This Series Has Redemption Written All Over It For Oilers Forward Connor Brown
There is no doubt that if you asked Connor Brown if he thought his regular season was a success he would tell you it wasn't, but if he can find success now all will be forgiven by fans.
When it comes to being the whipping boy of a Canadian NHL team, Connor Brown earlier this season was one of the worst cases I have seen in the regular season. After being the big free agent signing for the Edmonton Oilers this offseason Brown's bonus-laden contract has been a real sore spot for OIlers fans.
Although his base cap hit is not so bad at $775,000, it was the bonus structure that really annoyed Oilers fans more. The bonus stated that Brown would make an additional $3.225 million if he played over 10 games. Up to the 9th game, Brown had not contributed anything to the Oilers and hadn't played very well at all.
And when it comes to Oilers fans a cap hit fans can be extra brutal, just ask Darnell Nurse. So now that Brown's bonus money will be put on next year's cap the fans really didn't care for him to be on the ice. That was up till the playoffs came around and he all of a sudden started playing much better.
As an Oiler fan, I hear less and less people talking about that money now that Brown is playing good, solid hockey. All it took was for Brown to score a couple of goals in the playoffs for the fans to forget about everything that made them mad in the regular season.
There is still one more way for Brown to completely rid himself of the haters and that would be to play his best hockey in this Stanley Cup Final Series. If Brown can contribute to this team's eventual path the hoist the cup then all will be forgotten. Oilers fans can be mean but they are also very forgiving if you redeem yourself on the ice.
Now people may not be so happy with his cap hit come the offseason, but if the Oilers are able to lift the cup at the end of this series and Connor Brown has helped in any way to make it possible he will be treated like a hero around Edmonton, as will the rest of the Edmonton Oilers players no matter what words we may have yelled at our TV's this season.