Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
I will agree the top line and goaltending favors the Oil right now but everything else favors The Flames
|
Agreed.
The top line and goaltending can win you games, so I can see where a lot of Oiler fanboys would give the edge to the Oil based on that alone, but many games over a season and post-season are won by sound defence and depth, and the Flames have a pretty large advantage there (3M, and Calgary's blue line are huge assets that are getting frankly overlooked). Also when Johnny and Mony are on, they're together as impactful as a McDavid in gamebreaking situations. They haven't been at that level as often this past season though, so a lot depends on them returning to form.
Smith is no slouch, and he has a much better D in front of him than Talbot has, so in the end it sort of balances out how the teams compare behind the blue line. Betting on Talbot being as inhuman as he was for a consecutive season to compensate for the holes in their defence is walking on pretty thin ice I would say.
There are as many reasons to doubt the Oilers and see a fall this year as there are to expect them to fulfill these high expectations being thrown out there.