northlands
Senior Member
Take some pics for your Skyrise homies
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- Thread starter Gronk!
- Start date
MacLac
Senior Member
Conservatively…..Oil in 6
MacLac
Senior Member
IanO
Superstar
We looked at booking today, but cheapest pre-sale pairs are $1429 USD...
Gronk!
Senior Member
I'm looking forward to seeing both the Gary Bettman curse and the Corey Perry curse broken!
IanO
Superstar
MacLac
Senior Member
Try Alaska via Sea-Tac on the red-eye to Lauderdale?
MacLac
Senior Member
Curious to see in the next few days what all the sports panel experts from the various media outlets predict who will win. That I D I O T - Marty Biron on TSN picked the Stars in 5 AND is saying the Rats in 5! What’s with this guy? Why are they putting a Buffalo Sabre day job guy on TSN?! Grrrrrr!!!!
IanO
Superstar
Talking hockey tickets there, not even flights.
IanO
Superstar
Class.
IanO
Superstar
bodsbods9090
Active Member
That's how much tickets are in Florida? Good to see we aren't the only fanbase that has fans trying to profit!
erudyk_29
Active Member
I've not been around as long as many Oilers fans, I truly only became a fan in 2017 (give me a break I was 2 when they made the Finals in 06 and it's not like they gave me a reason to like them between then and 17). Having experienced the heartbreaking losses earlier on. the struggle to even make the playoffs in the years after that (now humble) second round playoff run in 17, I can't even imagine how it feels right now for lifelong fans. I could hardly sleep last night. The energy in the crowd and at the Fan Park where I watched the game was electric.
No matter what happens in the Final, this team has accomplished something truly special this season, going from the basement of the league in November, and looking utterly broken, to now being crowned the Western Conference Champions is one of the greatest comebacks in NHL history.
That being said, the job is far from over, Florida is a juggernaut of a team and its going to take a all out effort from every player on the ice to win 4 of 7 against them. Here's how I see it working out.
Top End Talent: The Panthers top end talent is on par with Dallas, that is to say the Oilers are better in this category. Barkov and Tkachuk are great, players like Reinhart and Verhaeghe provide some great support here as well, but no team can match the 3 headed monster of McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard, in addition to Hyman, Nuge and Ek.
I give this one to the Oilers
Depth: Actually another place where Florida and Dallas have commonalities, as I think Florida has a very deep offensive roster as well. One that probably outclasses the Oilers depth. However, this is not as big of a gap as with the Stars and the Oilers depth actually matched and outperformed Dallas's at many moments in that series.
It's a slim margin, but this one goes to Florida.
Defense: Florida and Edmonton have very different defenses. The Oilers have their top pairing, which is the best in the league, but then have a steep dropoff to their 2nd and 3rd pairing. The Florida defense does not have the top end that the Oilers do, but are more evenly spread out across the D core. Forsling and Ekblad are a great first pairing, Mikkola and Montour are solid at their second pairing slot. Ekman-Larsson and Kulikov are a good third pairing.
This is another slim margin, but I think Florida has the advantage overall, though it could go either way.
Goaltending: The goaltending is a big time enigma for both sides. If Skinner can play like he did in the last 3 games against the Stars in this series, I think it will be tough for Bobrovsky to match, that being said, we know that Skinner sometimes has his struggles, particularly early in series. Bobrovsky has had a good playoffs so far, boasting a .908 which is nothing to scoff at, but isn't elite either. Bob is capable of magic however when needed, we saw this last year in their run to the Finals and also when the Blue Jackets swept the Lightning in 2019.
I give this to Florida, but really depending on how either goalie feels like playing on any given day, it could go either way.
Special Teams: This is pretty clearly an Oiler advantage, Florida doesn't have a bad powerplay, but it pales in comparison to Edmonton's. The Oilers penalty kill was perfect through two rounds this year and was not bad against Vancouver either.
Oilers get the edge here
So overall I think you could say that Florida is probably the favorite, but much like against Dallas, I'm hearing way too much "Cats in 4", "Congrats on earning a 5 cup final game loss Oilers fans". People will continue to doubt this team no matter what adversity they are able to overcome.
I believe in this team, and I don't want to make a prediction in fear of jinxing it. But my gut is telling me this is the year. Even if the Oilers come out flat in the first 2 games, I will not lose hope. This team has "that dawg in them" and McDavid is an absolute man on a mission right now.
That being said, nobody look too far ahead. There's still a LONG way to go.
No matter what happens in the Final, this team has accomplished something truly special this season, going from the basement of the league in November, and looking utterly broken, to now being crowned the Western Conference Champions is one of the greatest comebacks in NHL history.
That being said, the job is far from over, Florida is a juggernaut of a team and its going to take a all out effort from every player on the ice to win 4 of 7 against them. Here's how I see it working out.
Top End Talent: The Panthers top end talent is on par with Dallas, that is to say the Oilers are better in this category. Barkov and Tkachuk are great, players like Reinhart and Verhaeghe provide some great support here as well, but no team can match the 3 headed monster of McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard, in addition to Hyman, Nuge and Ek.
I give this one to the Oilers
Depth: Actually another place where Florida and Dallas have commonalities, as I think Florida has a very deep offensive roster as well. One that probably outclasses the Oilers depth. However, this is not as big of a gap as with the Stars and the Oilers depth actually matched and outperformed Dallas's at many moments in that series.
It's a slim margin, but this one goes to Florida.
Defense: Florida and Edmonton have very different defenses. The Oilers have their top pairing, which is the best in the league, but then have a steep dropoff to their 2nd and 3rd pairing. The Florida defense does not have the top end that the Oilers do, but are more evenly spread out across the D core. Forsling and Ekblad are a great first pairing, Mikkola and Montour are solid at their second pairing slot. Ekman-Larsson and Kulikov are a good third pairing.
This is another slim margin, but I think Florida has the advantage overall, though it could go either way.
Goaltending: The goaltending is a big time enigma for both sides. If Skinner can play like he did in the last 3 games against the Stars in this series, I think it will be tough for Bobrovsky to match, that being said, we know that Skinner sometimes has his struggles, particularly early in series. Bobrovsky has had a good playoffs so far, boasting a .908 which is nothing to scoff at, but isn't elite either. Bob is capable of magic however when needed, we saw this last year in their run to the Finals and also when the Blue Jackets swept the Lightning in 2019.
I give this to Florida, but really depending on how either goalie feels like playing on any given day, it could go either way.
Special Teams: This is pretty clearly an Oiler advantage, Florida doesn't have a bad powerplay, but it pales in comparison to Edmonton's. The Oilers penalty kill was perfect through two rounds this year and was not bad against Vancouver either.
Oilers get the edge here
So overall I think you could say that Florida is probably the favorite, but much like against Dallas, I'm hearing way too much "Cats in 4", "Congrats on earning a 5 cup final game loss Oilers fans". People will continue to doubt this team no matter what adversity they are able to overcome.
I believe in this team, and I don't want to make a prediction in fear of jinxing it. But my gut is telling me this is the year. Even if the Oilers come out flat in the first 2 games, I will not lose hope. This team has "that dawg in them" and McDavid is an absolute man on a mission right now.
That being said, nobody look too far ahead. There's still a LONG way to go.
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Greenspace
Senior Member
Jack Michaels always does an outstanding job. Listened live, had goosebumps.
erudyk_29
Active Member
It pains me that he doesn't do Oilers playoff games on Sportsnet. Cuthbert is fine, Singh is okay, but neither of them can match his energy and clearly visible passion for the team. I've seen fans of other teams comment how good he is. He is the most hype announcer in the league. He should commentate every Oilers game on Sportsnet.