Western conference and onto Stanley Cup Finals

Again, your franchise has won a single round since 2020. Tied with the Leafs.

For me only the cup counts not the participation banners. Maybe Oilers fans care more about the non cup banners but not me.

 

[Three On Zero]

I’ll give you that both players aren’t the smartest. They are the dim bulbs on the Christmas tree.

The real takeaway is Zadorov plays like how Nurse SHOULD play. He needs to be the physical athletic presence. If he focused on that he would likely be a better player than Zadorov. He way over thinks his game though

 

[jackjohnson]

which explains our win over Vancouver.

Never said Vancouver was a legit contender without Demko. In fact Canucks fans were surprised to push you guys to 7 games without Demko and could have maybe beaten you guys with Boeser playing in game 7. But who cares, you guys won and Canucks were never considered cup contenders last year, especially without Demko. Heck most people here had wrote the Canucks off as a non playoff team before the start of season last year.

 

[Czechboy]

Meh, we took you guys to game 7 with our backup in net in place of our Vezina finalist goalie. Sure, at the end of the day you guys won the series but I think it's quite telling that you guys struggled against us pretty much the entire year last season

Did every Nucks forget who we played next? Because I keep hearing lucky to get LA and Demko hurt.