Post-Game Talk: This is the end

[Paralyzer]

McDavid is 27 in his first cup final, will be 28 soon.
Gretzky was 22 when he lost his first cup final and 23 when he won it all. 4 cups by he was 28
Lemieux won his first cup at 25, second at 26.
Crosby was 20 when he lost his first cup final, 21 when he won his first cup, He won his second 2 at 28/29 but he was on a team friendly deal to do so.

These lessons are learned much earlier in their careers than McDavid is now. 2 of them were pre cap as well.

This is the most important offseason in McDavids career. This group as it is now probably can't make it back (we can't ignore everything that happened in the playoffs to get us here) so they have to have a great offseason to set us up better.

Ovechkin was 32 when he won his cup, Yzerman was 32 when he won his, Bourque was 40 when he won his. McDavid has plenty of time to win his.

 

[Zerotonine]

That shouldn't have even been a shot if Kulak doesn't give him all day to shoot that. I was so hard on Skinner this year but blaming Skinner there makes 0 sense.

Then if Kulak challenges him and it goes in off a stick then what ? That's a routine save. Players are taught to getvput if the way to let the goalie see the puck and to prevent deflectors. That save is made 99 tones out of 100

 

[McBigYak]

The rough part is we don't even have a GM right now. We will probably go thru the draft with Jeff/Holland making the calls and free agency will be Jeff alone. It such an important offseason and we won't even have a guy properly in charge.
Although anything could happen in the next couple days.

He hasn't been publicly announced to be in charge, but the guy has been in charge.

You think their succession plan has been for Holland to retire and the organization to just scramble to find a replacement the day after?

This is a billion dollar organization. You think they are that daft?

 

[CrazyJoeDavola]

Good but frustrating player. Will show flashes but then be literally invisible for large stretches. Right now is probably a 3rd liner who can play up in the lineup with injuries or if he gets hot for a bit.

Yeah. Holloway is basically Foegele replacement at best right now. Which is still good and still has potential to be more, but it sucks seeing drai straddled with third liners for his whole career. We just lost to a team that had Matt Tkachuk on its 2nd line.

 

[Roderek]

7 min left in the 2nd Drai clearly gets his legs chopped down while we were on the cycle for 2 minutes strait, no call, then Florida scores 2.5 min later. Then all 3rd Florida gets away with everything.

I really don't get the complaining about the refs, watching that game with anything but rose-colored glasses would show multiple missed calls for both teams.
Bieska even said at the start of the game the whistles would be put away and the players would be left to play.

That call on Tkatchuk which was already mentioned was literally the worst call I have ever seen in my life, and IMO it was we have to give the Oilers a power play soon game management call, to even it up call. I suspect when the ref saw the replay he realized how bad that call was so he couldn't make another call that was questionable, or had been let go the other way. Both calls against Edmonton were legitimate high stick calls. tough to say they weren't actual calls. Also the first one, the Florida guys was bleeding so I am not sure how it wasn't 4 minutes. I think it was because they said he had the cut from before, but he wasn't bleeding before, or he wouldn't have been playing. I have never seen that matter. It is always a if there is blood its 4.

Pretty sure the only thing they were going to be calling in the third was a puck over the glass call.

Team came back from down 3-0 to have a chance, Need to be happy for that! There is a reason not many teams come back from that, and the Oilers were close. Game management is annoying, but I understand if they called everything the game would just drag on. Just sucks when the standard changes. That standard changed for both teams yesterday.

 

[Yablo21]

Bobrovsky was deserving I'll give them that, he was dialed in. Done being mad about this game.

 

[dem]

Yeah. Holloway is basically Foegele replacement at best right now. Which is still good and still has potential to be more, but it sucks seeing drai straddled with third liners for his whole career. We just lost to a team that had Matt Tkachuk on its 2nd line.

Hey... We could have had Matt Tkachuk. But we picked the goofy looking Finn.

 

[McShogun99]

Then if Kulak challenges him and it goes in off a stick then what ? That's a routine save. Players are taught to getvput if the way to let the goalie see the puck and to prevent deflectors. That save is made 99 tones out of 100

Skinner was cheating for the pass and Reinhart saw it. Kulak still should have pressured him instead of practically backing up into Skinner. Reinhart didn’t score 57 goals as a fluke. That’s the last guy on the Panthers that you want to give time to pick his spot.

Even the first goal you have the team blowing the zone and leaving Verghaege alone in front.

 

[CycloneSweep]

He hasn't been publicly announced to be in charge, but the guy has been in charge.

You think their succession plan has been for Holland to retire and the organization to just scramble to find a replacement the day after?

This is a billion dollar organization. You think they are that daft?

With what we have watched this org do for over a decade, yeah they absolutely could be that daft lol.

 

[Duke74]

I can't imagine being such a sad, pathetic, worthless human being, having *so little* going on in my own life, that I would barge onto the board of a team that just lost a nail biter in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Crowing in the cesspool that is the mainboards isn't enough, you just had to f***ing come in here and do it too. I don't even have the words.

That's another frustrating things about the loss. All of the cockroaches have surfaced in mass waves. Like the icing on a cake of shit.

 

[WaitingForUser]

With what we have watched this org do for over a decade, yeah they absolutely could be that daft lol.

I think the succession plan was always Staois but he wouldnt wait until the end of the year and now we have scrambling to find someone else

 

[TheNumber4]

Yup. This still blows.

 

[Sniper99]

the trolls are out with their little "is this the closest McDavid will get to the cup?" thread and the mods dont do anything about it. This site sometimes.

 

[Little Fury]

Turns out winning the Stanley Cup is incredibly hard and requires everything to go right.

Which makes not winning it when you have the chance to do so a massive failure.

 

[CrazyJoeDavola]

Hey... We could have had Matt Tkachuk. But we picked the goofy looking Finn.

Hindsight aside and failed draft picks aside, Tkachuk was bought. We had plenty of chances to bolster our top 6 and we decided to stand pat numerous times.

I'd argue we only really have 1 high-end calibre top-6 winger in Hyman. Nuge just doesnt have the drive/will, compete, and skill to do anything without being back-packed. And the rest of the 2nd line wingers are 3rd/4th liners or a depleted/burnt out/disinterested Kane.

We had the depth scoring this year, our top 6 let us down. That's not to absolve McDrai for showing up (albeit they were obviously badly hurt and playing on fumes). But I'm tired of relying on career passenger Nuge to do have a SINGLE f***ing individual moment where he took over and willed a goal. Love Nuge, but he honestly belongs on the third line. And then we have to rely on a seriously injured drai to carry 4th liners.

 

[bellagiobob]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1805632963293708606

Cuck fans are aghast. Can’t relate to why we didn’t burn our city to the ground.

 

[TheNumber4]

It’s likely we are now the 2nd best team in the League 3 playoffs in a row now. It’s not improbable, actually it’s more likely than not, that next year could be the year. We’ll still be in contention and should be right there anyways.

But this still sucks ass. We were so f***in close.

 

[oilers4life5]

I really don't get the complaining about the refs, watching that game with anything but rose-colored glasses would show multiple missed calls for both teams.
Bieska even said at the start of the game the whistles would be put away and the players would be left to play.

That call on Tkatchuk which was already mentioned was literally the worst call I have ever seen in my life, and IMO it was we have to give the Oilers a power play soon game management call, to even it up call. I suspect when the ref saw the replay he realized how bad that call was so he couldn't make another call that was questionable, or had been let go the other way. Both calls against Edmonton were legitimate high stick calls. tough to say they weren't actual calls. Also the first one, the Florida guys was bleeding so I am not sure how it wasn't 4 minutes. I think it was because they said he had the cut from before, but he wasn't bleeding before, or he wouldn't have been playing. I have never seen that matter. It is always a if there is blood its 4.

Pretty sure the only thing they were going to be calling in the third was a puck over the glass call.

Team came back from down 3-0 to have a chance, Need to be happy for that! There is a reason not many teams come back from that, and the Oilers were close. Game management is annoying, but I understand if they called everything the game would just drag on. Just sucks when the standard changes. That standard changed for both teams yesterday.

You don’t know the rule book if you think that’s not a penalty. Does not matter that he fell and it was not intentional. Still a penalty on turtle 10/10 times.

 

[Kaptah]

Very entertaining playoffs. McDavid will get his cup next season.

 

[Mr Kot]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1805632963293708606

Cuck fans are aghast. Can’t relate to why we didn’t burn our city to the ground.

All of those charges were all me.

 

[TheNumber4]

It sucks that Gary and his shit League got to suck up all the hype, drama, excitement, revenue, and storylines that only the Oilers and the Edmonton market could bring to this League creating one of the most intriguing Cup finals in history, and they he doesn’t even need to award Edmonton a Cup over it. f***in piece of a shit vampire. Without Edmonton, this is just another mediocre cup final that does nothing for the popularity of the League.

 

[Zerotonine]

Skinner was cheating for the pass and Reinhart saw it. Kulak still should have pressured him instead of practically backing up into Skinner. Reinhart didn’t score 57 goals as a fluke. That’s the last guy on the Panthers that you want to give time to pick his spot.

Even the first goal you have the team blowing the zone and leaving Verghaege alone in front.

That first goal macloed fked on the zone exit. But that was an incredible tip in

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

I think the succession plan was always Staois but he wouldnt wait until the end of the year and now we have scrambling to find someone else

Nothing about this makes sense. Staios left right after the new boss came in.

 

[Oilhawks]

Tin foil hat on for this one probably just still upset. But something just doesn’t sit right with me about how this all played out. In 2006 the team made a Cinderella run getting all the way to game 7. Game 7 it was like everyone just stopped playing. I chalk it up to having nothing left in the tank. Fast forward to 2024 team makes it game 7 and almost the identical scenario plays out minus the empty net goal. Now I’m not saying that sports are 100 percent scripted but at this point you have to wonder. How do two teams 18 years apart have almost exactly the same thing happen in game 7 for some of them being their last chance at a cup? Does anyone else here start to wonder if it’s all smoke and mirrors and the players follow a script? I know again its probably just the hurt talking

People mock the WWE but at least it isn’t hiding anything. At the very least, there is some corruption in pro sports that can affect the outcome of games, series etc.

 

[Duder54]

Cup or bust.

Rather myopic view of things imo, but to each their own.