How Close to the Playoffs Can We Realistically Be?

[Canovin]

Offseason + 82 games away

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Vancouver, Calgary, Winnepeg, Arizona, Colorado

Beating 1 of those teams is expected, beating 2 wouldn't be surprising, beating 3 of them would be an accomplishment and beating 4 of them would shock me.

 

[PaPaDee]

I don't see this team making the playoffs. D group is still very questionable.

 

[syz]

I don't think a wildcard is going to be up for grabs. It's top 3 in the pacific or nothing.

The good news is that the pacific is the weakest division in the league. The bad news is that every single other team in the division has owned the Oilers for like a decade, regardless of how good or bad they are.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Ana- Still got the pieces there but I wonder about Carlyle and his effect on the players
LA- loss of Lucic will impact them, a little older but still really good
SJ- older and it will be interesting to see if they are tired from a long playoff run
Cal- should improve due to goaltending but contrary to popular belief, it wasn't just goaltending that sunk them last year
Ari- all depends on Mike Smith...hot and cold
Edm- more balanced, bigger, grittier and tougher, but will it lead to more wins? seem like they should break out every year but they don't
Van- who knows what kind of team Benning built...they're not rebuilding and they won't be bad enough for a bottom 3 finish IMO...stuck in limbo

 

[BarDownBobo]

If McDavid, Klefbom and Larsson play a combined 200 games this season we make the playoffs imo.

 

[McFlyingV]

I don't think a wildcard is going to be up for grabs. It's top 3 in the pacific or nothing.

The good news is that the pacific is the weakest division in the league. The bad news is that every single other team in the division has owned the Oilers for like a decade, regardless of how good or bad they are.

Not sure I agree. Who out of the Wild, Jets, and Avs improved this off-season to bump the 87 point wildcard up?

 

[Replacement*]

They don't make the playoffs this season and its due to being an extremely young team still and trying to rear too many young, inexperienced, players at once.

Teams that are really young, and the Oilers are among the youngest even with the Lucic addition, tend not to make the playoffs.

Last season only 1/8 teams with average age younger than 27 made the playoffs.

http://stats.nhlnumbers.com/teams?year=2016

The youngest teams are typically in the draft lotto sweepstakes and the way it goes in the NHL.

This season with addition of Lucic we are slightly older but still among youngest clubs

http://stats.nhlnumbers.com/teams?year=2017

Making matters more difficult this team tries to put too many players in situations where they are young/inexperienced with respect to their positions;

McDavid
Drai
Nurse
Pulju
Yak
Klef
Davidson
Larsson
Pak
Reinhard?
Oesterle?


What team ever wins with around 10 players that are really young and/or relatively inexperienced in respect of their positions?

 

[McJadeddog]

We're maybe better than Vancouver in the West.

.....

....Yup.

i think if a lot of things break correctly, we might be better than calgary... but we'd need a lot of things to go right, and for calgary to have some problems

other than that, i don't see a single team in the west that we are better than

 

[Jeff Lebowski]

I have faith that Chiarelli is going to ice a team that is capable of making the playoffs this season.

 

[syz]

Not sure I agree. Who out of the Wild, Jets, and Avs improved this off-season to bump the 87 point wildcard up?

Who said they had to improve in order to still be better than the Oilers next year?

 

[oilcountry17]

my guess for west standings:
1.St.Louis
2.Dallas
3.Anaheim
4.Nashville
5.Chicago
6.SanJose
7.Los Angeles
8.Calgary
9.Arizona
10.Edmonton
11.Minnesota
12.Winnipeg
13.Colorado
14.Vancouver

 

[McFlyingV]

Who said they had to improve in order to still be better than the Oilers next year?

No one, but if you think they're a lock for a wildcard spot with 87 points this year you'll likely be wrong.

 

[Young Lions*]

i think if a lot of things break correctly, we might be better than calgary... but we'd need a lot of things to go right, and for calgary to have some problems

other than that, i don't see a single team in the west that we are better than

I think we can count on being better than Vancouver and there's a good chance we can catch and pass Arizona. Calgary has addressed their goaltending issue and are otherwise better than us where it counts most, so we'll be their ***** for another year yet.

As far as the overall playoff picture goes, I can see Minnesota missing and the Jets taking that wild card spot. Otherwise, it'll look a lot like this year IMO.

 

[snipes]

I don't think a wild card spot is out of the question if we remain healthy and play like we care. Hopefully a new building and new culture helps.

We should be able to battle for 4th/5th in the Pacific, to me the California teams are ahead of us and the Flames as well. ARZ had a good offseason also, so it's tough to predict. I'm also not sleeping on the Canucks either.

I just want to see the guys battle hard every night and play balls to the ****ing walls. Let things work themselves out, but let's start with fighting hard with pride each and every game. Who knows? Maybe the Central beats each other up and 2 Pacific teams get into the wild card spots.

 

[Nordic*]

The (supposed) leading players in Edmonton are really young. If it goes their way, it can end up amazingly good. If it doesn't, it can end up bottom-3 again.

A guy like Kesler would do wonders here.

 

[ResilientBeast]

I've learned to stop expecting things with this franchise.

I'm thinking we'll finish in the 18-20ish spot

 

[Lacaar]

The glass is Half Empty view for me
- Oilers gonna Oil. Until proven otherwise I can't see this team ever doing anything.

The glass is Half Full view for me.
- This team has never had a reason to play past October 31st. Perhaps we'll see a different team if by some miracle they don't get virtually eliminated in the first 3-4 weeks of the year.

I just can't get that Calgary game on Halloween out of my head. We dominated that game. It was soul crushing as a fan.

 

[RoboNerdOK]

The glass is Half Full view for me.
- This team has never had a reason to play past October 31st. Perhaps we'll see a different team if by some miracle they don't get virtually eliminated in the first 3-4 weeks of the year.

We were actually (somewhat) in the mix until mid-December last season. I was rather surprised to be honest.

 

[Vanqu1sh]

If things break right in terms of health and players stepping up to their potential I see us realistically as a bubble team.

There's a chance we dominate our division and make it ez, there's a chance we have atonne of injuries and get nolan patrick.

 

[Weitz]

Were only better than maybe Vancouver in the division. And maybe a team or 2 in the central.

 

[Lacaar]

We were actually (somewhat) in the mix until mid-December last season. I was rather surprised to be honest.

That was mirage caused by a weak start from the pacific division power houses and streak the Oilers put together where they won some games they had no business winning (3OT and 1 SO). I don't think even the most optimistic poster on the boards thought that streak meant anything.


We have to go 4 years back to find this team with a winning record.

Now this year the opening schedule is butter soft.. best chance yet to get off to a good start. If they come out 0-4-1 then kiss another season goodbye.

They've come out of the gate and lossed the season in the first 3 weeks for 3 years in a row now.

What is this team capable of if they can play some meaninful games past October. Hopefully lots!

 

[RoboNerdOK]

That was mirage caused by a weak start from the pacific division power houses and streak the Oilers put together where they won some games they had no business winning (3OT and 1 SO). I don't think even the most optimistic poster on the boards thought that streak meant anything.

Yes and no, it was actually good to see the team squeak out a few wins where they would have completely collapsed before. The "Pathetic Division" was certainly that, but we did not-too-bad against the East also. So there were a few strides forward -- although considering how far behind the team was, it's going to take more than a few to get into the mix when it actually counts for something. The attitude certainly seems to be improving though.

You're definitely bang on about the schedule. Considering the competition in many of those games has either not improved or markedly gotten worse, we should have a very good idea of where the next season is headed very quickly.

 

[MoneyGuy]

There's a chance we dominate our division and make it ez, there's a chance we have atonne of injuries and get nolan patrick.

I think there is virtually no chance of the former happening. Dominate our division? That's crazy talk. About a 2.1% chance, I'd say.

 

[Weitz]

If things break right in terms of health and players stepping up to their potential I see us realistically as a bubble team.

There's a chance we dominate our division and make it ez, there's a chance we have atonne of injuries and get nolan patrick.

Dominate the division? When have they ever won even 50% of their inter division games? the '90s?