Where do the Oilers finish this season?

[The Perfect Human*]

Yeah that surprised me their panel seemed to talk about the oilers so well yet the have us only improving one spot
I honestly think they are wrong this year I don't know if we make playoffs but we should be IMO somewhere around 11-8

Let's analyze this.

Teams that are shoo-ins:
St. Louis
Los Angeles (they have a system that works now, no more 8th place)
San Jose

Teams that got a bit worse but are still much better than us:
Detroit
Vancouver
Chicago

Teams that look bad but are pretty much >75% to make it based on history:
Phoenix
Nashville

Teams that better this off-season than we did:
Minnesota
Colorado
Dallas

Teams we're 50/50 with:
CGY - some new vets to pad an aging core
ANA - no real change, but established superstars and healthy Hiller

Teams worse than us:
CBJ

Anywhere from 12-14 is completely reasonable given these circumstances.

 

[Moonlapse Vertigo]

At least Aaron Ward understands how much Alberta fans hate him.

 

[Suxnet]

TSN's projection was hilarious. All they did was gush about the team and their chances and then boom "TSN projects the Edmonton Oilers to finish 13th."

"Wow, I thought that we'd have them one or two spots higher." -Duthie

Shut up Duthie.

I know that the team has done nothing but fail for six seasons but way to go out on a limb guys.

yeah that was weird lol.

If we get consistent goaltending from Dubnyk we will make the playoffs in 7th or 8th imo.

 

[Mr Forever]

I liked Bob mentioning Harti there on TSN. He's right. Having a guy like Harti is a huge plus. Something we haven't had in quite some time.

 

[Moonlapse Vertigo]

Who the heck is voting on the projections? Duthie, Ward, Ferraro and McKenzie are all in agreement that the Oilers are going to be a surprise team.

 

[Mr Forever]

Who the heck is voting on the projections? Duthie, Ward, Ferraro and McKenzie are all in agreement that the Oilers are going to be a surprise team.

They probably grabbed their predictions from the HF main board.

 

[McJC]

Who the heck is voting on the projections? Duthie, Ward, Ferraro and McKenzie are all in agreement that the Oilers are going to be a surprise team.

I'm wondering the same thing. They all think we're poised to make a jump, so how on earth are we ranked 13th? Is producer Tim doing the predictions?

 

[Suxnet]

Who the heck is voting on the projections? Duthie, Ward, Ferraro and McKenzie are all in agreement that the Oilers are going to be a surprise team.

Moving up 1 spot from 30th, 30th, 29th is a pretty big surprise I guess.

 

[Moonlapse Vertigo]

Darren Pang hates Dubnyk. He's probably influencing folks behind the scenes.

 

[dem]

Who cares about predictions? We will find out soon enough where we stand.

I'm just excited to see Yak and Schultz on Sunday.

 

[Moonlapse Vertigo]

I'm wondering the same thing. They all think we're poised to make a jump, so how on earth are we ranked 13th? Is producer Tim doing the predictions?

I blame Scott Cullen.

 

[402]

This is obvious but I'll say it anyway, just because tsn says we won't make the playoffs doesn't mean we won't

 

[Digger12]

In their talk about the Oilers, in all their gushing about the young guys (though they barely mentioned Yakupov at all) and the big question marks surrounding Dubnyk as the undisputed starter, there's one big thing they didn't mention at all: A healthy Ales Hemsky. To me, that could be huge given the current makeup of this team now.

The problem with predicting where this team finishes is that there's so many damn unknowns. They COULD skyrocket up the standings and surprise everybody, but they need an awful lot of things to break in the right direction in terms of health and improved performance from past underperformers in order to make that happen.

I'd love for them to make the playoffs, but IMHO there's too many variables that seem built on a shaky foundation. They'll miss, but they'll be higher than 13th when they do.

And if that comes to pass, you can bet that Lowe will have the perfect opportunity to oust Tambellini and begin the MacT era once again, this time as the GM.

 

[Insta]

13th is a joke imo. Unless Dubnyk completely loses it after all the nice steps he has taken over the last 10 months, there is little chance they finish 13th or worse.

 

[Insta]

Last year Gagner started off with an ankle injury and was awful. Whitney basically the same thing...Hemsky was also not right. Add Yakupov, Schultz, Dubnyk playing better, 1 year more experience, new coach...all this and they move up 1 spot? Not buying it.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I was a little bit concerned when they picked the Oilers 13th...

...Then they put the Flames in 14th.

 

[Eddy Oiler*]

I think we just miss the playoffs this year. We come close though.

 

[Moonlapse Vertigo]

This "The Kings dominated everybody" thing is a myth. As much as I hate to admit it I thought that the Canucks outplayed them by a wide margin. Yes, the Kings won in 5 games but it felt like they were playing rope-a-dope.

 

[McOilers4cup]

TSN's 13th place prediction is good for the Oilers , Good locker room board fodder

 

[T-Funk]

This "The Kings dominated everybody" thing is a myth. As much as I hate to admit it I thought that the Canucks outplayed them by a wide margin. Yes, the Kings won in 5 games but it felt like they were playing rope-a-dope.

I think the Canucks just got dominated the least. They were not winning that series.

 

[Mr Forever]

This "The Kings dominated everybody" thing is a myth. As much as I hate to admit it I thought that the Canucks outplayed them by a wide margin. Yes, the Kings won in 5 games but it felt like they were playing rope-a-dope.

Their goalie stole them a ton of games. You can't expect him to have a 48 game stretch run like that this year.

 

[Moonlapse Vertigo]

I think the Canucks just got dominated the least. They were not winning that series.

The Canucks hit their "can't score a damn goal" roadblock earlier than usual. They usually get past the first round before experiencing a complete power outage.

Regardless Quick absolutely dominated. I haven't seen a goaltending performance like that since Roli in '06.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Sportsnet has the Oilers in 11th.

 

[402]

Sportsnet has the Oilers in 11th.

Now that's a prediction that doesn't surprise me.

 

[Moonlapse Vertigo]

Sportsnet has the Oilers in 11th.

That's about where I would have them. 10th or 11th. It's a good safe prediction.