Connor McDavid Changes Everything In Edmonton
9 years ago at this time we were revelling in the fact that the Edmonton Oilers had made the NHL playoffs, and a Cup Final appearance.
That playoff run was one that changed the Edmonton Oilers as a whole. After losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Cup Finals that Oilers team disbanded and the organization fell into the dark days.
Last night however, changes everything.
They did it, they actually won the NHL lottery. I’ve jokingly been saying for sometime that we would win it, but I never really expected it to happen.
I began watching hockey and following the NHL after the lockout, so one of my first hockey memories was the devastating feeling of watching the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup. Since then, it has been 9 long, tough years.
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Living in Calgary, I am currently faced with having to see people in Flames jerseys obnoxiously cheering day in and day out. So for the Oilers to now be able to have a player like Connor McDavid immediately reignites the stagnant “Battle of Alberta”.
McDavid is Moses, who is about to part the red sea and help carry the Oilers back into relevancy.
The feeling of having McDavid is absolutely euphoric. There is no other words to describe the level of excitement I have for the upcoming season, as well as the next 10.
HATERS GONNA HATE
Pour it on baby. The Oilers have forever been the most hated team, no matter what we do.
Outside of the people in Edmonton, everybody hated the Oilers in the 80’s. Gretzky, Moose, Kurri, Coffey, Anderson, Lowe, Fuhr, Huddy and Semenko would wear you down so much that you would fail. The depth on those teams of the 80’s were too good to be true, and now that the Oilers have McDavid we could see ourselves getting back to similar levels of depth.
“It would be a dream come true. It would be a great situation to be in. They’ve had a couple tough years but the support they receive is amazing and I think that speaks volumes to the fans support they have in Edmonton. And obviously the group of guys they have there is pretty special. If it happens to be me they select with the pick, it would be a tremendous honour to step in with a group of talent like that,” said Connor McDavid, mentioning Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov.“If I’m selected there it would be amazing. It would be a an absolute honour,” he added.– Terry Jones, Edmonton Sun
THE RIPPLE EFFECT
TSN hockey panel discuss 6 ways Oilers will benefit from winning draft lottery, coverage continues on TSN1 & TSN3 pic.twitter.com/V8kcCwWYwt
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) April 19, 2015
The Oilers rebuild has been expedited greatly by what has happened in the last day. Connor McDavid is going to bring an unbelievable amount of hype to Edmonton.
Finally, fans have something to truly look forward to at the beginning of the season. Lots of work is yet to be done though as there are glaring needs in the net, and on the blueline.
McDavid brings a ripple effect that will be felt across the NHL. As TSN notes in the embedded tweet above, the Oilers benefit immediately in a number of ways.
In my opinion, the true beauty of it is that Edmonton will now be near the top of the list for the high end free agents that are available. No longer will we have the struggle of bringing in players, even ones that could have No Trade Clauses. There are so many options out there for the Oilers to take, and anything is now possible.
This summer we here at Oil on Whyte will look at all of those possibilities.