HOCKEY: In the Box with Brent Oliver
King Me
Holy shit, we’re in the playoffs! With home ice advantage! On a crazy home winning streak! Can anything bring Brent and the City back down to earth? Well, probably a road win by the LA Kings.
Brent Oliver is here to preview the series matchup with the Los Angeles Kings vs your Edmonton Oilers in this week’s edition of In the Box, brought to you by Home & Away YEG – right across from Rogers Place.
April Powers Bring May Showers
Huh. Didn’t see that one coming. Nine straight home game wins for the Oilers, and Mike Smith has been unbelievable since turning 40 at the end of March. Two shutouts to go along with some very solid performances and a goals against average under one makes Smith the number one goalie going into this year’s playoffs.
Did anyone see this run coming? The change of coaches on paper seemed like a great move, but a couple small moves at the trade deadline didn’t feel like the team was markedly better in any significant way. Then, low and behold, they just started winning, and winning, and winning. The Oilers adopted big Ben Stetler, a 5 year old cancer patient as inspiration and to make all of us cry from the adorable footage of him on the ice and at games. (He’s in Disneyland right now, so maybe this is gonna work out then the Oil hit the coast for Game 3 on Friday… anyways, I digress).
McDavid has won the Art Ross, again – and Draisaitl needs to win the Hart (fuck you Matthews) again being one of only three players in 25 years to score 55 goals and have 55 assists. Solid supplementary line scoring from the likes of Yamamoto (20 goals), Hyman (he’s busting!), Devin Shore and more plugers playing above their heads has been a welcome sight and propelled this team into the 2nd place finish, and home ice in the first round. But – all this needs to be tossed out the back window – because it all starts again tonight.
Oil Kings
So guess who’s back? Todd McClellan. Remember him? Todd was supposed to be the coach to turn the Oilers woes around a few years ago when he was hired after being super successful in San Jose; a theme he has repeated this year in LA. Anyone remember Todd’s assistant coach at that time? Oh right. It was Jay Woodcroft.
While likely not the biggest story of this first round, I think everyone should watch some of the coaching decisions to see which team leader thinks they have the upperhand since they know each other so well.
Bring Me the Head of Anze Kopitar
So how is this series going to play out? Basically, the Oilers have a very good chance of winning, if they don’t beat themselves. And the last few years – the Oilers have beaten themselves until they’re raw and scratchy and need some Vaseline.
Last year against the Jets was a game 3 meltdown, coupled with being on the losing end of a bunch of 1 goal games and the year before was another shit show in the bubble against Chicago. The bottom line is that the Oilers have all the tools to dominate in this series – shutting down the Kings top forwards, and a Drew Doughty-less defense core should be ripe for the picking. That all being said, does anyone expect Mike Smith to be rock solid for four to seven games? Probably not. Regardless, a very fast euro-style Kings team squaring off against the Oilers should be at the very least fun, unless we lose a couple and most of Edmonton wants to cut themselves.
The Connor McDavid Player of the Week Award
It’s Connor. He finished with 122 points. Jesus Fuck he’s good.
Predicsh (Stanley Cup Edition)
We’ll expand on Predicsh a bit this week since, well – it’s fun to be dumb and think you know what’s going to happen in the playoffs. Here we go:
Oilers beat Kings – 4-1
Mike Smith doesn’t completely fall apart and the dynamic duo average 3 points a game.
Oilers beat Calgary – 4-3
Yeah I said it. A seven game, Battle of Alberta series that should ignite the province and have everyone ignore anything else that’s happening in their lives in mid-May. The Oilers pull it off with a last minute Hyman goal against Jakob Markstrom at the Saddledome.
Oilers beat Avalanche – 4-2
Before you decide I’m a complete homer (I’m not, just wait), the Oilers destroyed the Avs their last game, and got delicious loser points in the two previous games. The Avs are clearly a juggernaut, but after beating Calgary – the Oilers have enough steam to head to the finals
Panthers beat Oilers – 4-2
Told you I’m not a homer… The Florida Panthers games I’ve watched this year, and players I’ve owned on plenty of fantasy teams have shown me that these guys are a special team (not “Florida Man” special – like “regular” special). They’ll beat the Lightning and Bruins on their way to the final (YOU HEARD ME, LEAFS FANS) and play the 1982 Islanders role of schooling the young-ish Oilers with their first trip to the finals since 2006.
They’ll learn. They’ll be hungry. They’ll be back.
BOLD! Brent calls a trip to the finals even before the puck is dropped on game one tonight at Rogers Place at 8:15 pm. He plans on pre-napping each game to be able to stay up and watch live at his advanced age. Thoughts and ridicules can be lodged on Facebook and Twitter @inthebox
See you next week – In The (playoffs) Box.
