WCSF: Game 4 - Edmonton Oilers vs Vancouver Canucks, 7:30pm, ESPN

[ManofSteel55]

I think it's quite obvious who would be devastated losing this series. Cup or bust or nahh

I think both teams should probably be urgent for their cup this year though. Vancouver's losing a lot of talent this summer, potentially. They only have Hughes and Soucy signed on the blueline for next year - it could be hard to replicate what they have now.

 

[BCNate]

I'm not pretending that, that's what they are supposed to be doing, they are after all hockey fans.

Just like Vancouver fans were well within their rights to complain that the media wasn't taking them seriously.

But that was the media.

I'm just correcting your statement that it was a majority of us that didn't take Vancouver seriously. It's simply a false narrative. The data supports it as false.

I never said it was the majority.

 

[JAK]

Given that all the news/tv media hockey experts had the Oilers beating the Canucks in 5-6 games...Its pretty easy to see how many Oiler fans thought dispatching the Canucks would be a fairly rudimentary task.

The impact of a team being in a fan base's head can be gauged by the volcanic rise of the stat "PDO" which was used primarily to describe how the Canucks play is unsustainable.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

I think both teams should probably be urgent for their cup this year though. Vancouver's losing a lot of talent this summer, potentially. They only have Hughes and Soucy signed on the blueline for next year - it could be hard to replicate what they have now.

I think the Canucks massively over achieved based on expectations and finally have a management group that is highly competent and not afraid to make moves . I’m not worried about the team being back next year. The future looks bright.

 

[millax]

I mean... at the start of the season who had money on the Oilers and Canucks meeting in round 2 of the playoffs with both teams starting their 3rd string goalies by game 4 of the series?

 

[M88K]

I feel weirdly confident about having a 32 year old career ahl player starting his first nhl playoff game in a must win situation. Could be because I've been drinking since 9am

 

[Brookbank]

Eckholm is hurt. He wasn't at practice

 

[Canovin]

Eckholm is hurt. He wasn't at practice

Draisaitl, Kane, Ekholm weren't at practice. All are playing

 

[MikeK]

I think it's quite obvious who would be devastated losing this series. Cup or bust or nahh

I think both teams should probably be urgent for their cup this year though. Vancouver's losing a lot of talent this summer, potentially. They only have Hughes and Soucy signed on the blueline for next year - it could be hard to replicate what they have now.

The Canucks weren't even expected to make the playoffs this year. At most a bubble team. let's not get too carried away about which team had the higher expectations and who would feel it the most with a playoff exit. This year has already been a monumental achievement for the Vancouver Canucks. The Oilers not making it to the Cup final, let a lone the Conference finals, would be an absolute failure.

 

[Brookbank]

I think the Canucks massively over achieved based on expectations and finally have a management group that is highly competent and not afraid to make moves . I’m not worried about the team being back next year. The future looks bright.

On paper , the team under achieved for 2 years. This is the correction. The roster was never bad.

But yes. They over achieved based on expectations from the outside

 

[Canovin]

The Canucks weren't even expected to make the playoffs this year. At most a bubble team. let's not get too carried away about which team had the higher expectations and who would feel it the most with a playoff exit. This year has already been a monumental achievement for the Vancouver Canucks. The Oilers not making it to the Cup final, let a lone the Conference finals, would be an absolute failure.

Every few years the Nucks show up to playoffs with low expectations.

 

[BCNate]

I think both teams should probably be urgent for their cup this year though. Vancouver's losing a lot of talent this summer, potentially. They only have Hughes and Soucy signed on the blueline for next year - it could be hard to replicate what they have now.

Anyone who thinks this isn't cup or bust for the Canucks right now doesn't understand sports. it's really hard to make it as far as they already have, there are no guarantees this group ever gets back here.

 

[JAK]

Every few years the Nucks show up to playoffs with low expectations.

Every year the Oilers don't show up to the playoffs with high expectations.

 

[MikeK]

Anyone who thinks this isn't cup or bust for the Canucks right now doesn't understand sports. it's really hard to make it as far as they already have, there are no guarantees this group ever gets back here.

Spoken like a non Canuck fan who doesn't follow this team... and the same can be said about every team in the league about getting back here.

 

[ManofSteel55]

The Canucks weren't even expected to make the playoffs this year. At most a bubble team. let's not get too carried away about which team had the higher expectations and who would feel it the most with a playoff exit. This year has already been a monumental achievement for the Vancouver Canucks. The Oilers not making it to the Cup final, let a lone the Conference finals, would be an absolute failure.

My comment had nothing to do with which team had higher expectations, and entirely to do with the reality of each franchise moving forward. Vancouver could be losing Hronek (rumoured salary demands are too high), Zadorov, and will need to replace Myers and Cole (probably not hard on the latter), not to mention Lindholm, who is contributing a lot in the playoffs, and even Dakota Joshua has emerged as an important depth piece that could be gone. Their expectations coming into the year doesn't change the fact that they have a lot of parts to replace this summer, and a few of them play very large roles.

 

[JAK]

Spoken like a non Canuck fan who doesn't follow this team... and the same can be said about every team in the league about getting back here.

I disagree, it IS Cup or Bust right NOW for the Canucks players.

Early season expectations has nothing to do with what they have accomplished now, for the players and coaches, it's always about winning the next game.

Moral victories can be had after the season though

 

[BCNate]

Spoken like a non Canuck fan who doesn't follow this team... and the same can be said about every team in the league about getting back here.

WTF, I follow this team closer than most and have had half season tickets for years. I just don't give a shit about what the preseason expectations from the media were, they were clearly wrong. This team is built to win a cup this season, and that should be the expectation.

 

[Pure West]

Surely they must be Oiler fans. Vancouver fans wouldn't go trolling on over to our board would they?

So once we're stripping out the trolling Canucks fans, we're probably looking at 1% of Oilers fans predicting them to lose the series, and about 50% predicting a cakewalk (4 or 5 games), another 45% saying 6, and a small fraction thinking the Oilers would need 7 to dispose of the Canucks. Seems like what I was saying was correct? Competitive series means a fairly substantial amount can envision their team losing.

Let alone the Oilers and national media. I can't help but cackle at the Daily Faceoff podcast with the Oilers fanboy and Seravalli who just can't stomach that they were totally wrong in underestimating the Canucks.

 

[TheSuperElite]

So once we're stripping out the trolling Canucks fans, we're probably looking at 1% of Oilers fans predicting them to lose the series, and about 50% predicting a cakewalk (4 or 5 games), another 45% saying 6, and a small fraction thinking the Oilers would need 7 to dispose of the Canucks. Seems like what I was saying was correct?

Let alone the Oilers and national media. I can't help but cackle at the Daily Faceoff podcast with the Oilers fanboy and Seravalli who just can't stomach that they were totally wrong in underestimating the Canucks.

Nobody underestimated the Canucks. Vancouver has been scraping out one goal games against a goalie with the worst playoff sv% since 2005. Far from a powerhouse, as was correctly predicted.

 

[Canovin]

Every year the Oilers don't show up to the playoffs with high expectations.

That's true. Have to make the playoffs to be disappointed

 

[MikeK]

My comment had nothing to do with which team had higher expectations, and entirely to do with the reality of each franchise moving forward. Vancouver could be losing Hronek (rumoured salary demands are too high), Zadorov, and will need to replace Myers and Cole (probably not hard on the latter), not to mention Lindholm, who is contributing a lot in the playoffs, and even Dakota Joshua has emerged as an important depth piece that could be gone. Their expectations coming into the year doesn't change the fact that they have a lot of parts to replace this summer, and a few of them play very large roles.

My bad. Looks like I jumped in midway and missed your point. There are definitely player decisions to be made for sure.

 

[Spawn]

Holland kinda cheaped out on goal tending in some of those Detroit years. But this situation with the Oilers is totally indefensible.

Why were so many analysts and insiders high on the Oilers with this kind of goal tending too ?

Because in spite of the goaltending the Oilers still tend to dominate the rest of the ice. And Skinner also was a bit of a wild card. Last season his post season collapse was hoped to have been rookie jitters. This season it’s now a trend with him.

The Oilers were always unlikely to win a cup with this goaltending though and to a lesser extent with Ceci in their top 4. Plenty of Oiler fans have been aware of this all season.

 

[BoHorvat 53]

If Boeser, a 40 goal scorer is getting wide open slot shots again, it doesn’t matter which one of Pickard/Skinner are in net.

 

[McShogun99]

Eckholm is hurt. He wasn't at practice

Upper body illness from carrying the defence.

 

[Forgot About Drai]

I love how Zadorov is in the Oilers and their fans' heads.

You love to see it and you can tell big Z loves it too.

Yeah a guys who are not fazed usually run and cry to the media about NHL conspiracies