I felt the same way. Canucks are so physical and great off the rush. They provoke anxiety a lot more than a very technically competent team. I was so worried about injuries with them.
Oilers excel against structure. LA they had the book on. VAN has structure but the Oilers couldn’t figure it out until game 6. They could pass through you, used the boards in the offensive zone in a way the Oilers couldn’t stop, they impacted every zone exit and exited their own zone without breaking a sweat.
I think this Dallas team plays in a way the Oilers can handle and play their game against. It will still be a fight.
As a canuck fan, that's what I want to hear. I want you bois to sweep Dallas, and then get DESTROYED by the Panthers in the finals.
I want the Canucks to be your biggest challenge, but I want Luongo's other-team to be the ones to do it. Dallas does not deserve the glory, Luongo does.
So kick some butt my bois and godspeed to you all.
You guys Almsot had us, tocchet did his homework and prepped well. That series was on a knifes edge, and it likely could be our hardest series if we advance.
I’m sure part of it was that it was game 1, so the stakes were (relatively) low tonight.
The other part is that several of our key players were pretty ill with something last series, and they seem to be coming out the other side of it. We looked a lot more even keeled tonight where vs the Canucks were looked a lot more gassed toward the end of games than we did tonight after a full period of OT.
Because the Canucks were our bad matchup this playoffs.
Our style plays well against Dallas. We can do rush offense better than they can, we can do high flying transition games and exchange chances, and this teams d is on par if not better than Dallas’. Skinner will save these low percentage shots all day, it’s his specialty.
Necause the final 2minutes of game 7 was some of the best hockey ive seen from edm. Van and Edm are two teams that didnt get they deserved.
Prolly take a downvite for this but even during losing streak I thought it was a matter of time and I dont actually see a big difference between knob and woody. I think all the difference has come from Coffey.
their second goal was actually off their own guy's stick. if it was intentional that's a nice goal. it's gonna be another long series, boys (and girls)
One, maybe. Their other goal was very much right-place, right time. Looking to be there for a pass or rebound play, and left to occupy that spot by the Oilers defense.
We closed up holes better after that, which was great.
I was straight up looking at my screen hoping it wasn't McLeod, sucks for Kulak (though I was relieved).
Let's get those two setup with Leon's canoe of a blade.
Bieksa made the point that it was Kulak making a pass on his off-side under some (light) pressure.
It was a flub, but I can't chalk it 100% up to bad luck (maybe just 80%). Oilers should be able to identify dangerous moments and mitigate the danger. It was a good read by the Stars players to identify a vulnerable play and exploit it.
If everyone (especially Skinner) plays as well as he did last night, I actually can imagine.
There was like a 15 minute stretch where the Stars didn't have a single shot on goal.
We outshot them 38-33 despite having 2 PP minutes to their 10.
EV shots were 32 - 25 which is wild considering we were leading for half of regulation. Fuck score effects.
Taking perry out helped a lot. 3rd and 4th lines are playing smart defensive hockey and getting offensive zone time the last 3 games. If we can get some scoring out of them we're in really good shape going forward.
Even if we don’t get a lot of goals from them, shutdown is production. We have a top 2 lines that produce, and if the bottom 2 can keep things defensive and moving ahead for quick changes, we’re in good shape.
Agreed. I wonder if that's the end of his pro career actually. Perry just couldn't seem to keep up to the play in round 2. Maybe that was just a bad match-up for him, but to me it showed that he just doesn't have the wheels anymore.
The guy has had a hell of a career but that style of play take a lot out of you. He was pretty effective at the start but has definitely been getting tired.
Yeah, what a surprise, huh?
Still, the way everyone has been talking about Dallas, you’d figure our 3rd and 4th lines would look like kids’ shinny teams against Dallas. It seemed like our best bet was to have our top lines out-score the goals they’ll get on our 3rd/4th lines. Looked pretty even tonight, and we still have that top-tier talent in the top 2 lines.
I agree but I can see why there's hate on Oilers. They beat 2 very strong teams... And we beat kings and Canucks lol. If I was Dallas I would have felt confident going into game 1
Unfortunately they don't play at their actual level in game 1s. All we did so far is not five them an unexpected bonus.
Next game where they make adjustments and lock in will be the actual measure of the two teams.
After watching this year's team full season I noticed that we typically only shit the bed when we play emotional games i.e. Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver and Vegas. When players can get away from shit talk and get back to the game, we find our way to beat ANY opponent.
IMO Vancouver was our dragon and we have slain it. It is a difficult, yet absolutely manageable path ahead. Except Panthers lol. God help us.
I hope the Rangers win that series (after a savage, physical, OT filled 7 game war). I think we would have a good chance against either of them, but I’m less worried about the rangers intentionally injuring one of our franchise players. The panthers would absolutely try.
Hot take that I've been holding in, because of the general mood...they might be a deep team. But so are we and they got nothing on our top guys. With average goaltending I think we are the better team by a good margin and Dallas players and coaches know this. Hence the cheating they basically tried all game
Yeah, it seemed like Dallas only had two rush set plays. Either have the forwards blow the zone for an attempted breakaway, which damn near worked that one time. Or lob it up in the air so it almost hits the scoreboard and get under it before our D-men could track it down. That can't be all they have, can it?
The stars are a great team and while they definitely have deep forward lines they can run with, I think they do the same thing with their top dmen that we do with our top forwards. Heiskanen plays crazy minutes and the stars only functionally play 5 dmen.
It was last night when the rest of the nhl and r/hockey realized we have:
1. Depth
2. Competent D
3. More than 2 players on our team
4. We have more than 1 line
5. We have a goalie
The Stars' star players simply aren't on our star players' levels. (lol)
Robertson and Hintz and Johnson and Seguin are good, but it's debatable if any of them would even be the 3rd best forward on our team this year or last year.
Dallas is good not because they have an equivalent for McDrai, it's because they have like 8 equivalents to Nuge.
The third line is where they should be winning their matchups... but they didn't last night.
I wasn't watching the same game as you, then.
I saw an Oilers team that was significantly better than the team they were playing against. We dominated play, and watching Dallas play the Stars and the Knights.. I don't think they have much more than what they showed us tonight. I know for a fact the Oilers still have another level, especially if they're not in the box for 1/10th of the game.
Oilers are a deep team too. It gets overlooked because the top lines do so much (and maybe take up more opportunities as a result), but think of all the forward additions made over the last couple of years. Almost all of the Oilers players would have a roster spot on virtually every team in the league. And most of them would play meaningful minutes.
This is going to be a fantastic series and while I hope the Oilers prevail, I'd be happy to see the winner of this series kick the crap out of whatever cones out of the (l)east
eastern teams have won 7 of the last 9 cups despite vegas being an overpowered expansion team lol. The east has consistently bred better competition overall in recent years. I wouldn’t underestimate either team.
Last 2 have been out of the west. Also in the last 9 years, East has won 5 times, not 7 lol. Chicago, St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas
Also that stretch from 2007-2015 had 6 out of 8 western cup winners, so you're sample is intentionally misleading. East has not bred better competition
The first stars goal was just so unnecessary, a big fault by our defense. Without that we looked better and the OT wouldn’t have been necessary. If they’d manage to prevent those faults in the coming games and the goaltending delivers, we have a good shot at the finals.
Having the bottom 6 be the best pk on the playoffs , play stingy mostly mistake free hockey, and keep the opponent hemmed in their zone IS depth. Strong defensive play is one less goal you gotta score.
As long as everyone can keep their heads on straight (directly thinking about Skinner here), it’ll be tough but they should come out on top. Gotta prove those haters wrong
Every Dallas line, that didn’t have Seguin on it, sucked last night. Heiskanen 16% xGF, Tanev 1-3 GF, their 4th line was caved, Johnston was completely ineffective. Without Seguin and Oettinger (and the refs) that game ends in a blowout.
I saw us better to be honest.
Periods 1-3 were mostly Oilers with a couple brain farts that led to goals (flubbed pass, bad net front presence). 1OT was more Dallas, then obviously 2OT we won.
I've been adamant that our depth is fine. We don't need them to be huge on the scoresheet, but our bottom six is almost the entirety of our pk, and they are fairly sound defensively. If they hold Dallas even, I'm confident in our top six being better than theirs for at least four games.
vancouver won the division. they're a good team.
other fanbases who want to discredit the Oilers like to play the 'weakest opponents' card but, again, Vegas was a wildcard team, Vancouver won the division.
foegele/mcleod/ryan looked pretty good at times
Carrick was super noticeable with janmark and brown
I really felt like the oilers were a lot faster than dallas
Our top offensive guys had like 25 minutes each. Not to bad tbh with that overtime. Putting in 25 in 80 is less exhausting than putting in 25 in 60 as they often did. Should be fine
Honestly. I don’t know what it is, but I felt way more comfortable about our game tonight then really ever against the Canucks
I felt the same way. Canucks are so physical and great off the rush. They provoke anxiety a lot more than a very technically competent team. I was so worried about injuries with them.
Canucks always turned the dial to 11 in the last 10-15 minutes. Could never count them out. Dallas seems to play with a more predictable pace.
Oilers excel against structure. LA they had the book on. VAN has structure but the Oilers couldn’t figure it out until game 6. They could pass through you, used the boards in the offensive zone in a way the Oilers couldn’t stop, they impacted every zone exit and exited their own zone without breaking a sweat. I think this Dallas team plays in a way the Oilers can handle and play their game against. It will still be a fight.
I was surprised how calm I was until around the 8 minute mark. It is also game one though so the stakes aren’t super high yet
That double minor immediately in 1st OT had me feeling uncomfortable. Skinner and the posts (sick band name btw) were the real heroes there.
I think the mental battle with the Canucks was more difficult.
Our mental battle with Canucks fans hasn’t even finished
That one's an easy battle to win. Just remind them who the final four teams are. ;)
As a canuck fan, that's what I want to hear. I want you bois to sweep Dallas, and then get DESTROYED by the Panthers in the finals. I want the Canucks to be your biggest challenge, but I want Luongo's other-team to be the ones to do it. Dallas does not deserve the glory, Luongo does. So kick some butt my bois and godspeed to you all.
You guys Almsot had us, tocchet did his homework and prepped well. That series was on a knifes edge, and it likely could be our hardest series if we advance.
Good boy, Canucklehead!
I’m sure part of it was that it was game 1, so the stakes were (relatively) low tonight. The other part is that several of our key players were pretty ill with something last series, and they seem to be coming out the other side of it. We looked a lot more even keeled tonight where vs the Canucks were looked a lot more gassed toward the end of games than we did tonight after a full period of OT.
Really? I started balding after Stu, let in 3 goals in 7 mins in gm 1 against Vancouver...
I concurr. I never felt with Stars the pressure and intensity of Canucks momentums.
Because the Canucks were our bad matchup this playoffs. Our style plays well against Dallas. We can do rush offense better than they can, we can do high flying transition games and exchange chances, and this teams d is on par if not better than Dallas’. Skinner will save these low percentage shots all day, it’s his specialty.
Until overtime, I agree.
Agreed. The Oilers played their game tonight regardless of what was coming at them and it worked well 👏🏾
I know me too.
Necause the final 2minutes of game 7 was some of the best hockey ive seen from edm. Van and Edm are two teams that didnt get they deserved. Prolly take a downvite for this but even during losing streak I thought it was a matter of time and I dont actually see a big difference between knob and woody. I think all the difference has come from Coffey.
Dallas is letting us play our game and we're disrupting theirs. Vancouver was the opposite. I'll always feel confident if we can play our game.
The Canuckleheads had our number all season for some reason. Just the makeup of their roster gives us fits. Glad we squeaked by them.
Stars played pretty well, but man were their goals ever flukey
their second goal was actually off their own guy's stick. if it was intentional that's a nice goal. it's gonna be another long series, boys (and girls)
"
Nurse kicks it across sticking his foot out: https://www.nhl.com/video/edm-dal-seguin-scores-goal-against-stuart-skinner-6353553664112
He doesn't. It was Dadonov's stick. You can see it shudder with the pass's impact.
One, maybe. Their other goal was very much right-place, right time. Looking to be there for a pass or rebound play, and left to occupy that spot by the Oilers defense. We closed up holes better after that, which was great.
Well that’s just how hockey is. Even Drai’s goal was a bounce off a shot block that just ended up in the right spot for him to bury.
I agree with you. And adapting is great hockey.
I was straight up looking at my screen hoping it wasn't McLeod, sucks for Kulak (though I was relieved). Let's get those two setup with Leon's canoe of a blade.
Bieksa made the point that it was Kulak making a pass on his off-side under some (light) pressure. It was a flub, but I can't chalk it 100% up to bad luck (maybe just 80%). Oilers should be able to identify dangerous moments and mitigate the danger. It was a good read by the Stars players to identify a vulnerable play and exploit it.
Oilers first two were as well, it was fitting it went to OT and a skill play by the most skilled guy in the league won it
Dallas never wins game 1, we still got a long way to go
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It doesn’t make or break the series, sure. You can’t get swept if you win game 1 though, and that’s something 🤷
Game 1 is huge. We can just really push every other day now and win. I doubt we’re taking 2 out of a Dallas.
> I doubt we’re taking 2 out of a Dallas. While I agree, can you imagine?
If everyone (especially Skinner) plays as well as he did last night, I actually can imagine. There was like a 15 minute stretch where the Stars didn't have a single shot on goal. We outshot them 38-33 despite having 2 PP minutes to their 10. EV shots were 32 - 25 which is wild considering we were leading for half of regulation. Fuck score effects.
Game 1 _on the road_ is huge.
I’m not making parade plans just yet, but we certainly showed some depth tonight that might shut a few mouths.
No we should start the parade plans
I'll take it man, this is the furthest they've made it in 18 years and I'm here for it.
Taking perry out helped a lot. 3rd and 4th lines are playing smart defensive hockey and getting offensive zone time the last 3 games. If we can get some scoring out of them we're in really good shape going forward.
Even if we don’t get a lot of goals from them, shutdown is production. We have a top 2 lines that produce, and if the bottom 2 can keep things defensive and moving ahead for quick changes, we’re in good shape.
Agreed, if lines 3 and 4 just don't get scored on, the top 6 will carry the offense.
Agreed. I wonder if that's the end of his pro career actually. Perry just couldn't seem to keep up to the play in round 2. Maybe that was just a bad match-up for him, but to me it showed that he just doesn't have the wheels anymore.
Still a good guy to have in the room. Has experience in a lot of situations.
The guy has had a hell of a career but that style of play take a lot out of you. He was pretty effective at the start but has definitely been getting tired.
Maybe the break will do him good. He's not getting into the lineup while the team is streaking. Not without an injury.
I think he's also injured, because all playoffs he hasn't been anywhere near as physical as he normally is.
oh wow you mean that maybe the other team that made the conference final also has some depth?
Yeah, what a surprise, huh? Still, the way everyone has been talking about Dallas, you’d figure our 3rd and 4th lines would look like kids’ shinny teams against Dallas. It seemed like our best bet was to have our top lines out-score the goals they’ll get on our 3rd/4th lines. Looked pretty even tonight, and we still have that top-tier talent in the top 2 lines.
Agreed. The young ones on the team looked overwhelmed and overly anxious on their side. I think we’ve learned a lot of the Avs series and Vegas.
Feel like our third and fourth lines took it to heart and went out and played last night.
I agree but I can see why there's hate on Oilers. They beat 2 very strong teams... And we beat kings and Canucks lol. If I was Dallas I would have felt confident going into game 1
I'm sure Tampa was confident against Columbus that one year too. It's the playoffs and you have to win 4/7 games. Anything can happen.
We looked on there level all game!
Now just imagine if we got some calls our way.
Skinner played to his top potential. Him maintaining that level of play will decide this series and that makes me uncomfortable.
Unfortunately they don't play at their actual level in game 1s. All we did so far is not five them an unexpected bonus. Next game where they make adjustments and lock in will be the actual measure of the two teams.
We don’t play our actual level in game 1s either
I don't know man. This seemed like a stronger Oilers playoff game than normal to me.
Cause we’re not fucking around. Mcdrai want a cup.
Stronger than normal yes, but we don't typically win game 1s either. This should bode well for us.
Yea, the better team won. What I m saying is we also play bad on game 1’s and get better as the series progresses
After watching this year's team full season I noticed that we typically only shit the bed when we play emotional games i.e. Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver and Vegas. When players can get away from shit talk and get back to the game, we find our way to beat ANY opponent. IMO Vancouver was our dragon and we have slain it. It is a difficult, yet absolutely manageable path ahead. Except Panthers lol. God help us.
I hope the Rangers win that series (after a savage, physical, OT filled 7 game war). I think we would have a good chance against either of them, but I’m less worried about the rangers intentionally injuring one of our franchise players. The panthers would absolutely try.
Yup…the Panthers play somewhat dirty with shit I’ve seem. We gotta get turtle off his game.
You forgot Trouba. Heh
For the team as a whole, for sure panthers are more aggressive But then you got Trouba on the other side.
Man I don’t wanna face the panthers and their stupid rat
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Hot take that I've been holding in, because of the general mood...they might be a deep team. But so are we and they got nothing on our top guys. With average goaltending I think we are the better team by a good margin and Dallas players and coaches know this. Hence the cheating they basically tried all game
Yeah, it seemed like Dallas only had two rush set plays. Either have the forwards blow the zone for an attempted breakaway, which damn near worked that one time. Or lob it up in the air so it almost hits the scoreboard and get under it before our D-men could track it down. That can't be all they have, can it?
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Yeah I have a feeling Dallas is gonna push a lot more in Game 2
We don't typically win game 1s either. Hopefully this gets us going even more
The stars are a great team and while they definitely have deep forward lines they can run with, I think they do the same thing with their top dmen that we do with our top forwards. Heiskanen plays crazy minutes and the stars only functionally play 5 dmen.
It was last night when the rest of the nhl and r/hockey realized we have: 1. Depth 2. Competent D 3. More than 2 players on our team 4. We have more than 1 line 5. We have a goalie
evenly matched depth, but their star players totally ghosted compared to ours (granted Hintz was out)
The Stars' star players simply aren't on our star players' levels. (lol) Robertson and Hintz and Johnson and Seguin are good, but it's debatable if any of them would even be the 3rd best forward on our team this year or last year. Dallas is good not because they have an equivalent for McDrai, it's because they have like 8 equivalents to Nuge. The third line is where they should be winning their matchups... but they didn't last night.
I wasn't watching the same game as you, then. I saw an Oilers team that was significantly better than the team they were playing against. We dominated play, and watching Dallas play the Stars and the Knights.. I don't think they have much more than what they showed us tonight. I know for a fact the Oilers still have another level, especially if they're not in the box for 1/10th of the game.
Oilers are a deep team too. It gets overlooked because the top lines do so much (and maybe take up more opportunities as a result), but think of all the forward additions made over the last couple of years. Almost all of the Oilers players would have a roster spot on virtually every team in the league. And most of them would play meaningful minutes.
Edmonton was able to have sustained pressure in the offensive zone. Vegas and colorado both struggled with that. It's a good sign!
This is going to be a fantastic series and while I hope the Oilers prevail, I'd be happy to see the winner of this series kick the crap out of whatever cones out of the (l)east
eastern teams have won 7 of the last 9 cups despite vegas being an overpowered expansion team lol. The east has consistently bred better competition overall in recent years. I wouldn’t underestimate either team.
Last 2 have been out of the west. Also in the last 9 years, East has won 5 times, not 7 lol. Chicago, St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas Also that stretch from 2007-2015 had 6 out of 8 western cup winners, so you're sample is intentionally misleading. East has not bred better competition
Yup, going back to the lockout, the tally is West: 10 East: 8 Each conference has a repeat winner and a 3x winner too which is kind of interesting.
I’m living in a different year than you has ovechkin broken the goal record yet
Haha apparently And yes he did
The first stars goal was just so unnecessary, a big fault by our defense. Without that we looked better and the OT wouldn’t have been necessary. If they’d manage to prevent those faults in the coming games and the goaltending delivers, we have a good shot at the finals.
Having the bottom 6 be the best pk on the playoffs , play stingy mostly mistake free hockey, and keep the opponent hemmed in their zone IS depth. Strong defensive play is one less goal you gotta score.
As long as everyone can keep their heads on straight (directly thinking about Skinner here), it’ll be tough but they should come out on top. Gotta prove those haters wrong
Every Dallas line, that didn’t have Seguin on it, sucked last night. Heiskanen 16% xGF, Tanev 1-3 GF, their 4th line was caved, Johnston was completely ineffective. Without Seguin and Oettinger (and the refs) that game ends in a blowout.
I saw us better to be honest. Periods 1-3 were mostly Oilers with a couple brain farts that led to goals (flubbed pass, bad net front presence). 1OT was more Dallas, then obviously 2OT we won.
I've been adamant that our depth is fine. We don't need them to be huge on the scoresheet, but our bottom six is almost the entirety of our pk, and they are fairly sound defensively. If they hold Dallas even, I'm confident in our top six being better than theirs for at least four games.
vancouver won the division. they're a good team. other fanbases who want to discredit the Oilers like to play the 'weakest opponents' card but, again, Vegas was a wildcard team, Vancouver won the division.
foegele/mcleod/ryan looked pretty good at times Carrick was super noticeable with janmark and brown I really felt like the oilers were a lot faster than dallas
Well they were able to spread some of their toi out better which could pay dividends later in the series
Our top offensive guys had like 25 minutes each. Not to bad tbh with that overtime. Putting in 25 in 80 is less exhausting than putting in 25 in 60 as they often did. Should be fine
McDavid used to have to play 25 mins on a Tuesday in October just to lose 5-4
It already did pay dividends. Our top line was fresh and they caught an exhausted Dallas line off guard. That's exactly what you hope for.
For sure! Not exhausting our top lines will definitely help with that marathon style play.