What happened to the once high-powered Stars offense?

[North Cole]

I definitely would not say that, Florida, Carolina, NYR, Vancouver, LA, Dallas all allowed less goals in the regular season and those teams largely played in better divisions

Two of those teams played in the same division as the Oilers... and two of the others played in the Metro which was quite easily the worst division in Hockey. The only sweeps so far were both WSH and NYI.

 

[EchoesoftheEighties]

They can still win games 6 and 7 for their team

 

[BudBundy]

High mileage team. They've played approx 200 games going back to the start of the 2022-23 NHL season, not including pre-season games. That's a lot of hockey and eventually it will catch up to you.

Dallas has played 201. Edmonton had played 193 in the same time frame. Over a two year span, you’re telling me that’s the difference?

 

[Coffey]

Dallas has played 201. Edmonton had played 193 in the same time frame. Over a two year span, you’re telling me that’s the difference?

It was probably a tongue in cheek comment. Flames fan and all.

 

[Regal]

the point of the post was that depth teams without gamebreakers rarely win the cup lately. They are great regular season team, and may get to the 2nd or 3rd round. Teams like Carolina, Boston, Dallas.
When was the last time a time without game breakers won the cup? St. Louis? then going back to maybe 2006 Carolina?
Analysts always overestimate 'depth'

While hockey always gets talked about as a team game, and it is, I’ve always felt like true star players can be underrated. You need enough depth to support them obviously, but usually the teams that win do so because their best players were better than the other team’s best players.

 

[gretzkyoilers]

Did they really have 3 '1st' lines? or was it more like they had 3 '2nd' lines? Very balanced team, with their top score at 80 pts, then bunch of 60ish pts. They don't have a dominate 1st line like the top teams or typical cup winning teams.
They don't have the top players that score 100+ pts or 50+ goals.
In the playoffs, you need some of those elite top players to break out. Dallas is like Carolina, a very solid balanced team, when they don't have the game breakers.

THIS! Dallas are a very good team but they lack elite players that the Oilers have. In the East, both teams have elite goalies.

Series is still not over!!! I predicted before this series started the Oilers in 7. I hope they do this in 6....

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

Nothing lol. Oilers are just really good.

 

[Hockeyholic]

Series is far from over. Yes, Dallas has to win tomorrow to keep their season alive. However, Edmonton is at home with the pressure to close.

There have been several conference finals examples where a team wind game 6 on the road before winning game 7 at home.

 

[BudBundy]

Series is far from over. Yes, Dallas has to win tomorrow to keep their season alive. However, Edmonton is at home with the pressure to close.

There have been several conference finals examples where a team wind game 6 on the road before winning game 7 at home.

Very true. Anyone who thinks the series is in the bag hasn’t been watching.

 

[Coffey]

Series is far from over. Yes, Dallas has to win tomorrow to keep their season alive. However, Edmonton is at home with the pressure to close.

There have been several conference finals examples where a team wind game 6 on the road before winning game 7 at home.

It’s true. Oilers have lacked killer instinct for a while and they need to show the world something tomorrow.

 

[GrumpyKoala]

Edmonton defense are statistically in the top 5 in every category that matter this year.

The decade of darkness and a mentality of attack first painted them as scrubs in the defense department.

Everyone I talk to on the east coast and that are die hard hockey fans remind me how we don't have a good defense, then the conversation usually goes to they can’t name more than one or two or our D.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

It gets lost that teams don't have to check every single box to win a Stanley Cup. Every team remaining has a disqualifying flaw to some segment of the overall fanbase. If it's the Panthers, they will have won without a Norris caliber D. If it's Edmonton, it's that and yet another cup won without a Vezina caliber goalie. If it's Dallas, it's the lack of gamebreakers. If it's New York, it's weak depth.

"Game breakers" is always a funny one to me. Everyone lacks game breakers when their star players stop scoring because the other team's game plan to stop them works to a tee.

I think some people forget that at the end of the day, the playoffs are really hard.

 

[Machinehead]

The Oilers are low-key great at defense this year.

It's reputation alone that people keep criticizing that side of their game.

 

[Panthers Propaganda]

Believe it or not, the Oilers are slightly older than the Stars based on the post deadline roster.

Fair, but your key pieces are younger than old f***s like Pavelski and Benn

 

[Ignatius]

I am more worried about the Dallas defense than the Dallas offense at this point.

 

[Satire]

Anyone that is counting the Oilers in or the Stars out right now is very foolish. This has been a very close series and Dallas is fully capable of winning 2 in a row here...

Save your victory laps for the appropriate time folks.

 

[Zaar]

10 SOG through 2 periods at home in a crucial game 5?!?!?

It’s not like this Oilers team is known for elite defensive shut-down hockey or elite goaltending either…

Well, actually Oilers have been seriously good defensively lately.
Apart from that, what has goaltending to do with shots on goal?

 

[Fishy McScales]

Well, actually Oilers have been seriously good defensively lately.
Apart from that, what has goaltending to do with shots on goal?

I learned from a Canucks fan today that their goalie injury impacted their forechecking, so as a converted believer I'll say it has EVERYTHING to do with it.

 

[PuckG]

The Oilers are low-key great at defense this year.

It's reputation alone that people keep criticizing that side of their game.

Many of them are the same trolls as always who criticize the defensive play of the Oilers. They watch every game but lack the wherewithal to understand everyone is also watching the same games. Every goal against, they appear again to recite their same non-sensical proverb and then leave again thinking they did something impressive.

They’ll be back on the next goal against with some comment like “_______ giveth, _______ taketh” or “the Oilers will never win until (insert some abstract player from a decade ago) learns to play defence.”

 

[Monsieur Miz]

I mean he's going to be 40 years old in a few weeks....

Yeah but he still had a 67 pts season. Played the whole 82 games as well. Maybe they should've given him time to rest, I don't know. He's been a non-factor since the start.

 

[theVladiator]

Stars did look sluggish in the last couple of games. But it doesn't take much to make a difference in the game at this level. The Stars being some milliseconds slower, or Oilers being some milliseconds faster will look the same to us. Bottom line is - the Oilers are outplaying the Stars. But even getting outplayed for most of the game, Stars did manage several grade A chances where Skinner was the difference maker.

The flip side of this is that because the margin is so thin, we can see the shoe on the other foot tomorrow. If the Stars manage to improve very slightly, or the Oilers lose just a little bit of their step, the ice will look tilted the other way.

 

[Duodenum]

The Oilers have been an excellent defensive team all playoffs keeping opposing teams from getting many grade A chances.
At first I thought the Canucks were just inexperienced and not deep enough but the Oilers are doing the same thing to the Stars that they did to the Canucks.

 

[Oilslick941611]

It’s true. Oilers have lacked killer instinct for a while and they need to show the world something tomorrow.

The thing with the Oilers is they have been getting better every game and building on it. I imagine that being 1 win away from a SCF appearance McDavid and Drai will be very motivated tomorrow.

 

[Kcb12345]

The thing with the Oilers is they have been getting better every game and building on it. I imagine that being 1 win away from a SCF appearance McDavid and Drai will be very motivated tomorrow.

McDavid and Draisaitl will definitely be motivated.

Imo, the key to the Stars success tomorrow is putting up 4-5 goals on Skinner.

Extremely difficult to win 2-1 or other low scoring games against a team that has 2 guys who rarely go without producing. They did it in game 2, but the chances of that happening again just seem so slim without Oettinger just completely standing on his head.

 

[Oilslick941611]

McDavid and Draisaitl will definitely be motivated.

Imo, the key to the Stars success tomorrow is putting up 4-5 goals on Skinner.

Extremely difficult to win 2-1 or other low scoring games against a team that has 2 guys who rarely go without producing. They did it in game 2, but the chances of that happening again just seem so slim without Oettinger just completely standing on his head.

I know I’ll be clenched and on the edge of my seat for sure.