Pre-Game Talk: The time hast come...Van@Edm | Wednesday @ 8pm

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Drai Fi

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Sep 17, 2019
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This is what I've been saying. A lot of people taking the play in series as far more important than the 70 game regular season, when really the play-in series was a bit of a side show wildcard.

I think on paper the Oilers are the only Canadian team that improved from last season, and we were already the best Canadian team last year.
I only really see the Leafs ahead of us.

I really need someone to explain to me the Montreal hype. I don’t get it at all. I can’t see them being better than us or the Leafs.

The Flames got Markstrom off a career year, so it’ll be interesting to see if he repeats it. However, Gio is only getting older and the “best” defence in the league isn’t what it was. Their bottom six is questionable as well. They don’t really don’t have a stand out superstar either to make up for that. I guess they have Johnny and Lindholm but it’s a far cry from what other teams in the division have.

Vancouver lost their best player and parts of their D, which made them very successful last year. Miller also had a career year which I don’t think will be replicated. Holtby or Demko will need to step up for them to be successful.

Ottawa could be a sneaky surprise and steal some wins but it’s unlikely they do any real damage

Winnipeg has a really good forward core and suspect defence, so their success lies in if Hellebuyck can replicate last year. I think they should be one of the better teams.

I see the top 3 as some variation of the Jets, Leafs and us. The Canucks, Flames and Habs can battle it out for #4.
 
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Three On Zero

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Oct 9, 2012
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I only really see the Leafs ahead of us.

I really need someone to explain to me the Montreal hype. I don’t get it at all. I can’t see them being better than us or the Leafs.

The Flames got Markstrom off a career year, so it’ll be interesting to see if he repeats it. However, Gio is only getting older and the “best” defence in the league isn’t what it was. Their bottom six is questionable as well. They don’t really don’t have a stand out superstar either to make up for that. I guess they have Johnny and Lindholm but it’s a far cry from what other teams in the division have.

Vancouver lost their best player and parts of their D, which made them very successful last year. Miller also had a career year which I don’t think will be replicated. Holtby or Demko will need to step up for them to be successful.

Ottawa could be a sneaky surprise and steal some wins but it’s unlikely they do any real damage

Winnipeg has a really good forward core and suspect defence, so their success lies in if Hellebuyck can replicate last year. I think they should be one of the better teams.

I see the top 3 as some variation of the Jets, Leafs and us. The Canucks, Flames and Habs can battle it out for #4.

Most people aren't using the previous seasons results. They are looking at the records that the Canadian teams have playing each other.
 

nabob

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Aug 3, 2005
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Just wanna put this on record. I’m excited about this upcoming season based on the offseason pick ups. I haven’t been excited about an offseason for a long time, in fact every time I’m critical of the moves made the Oilers end up sucking or are mediocre as expected.

This year with the key missing piece in an puck moving offensive d-man finally filled, I think the Oilers will have a great year. Not to mention McDavid I fully expect to be on another level not seen before, he’ll be unstoppable.
Just had this same thought myself. There’s a ton of reasons for Oilers fans to be excited about the start of the season on top of it having been forever since we last had hockey that mattered!!

- Fully healthy McDavid!
- A rested Art Ross and Hart winner reunited with a countryman that he has had great chemistry with in the past
- a true PP point man who is on a level that we haven’t had in way too long.
- an older, wiser and hopefully improved Puljujarvi who has the potential to be a special player still
- can Bear amd Jones both continue to raise their game to the next level
- Do we get to see Bouchard? As a raw rookie he could move the puck unlike anything we’d seen since Whitney, and he’s only gotten better.
- Can Koskinen establish himself as a true #1? His numbers last year were almost identical to Markstrom’s ...
- is Adam Larsson healthy? Can he regain the form he had in his first season here where he was very good?


Maybe I’m just a massive homer...but I feel there’s lots of reasons to be optimistic.
 

Asiaoil

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The usual suspects who hate the Oilers make the usual predictions. The team will stuff it down their throats this year. The top 6 is legit and the numbers (GF and GA) that Drai and McDavid put up driving their own lines after Jan 1 were very good. McDavid was playing on one leg and Klef on one arm last year - now McDavid is healthy and Barrie is much better than a crippled Klefbom. Forward depth was a problem and now it is vastly improved. We had no bottom 6 skill at the beginning of last year and now it much improved (Turris and JP instead of Sheahan and Khaira is a massive upgrade). The 4th line was a joke and now it has real NHL players on it like Ennis. With Koekkoek beside Barrie we have puck movers with mobile defensive guys on every pair, but to be honest, I think we see Koekkoek-Bear and Nurse-Barrie before long. No slight on Bear but he's a young guy who needs fewer tough minutes at this point and Barrie is better. The only question mark is goal but Koskinen was equal to Markstrom last year and no one is expecting him to do anything more than repeat. Smith is the weak link but he's on a very short leash and Holland will make a move if he has to. But more than anything, this is a team that needs the emotional lift of playing teams they don't like. We've got that across the board this season with the exception of OTT, and we will hate them too soon enough. Bring it on.
 

AddyTheWrath

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Mar 24, 2015
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3 of the 4 TSN “analysts” had us 4th in the Canada Cup division and Button had us 6th.

Toronto/Montreal were #1 and #2 in 3 of the 4 with O’Slob having Winnipeg/Toronto at #1 and #2.

Just lol
The Montreal Canadiens hype train needs to stop. It's getting irritating.

Their GM made a bunch of moves to bring in mediocre players and signed them to too much money. And everyone is acting like they won the cup already.
 

onetweasy

Registered User
Oct 16, 2005
2,206
2,184
Just had this same thought myself. There’s a ton of reasons for Oilers fans to be excited about the start of the season on top of it having been forever since we last had hockey that mattered!!

- Fully healthy McDavid!
- A rested Art Ross and Hart winner reunited with a countryman that he has had great chemistry with in the past
- a true PP point man who is on a level that we haven’t had in way too long.
- an older, wiser and hopefully improved Puljujarvi who has the potential to be a special player still
- can Bear amd Jones both continue to raise their game to the next level
- Do we get to see Bouchard? As a raw rookie he could move the puck unlike anything we’d seen since Whitney, and he’s only gotten better.
- Can Koskinen establish himself as a true #1? His numbers last year were almost identical to Markstrom’s ...
- is Adam Larsson healthy? Can he regain the form he had in his first season here where he was very good?


Maybe I’m just a massive homer...but I feel there’s lots of reasons to be optimistic.

It’s the start of the season - we should all be excited and optimistic!

Save all the anxiety for the first intermission of game 1....
 

t0nedeff

Registered User
Jun 29, 2010
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The Montreal Canadiens hype train needs to stop. It's getting irritating.

Their GM made a bunch of moves to bring in mediocre players and signed them to too much money. And everyone is acting like they won the cup already.
A team that was clearly going to miss the playoffs getting gifted a playoff spot by competing in a contest that was basically a preseason tournament. How adding a bunch of 40-50 point wingers while losing a way more valuable player in Domi for a 20 point player right now somehow propels clear playoff missers to a divisional top 3 team is beyond me.
 
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CupofOil

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Aug 20, 2009
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3 of the 4 TSN “analysts” had us 4th in the Canada Cup division and Button had us 6th.

Toronto/Montreal were #1 and #2 in 3 of the 4 with O’Slob having Winnipeg/Toronto at #1 and #2.

Just lol

I'm more dismayed by the Montreal rankings than the Edmonton rankings. At least 3 of the 4 had the Oilers making the playoffs.
3 of the 4 picking Montreal be top 2 in the division seems a bit crazy to me but then again, 1-6 is a crapshoot despite a lot of pundits saying that Toronto is head and shoulders above the rest for some odd reason.

Also, I wouldn't put too much stock into the record against Canadian teams last season. The 2019 Oilers were a lot different than the 2020 Oilers post Yamamoto addition play in round notwithstanding. The 2020 Oilers were 4-2-1 against the Canadian teams including sound victories over the immortal Leafs and Canadiens and the beatdown of the Flameouts.
 
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