Edmonton Oilers: The Season Ends With No Wins And No Words
By Jim Lynch
Once again, Edmonton Oilers fans have to talk about how this loss pushes them one step closer to being a top playoff team. Once again fans have to look at the regular season and try and forget about the playoff performance that ended all too soon.
Once again, there really are no words to describe the Edmonton Oilers.
Not many teams in the NHL can have arguably the two best players in the entire league. The Oilers have both Connor McDavid, the Art Ross Trophy winner, and Leon Draisaitl, the winner in 2019-20. A team with two clutch leaders like McDavid and Draisaitl should have a better finish than a sweep in the first round, but here we are.
It is going to be a long off-season for the Oilers. Not only is most of their roster on expiring contracts, but with the expansion draft looming the team is going to lose somebody. Plus who knows whether or not starting goalie Mike Smith has another year in him, or if he even wants to stay with a team that couldn’t find an OT goal in three straight games while he stood on his head.
I guess that is one important thing to remember. These games were close. Game one was a one-goal game until the Jets put in the empty netters, while games two through four were all decided in OT. All the Oilers needed was one bounce in each of those games and all of a sudden they are up three to one in the series. That might be a little too optimistic though.
It is a long off-season ahead, and just like there were a lot of questions during the series, there are even more questions now. Was the success in the regular season really an indication of the team? How much longer will Connor McDavid put up with this? What kind of moves does this team make this off-season to propel themselves in the future?
It was a really fun regular season for this team, and we are going to be talking about season reviews and talking about next season during the coming months. For now, though there are just no words to describe the disappointment from the first-round sweep.