Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
I agree.
But the sad thing is, I actually do think McDavid will be good enough in a couple of seasons to be the type of player that can guide a team to the Stanley Cup on his shoulders. Whether it will happen is anyone's guess, but the hockey gods never cease to kick us in the nuts and enable that arrogant fan base.
Not being from Calgary and living in what was basically an NHL no-man's land, it is the reason why I gravitated towards the Flames back in the 1980s. Thirty years later and after 11 years of the Oilers losing, you would think that they would become humbled a little, but nope.
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I would argue that if your first was true Crosby would have a cup ring on every finger on both hands.
Having a generational player and a good player isn't enough anymore, we saw what the Ducks did to McDavid, they put his hip into the outside lane and took away the neutral zone, and while Draisaitl was very good (8 million dollars good) its not enough.
Its tough to win the Stanley Cup now because you literally need every player from 2nd line to 4th line to blue line to contribute and play their roles slightly above their heads.
We had what I would consider to be a real close to generational player in Iggy for how many years and the biggest problem was finding the supporting cast.
The problem with Edmonton is two fold
1) Their supporting cast didn't support their three really good players in the playoffs and in the end only two of those three, Talbot and Draisaitl had an impact. The argument at the start of the season where the Oilers didn't have good depth came to fruition in the second round, when the Ducks took away one of the three and 7 game series wise matchup wise, this series would have been a blow out if not for Talbot
2) The cap situation is going to further erode the Oilers depth and they don't have a lot of cheap good prospects right now that can fill in and contribute. That's going to take saavy drafting and trades of players like RNH and Eberle to fix, and frankly outside of Chia's trade for Talbot, his moves have been really suspect as have his contract signings.
Oh and there's a third fold
3) The Oilers were very shark like, they played well in the regular season where teams are more generic in their game planning, but after they played a battered Sharks team that is in dire need of a youth movement, they played a team that had that extra gear in the playoffs and the Oilers were really fortunate that the series got as far as it did.
I expect that the Oilers will lose a chunk of depth this year. Eberle and Russell for example will probably be gone and RNH will probably be moved if they can do it properly. I also expect that the transition from hunter to hunted is going to be difficult for the Oilers.
Its too soon to be making predictions, but I expect that the Oilers will be fairly dormant in free agent signings because of the McDavid contract. But I also expect that a loss of depth is going to occur, and the Oilers will have a Flames playoff effect where everything won't go as perfectly and they'll slide down to bubble team territory.