Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
It's a 32 team league, getting to the finals isn't easy. Winning a Cup is even harder.
If you have to sacrifice 4 years at the back end of the deal you do it if you think it gives you 3 or 4 good looks at a championship. There really was no other option.
He wasn't good in the finals but his career playoff pace over 82 games is 45 goals and 120 points.
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I was under the impression of 'you have to lose to learn to win'. I looked at the SCF for 19 years. The number of teams that lost in the SCF and went on to win it all is 4. FOUR. Of those, 2 lost in the SCF and won it 5, FIVE, years later so that may not even really count. Pittsburgh lost then won the next year (and won 7 & 8 years later as well). Florida lost then won the next year. That is it over 19 years. The idea the oylaz will be back in the finals is a pipe dream. 14 of 18 teams did not make it back to the final after losing in the final. Of the 19 losers only the Oilers (twice HaHa) and the Tampa Bay Lightning were losers more than once (twice after winning it twice in a row).
There are a lot of other teams out there. They are all trying to improve. As has been said a lot, the Oilers, at best, stayed even. I dont think this gives nearly enough credit to chemistry, juju, lighting in a bucket, or whatever it is that gets a team to the final but removing 6 players does not help to recreate whatever it was that got them there.
10 of the 19 cups were won by Penguins 3, Blackhawks 3, Kings 2, TBL 2.
Of the winning teams, only Boston made it back to a final after winning in 2011 but lost in 2013 and 2019 and TBL lost in 2022 after winning twice in 20 and 21.
It is obvious why the muliple winners won. Now overlay their star's ages with when they won.
That the Oilers got there was a miracle. That they will get there again, in the next two years, with their two stars at post-apex, and minimal supporting cast, is fanciful at best.