Unfortunate Outcome For Oilers, McDavid Wins Conn Smythe

First of all Oilers fans, I want to let you know it absolutely is gut-wrenching to write the final post-game article of the season. After the past couple of months, we have all grinded along as this Edmonton Oilers team took us on some massive highs followed by what right now is the lowest low. The weird thing for me personally is after game 3 I made my peace with the Oilers losing in the cup final, but then this team dragged themselves back into the series and lifted me back up. I think that is why this fall at the end hurts so badly.

As I mentioned above the Oilers were pencilled in to lose this series as soon as they went down 3-0 versus the Florida Panthers and while they eventually did lose they put up one heck of a fight to get back in this series. In my article I wrote earlier today, I was concerned that we never got to see the Panthers back against the wall and tonight they played like they needed to win.

For the Oilers, they should be leaving the rink tonight with their heads held high. They played a good game tonight, but in a 2-1 game the smallest of things can move the needle and tonight the breaks just didn't go the Oilers' way. It was not all bad news for the Oilers though as Connor McDavid, not surprisingly, won the Conn Smythe.

We all have seen the numbers that McDavid put up this postseason run, but if you were to ask him there is only one award he wants to win and tonight he was unable to hoist it, but we all have seen McDavid for 9 years and he is only going to use this loss as fire to push him further in his career. So if I were the rest of the NHL, I would be extremely worried about this Oilers team moving forward.

For some teams they are itching to begin the offseason, for the Oilers it will be a very quick turnaround as the draft and free agency are within a week. The Oilers have lots of things to figure out by then, but as much as this loss kills us, the Oilers finished 2nd in a league of 32 teams which is impressive.