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erudyk_29 said:
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.
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Wait what?! On what medium was Jack Michaels calling the game? It shows SN, but the SN channel I was watching had the dumb and dumber calling
 
erudyk_29 said:
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.
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I'm curious as to what happens with the Draisaitl line for the finals. I don't love having Perry and McLeod on it.

Kane and Hollywood have both had more production than those two, and are options.

Perry is well respected it seems and is perhaps an important leader, I just haven't loved his play that much.

See what happens.
 
Apparently PK Subban is picking the Panthers in 6 “because they’ve just beaten the best hockey team in the world” and they have a deeper team with better special teams and goaltending than the Oilers.

Sounds like he’s still p!$$ed the Oilers wouldn’t trade half their team for him when he wanted out of Montreal.
 
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Edmontonoilers.com
 
Poor McD just wanted to pick up a few suitcases of beer on the down low……but the hoard that followed him was something else!
 
Uppers are $1400-1500+ by the looks of it at the moment from a round 4 face of ~500-600 or 3x.
 
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