Stanley Cup Obstacles For The Edmonton Oilers

This is a trophy that could very easily belong to the Oilers at the end of this season. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but you have to think the Oilers are very strong candidates. They’re in a win-now mode in their development. They’ve certainly learned lessons from their losing – in the last four seasons, they’ve lost once in the play-in series, once in the first round, once in the second round, and once in the third round.

Everyone on the Oilers is gearing up for a “Cup or bust” mentality, as the Deutschland Dangler put it.

But it’s not a sure thing by any means. Other teams are in win-now mode as well and will try to knock the Oilers off their pedestal.

Let’s look at who stands in the Oilers way of the Cup.

1. Vegas Golden Knights

There’s only one team in the division capable of knocking the Oilers off their quest to get out of the division on their way to the Cup, and that’s the GKs.

Fortunately, they will be a bit more mortal next season – I already wrote a fair amount about them here so I won’t be writing too much more about them.

I see three reasons that the Knights are eminently beatable this year – 1) Cup hangover. It’s very hard to repeat as Cup champions in large part because playoff hockey gives the players’ bodies a big beating, so even when they do their offseason workouts it’s not uncommon for them to come back next season less energized and ready, needing a longer offseason of hitting the reset button before they can play up their their best once more.

2) The loss of Reilly Smith may affect the Knights more than it looks on paper. Ivan Barbashev is his replacement, and although he’s capable he’s not quite as good defensively as Smith. That still might come back to haunt them. 3) The goaltending tandem. Don’t get me wrong, both Hill and Thompson had strong seasons last year but both have to prove they can do it again in their careers. Hill was a career backup until last season, and Thompson was a rookie last season who has to prove he’s not the next flash in the pan like ex-Washington Capital Jim Carey.

One or both of these players could easily fall on their faces next season until they play the games and prove otherwise. If the worst case scenario happens the Knights are in trouble.

That being said, the Knights are the cup champions until the last game of next season so you can never truly count them out.

If the Oilers disappoint and do not even get out of the division this season, it will be because of the Knights.

Sorry LA, the Kings are playoff contenders but not Cup contenders to me. They won’t be until they can get over the hump and get less questionable goalies.