Pre-Game Talk: The Only Series We’ve Ever Known: Oilers @ Kings

[Fixed to Ruin]

Pulsating news!

 

[tardigrade81]

If I was goalie. Oilers in 4

Since it's Skinner. Oilers in 7

 

[Drivesaitl]

He has 4 goals in the last 4 playoff appearances (5 years) 13 points in 17 games on some low scoring teams. -4 which isn't great but he's been a pretty good playoff scorer.

Honestly, I don't care one bit about the regular season. Regular season means virtually nothing to Cup contenders. This is a new season, a fresh start, so if the vets they re-signed have a good playoffs it'll be money well spent. The 3rd line from last playoffs had a good last 2 rounds in particular so I couldn't care less than Connor Brown had that long goal scoring drought in the regular season. Bring it in the playoffs and all is forgiven.

But thats the thing. Only 3 forwards on the club really brought it in the first couple rounds. The Oilers wouldn't even have got that far without McD, Hyman, Drai being huge staking the club to playoff series wins.
Vancouver nearly took us out last playoffs. Very close to it. So this is with respect to all other forwards they need to get some traction in playoffs and starting from the word go this time. These are all vet forwards in the lineup. Not good enough for them to start pissing a drop around game 15.

Bring it in the playoffs. Sure, but do that. Of our support forwards only Perry looks ready for playoffs.

Arvid? You had to go all the way back to NASHVILLE to find 3 of those goals. In 3 seasons with LA he has one playoff goal. One. Nashville was 5yrs ago and way before he declined and had back surgeries. He's not even the same player, not close to it, and he's showing he can't even do it.

 

[McJadeddog]

McDavid just basically said relax… everyone is ready rock. Have some faith in your captain. Ekholm hurts but we have Walman this season.

The scoring depth just isn’t really true. We have more double digit goal scoring forwards this year than last. 9 of our forwards have scored 10 or more and we are adding Kane and Frederic into the mix.

Goaltending is the same as last year.

No we aren't. Not a version of him that will actually help us at any point. He is very clearly still injured. I get what you are saying, and would probably agree with Kane. But even with Kane, he hasn't played all year, so I have very low expectations for him.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Pulsating news!

I was saying this all week. I heard it announced that it was going to be our own crew this year.

Poor Winnipeg Jets fans this postseason. Feel our pain, lol

Not exactly a great list of PBP announcers. Never been worse. Only Cuthbert is listenable. Montreal particularly bad.

 

[McJadeddog]

I think that everyone will be out there except Frederic and of course Ekholm.

I would be pretty surprised to see Frederic at all in round 1. If we somehow manage to get past LA, which I don't expect to happen, maybe we see him in round 2. But even that is questionable. High ankle sprains might be the singular hardest non-head/neck/back injury to determine timelines on.

 

[russ99]

Mentioned this on a comment elsewhere, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a repeat of the Winnipeg series. It’s deflating to work hard to score goals against tough playoff competition and then we give it right up at the other end. You know the Oilers are going to give it their all, but postseason play tends to expose weaknesses and we have some pretty big ones with own/neutral zone turnovers, lack of or giving up on coverage and two pretty iffy goalies.

 

[1981 Oilers]

what will be our lineup?
I actually thought Jones has been looking pretty good recently. Not sure if he will be there in playoffs but he has looked much better. I was very impressed with Dineen last night. Could look good in a few years

I have a jigsaw puzzle of players. Who goes where?

In no particular order
McDavid
Skinner
Brown
Arvidsson
Drai
Podkolzin
Henrique
Nuge
Kane
Jones
Kapanen
Perry
Janmark
Frederic

 

[1981 Oilers]

Monday night start would be good for Oilers resting their injured players... but not so good for us folks who have to wake up early the next day for work. Personally I would have preferred Sunday. That time of year again... late games and going to work tired and sometimes a bit hungover lol. But I'm not complaining.

Puck drop for me is 1140 PM. Im up at 330 AM for work

Same as last year. Come home, Sleep till game time, watch game, off to work

 

[94 Oil Drops]

Monday start = 1 or 2 extra days for guys to rest and heal up. For a team as banged up for ours that should be a major positive.

Good for the players, bad for me. These late start times are so stupid. If I watch these games I'm not going to get much sleep.

 

[Bumblebee Man]

Biggest question marks by far are

How do Kane and Federic impact the roster

Ekholm factor

Bouchard continues to suck.

Nurse doesn't transform back into playoff form

Skinner

 

[iCanada]

I want to see who’s actually playing before I vote in the pole. Heart says Edm. Head says LA right now. A lot depends on home ice too.

I don’t sports bet - what do those numbers mean?

View attachment 1012798

It means to win 100 bucks on the Oilers you need to get 133 bucks, and if you bet 100 bucks on the kings you win 120 bucks.

Basically it means the odd makers think we're the favorite, and implies odds of around 45.45% chance LA wins and 54.55% chance we win.

 

[iCanada]

I don't make playoff predictions anymore. Despite the Oilers beating Kings 3 seasons in a row first round is often anything happens realm. Seems like the Oilers won some series basically on special teams. Team though has been playing pretty well just on 5-6 D and so we'll see. McDrai will as usual elevate. As much as been said about the Oilers not being as good this season Drai has never been better. For my money he's been best in league.

Having a relatively rested McD and Drai is also a scary concept for opponents.

Still reeling from that Jets prediction, eh?

 

[Drivesaitl]

Still reeling from that Jets prediction, eh?

Affirmamundo!

That series wrecked me for all playoff predictions ever. lol

 

[PitkanensGitch]

WIthout the best playoffs for a player ever in McDavid last year, we don't go far. We also had multiple other players like Hyman having superstar quality level playoffs.

The odds of replicating that are zero. Fact of the matter is we're a lot worse. LA is a lot better in my estimation.

The chances of multiple people coming back after missing the season or massive chunks of it is again, basically zero. McDavid can say what he needs to in the media. We'll see the practice lines today or tomorrow and go from there.

Don't like our chances one bit.

 

[K1984]

WIthout the best playoffs for a player ever in McDavid last year, we don't go far. We also had multiple other players like Hyman having superstar quality level playoffs.

The odds of replicating that are zero. Fact of the matter is we're a lot worse. LA is a lot better in my estimation.

The chances of multiple people coming back after missing the season or massive chunks of it is again, basically zero. McDavid can say what he needs to in the media. We'll see the practice lines today or tomorrow and go from there.

Don't like our chances one bit.

Based on what?

 

[PitkanensGitch]

Based on what?

LA is far more dynamic offensively than years past. The only thing keeping us afloat was our otherwordly PP and PK. They've got a lot better, Byfield is finally a real threat.

We had a defenceman carry us in Ekholm. He's not playing. What do you mean, based on what? Remember Kane putting up his fingers against LA after scoring? He's not playing. Remember the series he had?

 

[Soundwave]

WIthout the best playoffs for a player ever in McDavid last year, we don't go far. We also had multiple other players like Hyman having superstar quality level playoffs.

The odds of replicating that are zero. Fact of the matter is we're a lot worse. LA is a lot better in my estimation.

The chances of multiple people coming back after missing the season or massive chunks of it is again, basically zero. McDavid can say what he needs to in the media. We'll see the practice lines today or tomorrow and go from there.

Don't like our chances one bit.

I think McDavid (and Drai) were better in the 2022 playoffs to be honest. Connor clearly couldn't shoot in 2024, hence all the assists.

We made it to the Finals because the defensive system locked down opponents in the later half of every series they played in.

 

[K1984]

LA is far more dynamic offensively than years past. The only thing keeping us afloat was our otherwordly PP and PK. They've got a lot better, Byfield is finally a real threat.

We had a defenceman carry us in Ekholm. He's not playing. What do you mean, based on what? Remember Kane putting up his fingers against LA after scoring? He's not playing. Remember the series he had?

That was three years ago yet we still managed to beat them twice more, and the Kings are not at all more dynamic offensively. They have scored fewer goals this year than the previous 2, and have only outscored the team we beat 4 years ago. Their power play stinks too. Byfield? He's a 50 point forward that doesn't do a lot most of the time and is no more of a threat than he was last year when he didn't do anything.

The Kings are the same team they've always been playing the exact same way. If we lose it's out own fault whether it be injuries or something else. The Kings are not any more of a threat than they've ever been.

 

[brentashton]

If I was goalie. Oilers in 4

Since it's Skinner. Oilers in 7

Tyler D’s resume:

- RCMP employee

- Oilers back back back way back up goalie

- Amateur comedian


You do crack me up Tyler.

 

[PitkanensGitch]

That was three years ago yet we still managed to beat them twice more, and the Kings are not at all more dynamic offensively. They have scored fewer goals this year than the previous 2, and have only outscored the team we beat 4 years ago. Their power play stinks too. Byfield? He's a 50 point forward that doesn't do a lot most of the time and is no more of a threat than he was last year when he didn't do anything.

The Kings are the same team they've always been playing the exact same way. If we lose it's out own fault whether it be injuries or something else. The Kings are not any more of a threat than they've ever been.

I don't agree. If we look at their SRS (not sure if you know it, it's a stat that combines goal differential + strength of schedule). Higher the better. I will show you the last four season for LA:



As you can see, a notable gain each year. Let us contrast to Edmonton:



We have been quite good the last two years -- however this year we nosedived in terms of actual play on ice relative to our opponents. We were majorly above LA the last few years. Now we are majorly below.

The stats bear this out. We are the big time underdogs in this series.

 

[KCC]

Smart money is on the Oilers. We will be missing Ekholm but the team is similar to last year's squad, with an upgraded Nurse and an added Walman making up the difference. The Kings aren't better than last year.

So our natural advantage over the Kings should hold. We are just the wrong opponent for them. They'd do better against literally any other playoff team

Yes, they are. Kings have better goaltending and defense this year and players like byfield have taken another step. They are a solid team who improved. Edm is the team that is not the same as last year unfortunately or At the very least haven’t shown what they are capable of yet. And I think most would agree with me on that.

 

[K1984]

I don't agree. If we look at their SRS (not sure if you know it, it's a stat that combines goal differential + strength of schedule). Higher the better. I will show you the last four season for LA:



As you can see, a notable gain each year. Let us contrast to Edmonton:



We have been quite good the last two years -- however this year we nosedived in terms of actual play on ice relative to our opponents. We were majorly above LA the last few years. Now we are majorly below.

The stats bear this out. We are the big time underdogs in this series.

You don't have to agree, it's a fact that the Kings aren't more dynamic offensively in any sense. I have no idea what this random statistic is supposed to show, but to be more "dynamic" offensively you would think that would start with the Kings score more goals than they have each of the last two years. And would have a power play that isn't near last in the NHL.

Big time underdogs is comical.

 

[K1984]

Yes, they are. Kings have better goaltending and defense this year and players like byfield have taken another step. They are a solid team who improved. Edm is the team that is not the same as last year unfortunately or At the very least haven’t shown what they are capable of yet.

Keep seeing this, still haven't heard the justification for it. He basically just had an identical season to last year.

He's getting up there for the most overrated in the league if he isn't there already. He's a 50 point forward that happens to be tall. Not intimidating, not really physical, just big.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

The stats bear this out. We are the big time underdogs in this series.

Not according to the betting agencies.