Western Conference Second Round: (1) Vegas Golden Knights vs (2) Edmonton Oilers

[tweetdrivr]

What a dumb take.

Definitely a good penalty to take. And the timing? Perfection. Your dumb take just cost them the season. Enjoy the golf.

[rataylor22]

13/17 in an elimination game for the all-star is one of the more beautiful things I’ve ever seen in a hockey game.

Nurse played right on par with his true talent level. Expecting more from him is unfair. Expecting him to live up to his contract is copium wishcasting. It’s not his fault for negotiating a good deal though.

Edmonton isn’t going to win until they learn how to play 5v5 and ignore all the bullshit. Will they? Who knows. Pittsburgh did, leading to their 2016 and 2017 wins. They certainly have the talent to. It’s a mental thing at this point.

[doulos]

Definitely a good penalty to take. And the timing? Perfection. Your dumb take just cost them the season. Enjoy the golf.

I don't golf. You just made a dumb take even worse by doubling down on it.

Anyhow, it was Cup or bust for me this year, so it was a let down of a season. Hopefully the experience gained here is iterated on by a lot of the young guys.

Onto next next season.

[Axeman33]

13/17 in an elimination game for the all-star is one of the more beautiful things I’ve ever seen in a hockey game.

Nurse played right on par with his true talent level. Expecting more from him is unfair. Expecting him to live up to his contract is copium wishcasting. It’s not his fault for negotiating a good deal though.

Edmonton isn’t going to win until they learn how to play 5v5 and ignore all the bullshit. Will they? Who knows. Pittsburgh did, leading to their 2016 and 2017 wins. They certainly have the talent to. It’s a mental thing at this point.

Yep.

[2014olympicgold]

Game 1 Vegas Win 6-4:
Vegas - 2/4
Oilers - 2/3

Game 2 Oilers win 5-1:
Vegas - 0/3
Oilers - 3/6

Game 3 Vegas Win 5-1:
Vegas - 0/4
Oilers - 0/2

Game 4 Oilers Win 4-1:
Vegas - 0/4
Oilers - 1/7

Game 5 Vegas Win 4-3:
Vegas - 2/7
Oilers - 3/4

Game 6 Vegas Win 5-2:
Vegas - 0/2
Oilers - 0/1

Series:
Vegas - 2/19 - 10.5%
Oilers - 9/21 - 42.9%

Oilers in wins were 4/13(30.8%), Oilers in losses 5/10(50%). Kinda off tho from that 1/7 game. But You can't say that in a series that averaged 7.4 powerplays per game all of a sudden was under control for only 3powerplays in the final game.

Rulebook is different from series to series, round to round, game to game, period to period, minute to minute. Insane to me. If you built a team that draws penalties and is lethal on the powerplay, it shouldn't be taken from you in the playoffs.

[Feenom]

What a drag, both Leafs and Oil out. Looks like the PP were a non-factor for both teams. Oh well, go Cats!?

[Canucks_fan18]

Game 1 Vegas Win 6-4:

Oilers in wins were 4/13(30.8%), Oilers in losses 5/10(50%). Kinda off tho from that 1/7 game. But You can't say that in a series that averaged 7.4 powerplays per game all of a sudden was under control for only 3powerplays in the final game.

Rulebook is different from series to series, round to round, game to game, period to period, minute to minute. Insane to me. If you built a team that draws penalties and is lethal on the powerplay, it shouldn't be taken from you in the playoffs.

The thing is everyone knows there is less power plays in the playoffs and the reffing tends to be inconsistent. If you build a team around just being lethal on the power play to win a cup your not doing your job. As others have pointed out until they can just ignore the non calls and play tough 5 vs 5, no cups for you!

[2014olympicgold]

The thing is everyone knows there is less power plays in the playoffs and the reefing tends to be inconsistent. If you build a team around just being lethal on the power play to win a cup your not doing your job. As others have pointed out until they can just ignore the non calls and play tough 5 vs 5, no cups for you!

Oh I know. It's a delicate balance because if you don't build it slightly for the special teams battles, you aren't making the playoffs. Which is insane that you need it to make the playoffs, then punt it away once they start...unless it's games 1-3 in rounds because they call penalties then. But ya, it's well known you have to battle through the reffing when the commissioner said there's nothing wrong with reffing. Which...omg is an infuriating sentence to say.

It's so mind blowing how people don't also understand that teams who are good at PPs opens up 5on5 play with the argument of "you can't rely on PPs". It's not really relying on PPs, it's the threat of it that opens up your 5on5 play. Which, to me, is why we have seen like 0 offensive highlights this playoffs. Whatever, the complaints will be made for another 4 weeks, then will go away until April 2024.

[random-d]

McDavid is gonna get Bourqued and it's going to be epic. Edmonton is built like a Bourquable team right now.

[DangerCat]

Definitely a good penalty to take. And the timing? Perfection. Your dumb take just cost them the season. Enjoy the golf.

To be fair you can’t blame one penalty by one player for the downfall of a playoff series. Edmonton blew so many leads including the 2-1 lead they had in game 6. The Vegas defense was phenomenal 5on5 and quite frankly, though I like Skinner and think he has potential to be a good starter in the NHL, Edmonton’s goaltending wasn’t up to par. I don’t think Adin Hill or Brossoit are more talented goalies than Skinner but they played fantastically. I agree with the above comment that Edmonton has to find ways to score 5v5. I still don’t think Edmonton is built to win our top 6 is great but I think we need to find a better offensive forward than Yamo. Our bottom six is better but not great and our defence is not great. Kulak, Ceci and Desharnais are all bottom pairing/7th defenseman.

[Rylant]

For game 6, I think the Oilers outplayed Vegas. They outshot and out hit them. They didn't get the star goaltending that they needed. There was a couple of goofy bounces and Vegas capitalized on them. Hill made some really quality saves.

Overall, Vegas out played the Oilers in the series. Defensively, I don't think the Oilers played horrible. Desharnais was hands down the worst player on both team. Ceci didn't look good defensively. Nurse wasn't brilliant like he can be, but he wasn't bad defensively. He gets more hate than he deserves.

Good Luck Vegas. You deserve to be where you are.

Rylant

[Rylant]

Does anybody know where I can find stats on Time of Possession for the game? Looking for overall time of Possession and Possession in the offensive zone. I looked but can't find it.

Thanks,
Rylant

[lobo1969]

For game 6, I think the Oilers outplayed Vegas. They outshot and out hit them. They didn't get the star goaltending that they needed. There was a couple of goofy bounces and Vegas capitalized on them. Hill made some really quality saves.

Overall, Vegas out played the Oilers in the series. Defensively, I don't think the Oilers played horrible. Desharnais was hands down the worst player on both team. Ceci didn't look good defensively. Nurse wasn't brilliant like he can be, but he wasn't bad defensively. He gets more hate than he deserves.

Good Luck Vegas. You deserve to be where you are.

Rylant

Skinner was sub .900 for the entire playoffs and got pulled in 3 different games. If he was merely providing average goaltending then the outcomes would probably be better. But I'm not trying to scapegoat Skinner. The whole team slipped in effort and execution to probably a B rating during the playoffs where the last 6 months of the regular season they had their A/A+ game blazing along almost every night.
They just couldn't reliably find that gear in the playoffs for whatever reason.

Vegas was just able to be more consistent at a higher level at least for the first 2 series. They definitely got some puck luck and Hill was kissing his goal posts for good luck to win game 6. They better hope it lasts!

[LawMan]

Skinner was sub .900 for the entire playoffs and got pulled in 3 different games. If he was merely providing average goaltending then the outcomes would probably be better. But I'm not trying to scapegoat Skinner. The whole team slipped in effort and execution to probably a B rating during the playoffs where the last 6 months of the regular season they had their A/A+ game blazing along almost every night.
They just couldn't reliably find that gear in the playoffs for whatever reason.

Vegas was just able to be more consistent at a higher level at least for the first 2 series. They definitely got some puck luck and Hill was kissing his goal posts for good luck to win game 6. They better hope it lasts!

Great breakdown. Skinner's numbers were very bad, some of that is on the Oilers team which has defensive lapses, but plenty was on Skinner.
As others have said the Oilers were a Cup or bust team this year, and it sure seemed like the path to the Finals was there. Ultimately the team did not execute enough in key moments and you can only blow leads and come back from deficits some many times before it bites you in the ass.
blowing multiple leads was on Skinner letting in plenty of weak goals. Game 5 was an example of that for sure.
Skinner provided stable goaltending in the regular season, when Campbell was beyond awful, and he earned the starter's spot for the playoffs but he did not do the Oilers any favors in either series.

Even his 1-goal allowed games were more Oilers dominating play in front of him.
Next season will be Campbell and Skinner but it will be interesting to see if Campbell can put his game back together and challenge Skinner more.

[rufio.85]

Aside from the Oilers' shortcomings, Vegas deserves a lot of credit for winning that series.
I thought they did a great job limiting Edmonton's free wheeling play as the series went along, as evidenced by Draisaitl who had only 1 point in the last 4 games.
Very structured, opportunistic and quick on loose pucks. This is a well-coached team.