There is a famous old joke told by comedian Jerry Seinfeld that was about silver medals in the Olympics. His punchline was, “Congratulations, you almost won.”
For fans of the Edmonton Oilers, it was absolutely worth celebrating during the summer how far the team got last season and how close they were to winning it all. 30 other teams and fanbases would’ve traded their season for ours. But once the puck officially drops for a new season’s opening game, getting close is no longer an option. There were so many interviews from the players about how much they had to learn from adversity and the lessons they needed to take from games throughout the years. But after going from 3rd last in the league on U.S. Thanksgiving to second best in your division in April, after erasing a 3-0 Cup Finals deficit and losing the last scheduled game by 1 goal, what other lessons or forms of adversity can you possibly learn from besides injuries, which every sports team contends with? Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl gave a Cup Or Bust answer after the 2022/2023 season. Well, NOW it really is Cup Or Bust. No team wins a championship every year, and it’s become harder than ever to win this one just once. But from this season onward, for as long as those two keep lacing their skates up, at least one season has to end with a Stanley Cup parade in Edmonton. They’ve used up all of their space for moral victories.
The 2006 Cup run, in hindsight, was a bit of a fluke. While nobody predicted a 10-year Playoff drought to follow, it was a once-in-a-lifetime Cinderella story that most of those players would never get back. Being an 8th place seated team defying odds made it’s big loss more heartbreaking. Unlike that roster, this current one has a window to keep contending and try to repeat longer runs year after year. That being said, it’s also the oldest roster in the NHL which will be iced. Pro athletes don’t make excuses, but how much of a factor will age and fatigue play after having a shorter summer than usual? Expecting just an average October, especially with new teammates as well, is a fair perspective. A slow-ish start doesn’t mean they’ll be having an awful season. This week’s NHL on Prime special shows a scene with a usually stoic McDavid shouting exactly 14 F-bombs after the Game 2 loss in this year’s Cup Final series. A clip from Oilers+ showed the silent and defeated emotions in the team’s locker room as the Stanley Cup was being awarded to the Florida Panthers after Game 7. If you also came across a clip on social media with McDavid having his face in tears, and Zach Hyman also in tears saying, “Get the f***ing cameras out of here.”, you understand why their captain rejected the Conn Smythe trophy. I’ve never spoken to the team before, but I’m going to guess they never want to feel that way again. We still need to sit through 82 games before we can talk Playoffs, and then the topic of expectations will, of course, be brought up again. After an offseason of managerial decisions that set fans in an emotional roller coaster, can Edmonton do the same as Florida and make amends for their Cup Final loss? If so, how? The keys to this season are…
Not Everybody Hates Kris: Kris Knoblauch and Paul Coffey took over behind the bench in early November. The results spoke for themselves, and we’re glad to have them back. But how we feel about them is also how we felt about Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson after that midseason coaching change. Will Knoblauch keep his job for a few more seasons, or will he join a long line of Edmonton coaching casualties? Whatever he made work last season, doesn’t substantially change anything.
Pick The Stu: As bad as Jack Campbell was in just the 5 games he started last season, people forget that Stuart Skinner had a worse save percentage when Campbell was sent down to Bakersfield. After Skinner was trusted with the starter’s net, his play and stats improved overtime. In the Playoffs, he would always have a slow start to a series and then was clutch to end it. Calvin Pickard humbled his role as the new backup goalie and even saved the Oilers in Round 2 when Skinner needed a reset. You don’t just need a good goalie, you need a good tandem. Skinner and Pickard were capable in 2023/2024. The question is, are they good enough to repeat even moderate success behind a blueline that got slightly worse?
No More Toilet Seat Hockey PLEASE: Perhaps the last time I bring up Ken Holland’s popular soundbite from 2022. “It’s been up and down like a toilet seat, really”. There is always a time in the regular season when the Oilers forget what sport they’re playing and look like one of the worst teams in the league. Then after about a month and half or two months, they look fine enough to win and still make the Playoffs. Last season, they just got that trend out of the way early. It was weird and depressing at the same time. Having a home-ice advantage in every series is not the be-all and end-all. The games still need to be played, and anything can happen. But maybe that extra home game could’ve come in handy in the Finals. At some point, Edmonton needs to move on from this toxic habit and see some of the values in finishing higher up the standings longer than just Round 1. We just want consistency, that’s it.
