WCF: Edmonton Oilers vs. Colorado Avalanche ( Avs lead 3-0 )

[snag]

As a Leafs fan, you certainly are an expert on pretenders.

Tad....to get dog shit to stop smelling you gotta let it dry out. Quit watering it!

 

[McDrai]

It's quite the spectacle watching leaf fans like divine trying to downplay the Oilers as a pretender franchise. Let's do a quick summary on the Leafs, last cup win is 67 with only 6 teams in the league. Let's jump 12 years later to when the Oilers entered NHL Leafs no cups or finals during that time. Let's jump another decade now 22 years later Oilers have had 4 cups and been to five cup finals jump another 20 years Oilers sitting at 5 cups and 7 Nhl finals. enter the worst decade in Oilers history, but behold Leafs still don't even have a final appearance. The Leafs 55 long years no cups but even more embarrassing not 1 cup final, but rest assured their fans will pipe up on how other teams are pretenders. But hey we get to read great threads like how their series losses are so impressive. What a joke

I feel like Divine and ThreeonZero need a podcast or some other platform so they can shit talk the Oilers to their heart's content

Anyways, moving on from the trolls...really looking forward to this matchup and expecting it to be quite the barn burner. I won't be that choked if we lose to Colorado as they are kind of like the Oilers where they haven't achieved what was expected of them in years past. Whoever wins this series I'll be cheering for in the finals (assuming Tampa comes out of the East)

 

[TomppaKoo]

How are McDrai going to score when facing Landy, Artturi, Nuke, Makar, Toews, BoBy? How is Shmitty going to stop MacK, Rantanen and Kadri from scoring? This will be sooo fun series to see.

 

[Yablo21]

Normal players play defense?

check their plus minus fool

 

[John Mandalorian]

check their plus minus fool

We're doing name calling now?

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

How are McDrai going to score when facing Landy, Artturi, Nuke, Makar, Toews, BoBy? How is Shmitty going to stop MacK, Rantanen and Kadri from scoring? This will be sooo fun series to see.

How are the two best offensive players in the game going to keep doing what they do no matter who they face...?

 

[MessierII]

How are McDrai going to score when facing Landy, Artturi, Nuke, Makar, Toews, BoBy? How is Shmitty going to stop MacK, Rantanen and Kadri from scoring? This will be sooo fun series to see.

Kopitar and Danault are as good as it gets defensively in the nhl and they gave it everything they could to try and stop them. There’s nothing in Colorado that is going to slow down our offence it’s a matter of whether they can outscore us.

 

[Mav3rick07]

I'm honestly just happy to be in this position. I haven't seen my Oilers in the West Finals since 2006 so it's been a long time coming.

I understand the Kings and Flames are not on the same level as Colorado. The Avalanche have everything : Speed, great offence, good blue-line and steady goaltending*. This is a true great test for the Oilers and I expect there will be lots of ups and downs.

Oilers in 7.

 

[Aurinko]

A great matchup. The western conference style of play, currently, on average, is much more boring than the eastern. We are blessed to have these two teams at the conference final, the only two western teams that are watchable for non-hockey-purists and enjoyable for hockey fans in general.

Oilers will take this in 5.

Woodcroft might get a statue for that. Beating Flames was a big deal, but taking out AV's would be phenomenal.

 

[Goulet17]

I am not going to make any predictions. I have been watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs long enough to realize that you can throw predictions out the window. Often these series turn out quite different than anticipated, either in terms of outcome or style.

I often wonder whether some of the fans that make strong predictions one way or the other truly believe their predictions. Sometimes it seems like they are trying to convince themselves or at least trying to get others to support their opinions so that they feel more at ease.

 

[Draicycle]

Yea it does sound really dumb, because it is. Don’t act like the oilers are some big power house because they won over the flames. If I remember the flames put up 9 goals in the first games against this juggernaut oil team. Avs will give them all they can handle. Play stupid games , win stupid prizes!

So your argument that we're not gonna win in 5 is that we lost a sloppy game to Calgary? Your team barely beat St.Louis with a backup playing poorly. Give your head a shake. Makar is the only advantage your team has and it won't be nearly enough.

 

[Ararana]

So you agree that Mike Smith is a much better goalie than Kuemper?

For the record, I do agree with Makar and Toews being much better than Nurse.

Not really. I think Mike Smith is one of the worst starting goalies in the league.

Dom’s model has Smith at a 3.0 and Kuemper at a 4.2 GSVA. I wouldn’t call the goalies a wash either. Kuemper definitely has the ability to play under his capabilities though. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Kopitar and Danault are as good as it gets defensively in the nhl and they gave it everything they could to try and stop them. There’s nothing in Colorado that is going to slow down our offence it’s a matter of whether they can outscore us.

Colorado and LA aren't the same just like St Louis and Edmonton are quite different.

If the Avs are successful at puck possession, which is one of their biggest strengths, it could limit their chances. It won't entirely obviously.

 

[dalewood12]

Avs in 6.

 

[avsfan9]

So your argument that we're not gonna win in 5 is that we lost a sloppy game to Calgary? Your team barely beat St.Louis with a backup playing poorly. Give your head a shake. Makar is the only advantage your team has and it won't be nearly enough.

Your team barely beat LA without their best d man. Makar, Toews, Byram and Manson are all better then any d man on the oilers. Give your head a shake. Plus, you talk about one game. Take Kuempers game 5 away and his numbers are better than your top tier netminder you have between the pipes as well

 

[Pucklington]

Your team barely beat LA without their best d man.

But then they beat the Flames in 5. Be a fun series. I expect Colorado to win, but won't be surprised if Edmonton does.

 

[Draicycle]

Your team barely beat LA without their best d man.

That's def true. They played well against us and we struggled at times. Then we got stronger as the games went on, now here we are. Oilers in 5.

 

[T-Funk]

Well, I didn't know St. Louis style pizza was a thing until two weeks ago. Maybe we just haven't been informed yet.

Edmonton: Do you ruin pizza too?

I don't think I've seen cracker-like crust, crappy cheese, and square sliced pizzas anywhere. Many places doing a neopolitan style around here, and at least a couple spots that imo have good new York style. The rest is good old fashioned super cheesy pizza.

 

[John Mandalorian]

So your argument that we're not gonna win in 5 is that we lost a sloppy game to Calgary? Your team barely beat St.Louis with a backup playing poorly. Give your head a shake. Makar is the only advantage your team has and it won't be nearly enough.

St Louis has a very defensively conscious team -even the forwards. They also spread around the scoring.

St Louis and Edmonton are very different. Projecting based on the St Louis series can be tricky.

Also, to many, Makar looks like he might be playing hurt. He dinged his wrist a few games ago and it's been getting a lot of speculation.

Don't sleep on Byram. He looks like he might be hitting his stride as of late.

 

[JoeSakic13]

Avs 1st line will have to match Oilers 1st line in point production if they want to win. If that is able to happen (which the Avs 1st has been hit and miss) I think the main difference of the series then, is whoever's team gets better depth scoring will be the victor.

Agreed, but the fact that Edmonton’s top line have been setting records and one of the guys on Colorado’s top line is featured on milk cartons makes me concerned as an Avs fan.

 

[HabsQC]

Cheering for the Oilers like when they went in the finals vs Carolina. Go Edmonton

 

[Clark4Ever]

This one is going 6-7 games. A lot of people underestimating the Oilers.

Should be a lot of fun watching McDavid and MacKinnon go head to head.

 

[zar]

I think most realistic Oiler fans truly believe the Avs will win but based on the Oilers play in the last series, we expect the team to give the Avs a challenge and hope, with some timely breaks, we might have a chance at pulling out the win.

The Oilers played pretty well when the pressure was turned down and we were not favoured to win. The heart and resiliency the team showed bouncing back from deficits in that Flames series definitely showed me a side of this team that I haven’t seen before.

All of the pressure is on the Avs. If the Avs falter early, I could see the Oilers pulling out this unlikely upset.

Time will tell… I think a split in the opening 2 will make this a very interesting series.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Avs have already bounced back from an absolutely brutal game 5 ending to dominate game 6, so I think they can handle any amount of pressure in the upcoming series.

 

[Draicycle]

We have at least 3 future HOF'ers on our team. 2 top 10 ppg NHL playoff history forwards. One of which is tied for 4th with Mario and the other will probably be top 5 before we're done this year. Oil in 5.