Oilers didn't choke. They just simply suck. McDavid and Drai didn't play as well as they should have, but overall they just had no business in competing against the Jets.
Leafs were a much better team and they had the entire control of the series. 3-1 as top seed against the lowest and losing? That's choking.
Good news, Leafs can turn this around by tweaking their roster and culture. Oilers are still f***ing horrible.
I don't even understand the free pass Oilers get.
Oilers were the better regular season team this year. And last year
Last 4 regular season meetings with Jets vs Oilers was Oilers 4-0, outscoring Jets 16-4 and McDavid with 11 points. If you go broader, 7-2-0, 34 goals for 22 against this season.
Why they did have no business competing? They absolutely did - and they were the
heavy favorites in the round 1 matchup - and then completely choked. Couldn't win a single game. They were well in control of game 3 - and choked the lead and lost in OT.
Leafs look real bad for being up 3-1 and losing too - but to me Oilers had the much bigger choke.
I didn't watch more than the last game in Oil vs Jet series - but from watching all of the Leafs to me this series was stolen from them by Carey Price. They played well enough to be up 6-0 after 6 games. They didn't play well in game 7, and that's on them, but they played really great for 6 games. They choked in the end - but not as bad as Edmonton