The season is over for the Edmonton Oilers. It was one heck of a ride from start to finish. Here is the final roundtable of the year.
A one goal loss in Game 7, what was the difference between Cup and no Cup?
Sean: Inches, literally. There were a couple of chances that went off the post or went just wide. That one goal loss could have easily gone completely the other direction with a change of just a couple inches. That is a testament to just how close this game was and how close the series was over the course of the entire seven games.
Lukas: I think it’s fair to say we were as likely to win the Cup as Florida. In the end, I was highly critical of the roster and I was a bit wrong. Would a better goalie have gotten us there? Would a Cody Ceci upgrade had been the difference? Healthy Leon Draisaitl? It was the tiniest of margins.
Greg: Leaving themselves no room for error. Mirroring their path from the start of the season, the Oilers found ways to lose early in the Cup Final. Forcing a Game 7 was an accomplishment on its own, but spotting the Panthers a three games to none lead is hardly ideal.
Who were the Oilers top performers?
Sean: There’s the obvious candidates being Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman, and Evan Bouchard, but they get plenty of attention in my opinion. A few names I want to acknowledge are Mattias Janmark, Connor Brown, and Stuart Skinner. Janmark and Brown were possibly the second and third best forwards through the series for their effort level, contributions offensively, and how good they were on the penalty kill. Those two were actual game changers and were major reasons why the Oilers were able to win Games 4 and 5 with the early shorthanded goals. Skinner’s resurgence and bounceback after the struggles early on are commendable and show his abilities in net. His stats in elimination games and in Games 4-7 of the playoffs are phenomenal and his huge saves were, again, major reasons why Edmonton pushed this to seven.
Czechboy: The obvious three are Drai, McD and Bouch. They did a lot of heavy lifting. However, some guys really stepped up too! Janmark, Brown, Warren Foegele, and Skinner all stepped up. Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg showed they should be full timers next year (on cheap ELC deals). Ryan Nugent-Hopkins did a lot of the dirty work and was a special teams hero! Mattias Ekholm is criminally underrated in my opinion. I’ll also add Coach Kris Knoblauch. When I think of the stinging loss, he’s definitely not someone I would blame as he was exceptional behind the bench.
Greg: All the Oilers top players showed up in the playoffs, including all of top power play. Stuart Skinner deserves credit, as does Mattias Ekholm. Darnell Nurse faced a lot of criticism but was still a positive force for the team. Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown were incredible. Philip Broberg emerging is big news.
Who were the Oilers biggest disappointments in playoffs?
Sean: I think ultimately, each player had their own role and had their own moments and ways to contribute. But, there are some obvious candidates for this category starting with Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci. It’s been three seasons in a row now that this particular pairing gets eaten alive in the playoffs and is a major contributor to Edmonton’s elimination. Luckily this year, they were split up before it was too late. But even individually, the two of them were underwhelming and at the forefront of numerous bad giveaways, misplays, and questionable decisions that negatively impacted the Oilers. Edmonton needs more from Nurse especially, as his AAV moving forward and importance in the core group would indicate he should be significantly better than a borderline second pairing defender with six points in 25 playoff games.
Czechboy: Skinner was not good all around. He was sub .900 most of the playoffs and was very up and down. Nurse, whom I’m a fan of, was also wildly inconsistent. Ceci played to his level but his level is a bottom pair D on a cup winner (he’s top four in Game 7s though). I’d be fine if we moved on from Evander Kane.
Greg: It is unavoidable, to an extent, the attrition of the NHL playoffs. The Panthers themselves won this season with much better health than last season, especially to their top players. Having Draisaitl clearly hampered, among others with injuries, was quite unfortunate.
Do you think GM Ken Holland did enough?
Sean: I think he did as much as he could with the resources he had and was willing to part with. However I do think the impact of his trades was negligible overall. Sam Carrick barely played. Troy Stetcher was hurt almost immediately and didn’t make an appearance in the playoffs. And Adam Henrique was the good acquisition and did have a major impact with his clutch goals late in the playoffs, but he was also hurt early on and missed playoff time. Now, injuries are not Holland’s fault (though Stetcher was apparently dealing with something that led to him being shut down when he was traded for). But it’s hard to say that Holland did enough when what he did do barely played. And the major hole he left unfilled was one of the biggest weak spots still in the playoff run, that being the second pairing right defence spot.
Greg: I feel myself in a minority in thinking that Holland did a good job as GM, not only this season but throughout his Oilers tenure. Clearly there have been some mistakes, and personally there are many things that I might have done differently, both rightly and wrongly. At the same time, Holland made some indisputably good moves as well.
In the end, when one breaks out the abacus to weigh Holland’s tenure as a whole, it is not as simple as counting “good moves” against “bad.” Many times moves unmade are even more important, perfectly illustrated by Holland’s not trading Broberg, who many considered a bust that the Oilers should trade for any value while they could. I thought that not trading Max Wanner was equally important at the deadline, that keeping strong defence prospects was crucial to the Oilers long term health.
In general, this might be my main positive of the Holland era, a sort of patience. For years the Oilers seemed to be spinning their wheels, often dealing away players at unfortunate times. To an extent I can understand wanting to give Holland as little credit as possible, perhaps by pointing out that the likes of Skinner and Bouchard were not drafted by him, but Holland’s patience gave them time to find their footing.
The other common criticism of Holland seems to be that having McDavid and Draisaitl is a sure fire ticket to glory, that anything less is a complete failure. The drive to win is commendable, but this rationale simply isn’t. McDavid and Draisaitl were incredible before Holland arrived, all the while the Oilers struggled to even make the playoffs. Slowly the team improved, not only as a regular season team but also as a playoff team. The Oilers consistently improved through Holland’s tenure, becoming a strong team beyond their superstar duo. Reaching the Cup Final is a long and arduous task, one that should not be taken for granted.
Czechboy: All season (and last two playoffs) it was pretty clear Ceci is not up to the task in the top four. Or that Nurse and Ceci are not a strong playoff top four pair. Yet, we did that again. Skinner needs a 1B to play with. Not a backup but a guy near him in ability. Ultimately, we hit next season paying almost $18M for Nurse (9), Jack Campbell (5), Brown’s bonus (3) and James Neal’s buyout (2). Imagine what $18M could do for our roster? I’m hoping Holland is done for good personally. I feel we got close off the backs of mostly players that were here before we got here. The Hyman and Ekholm deals were exceptional pieces of business. The rest of his body of work is well below averge in my opinion. We have almost no prospects, a lot of wasted cap space and a very poor draft picks wise coming up.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
