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9 Reasons that despite a disappointing playoff result @EdmontonOilers fans should relax and not listen to the hot takes about how bad the team is...
1) After two poor seasons out of the playoffs they took a big step forward and were top 5 in the conference in the regular season while still relying on a young core of players.
2) A best-of-five playoff series while important experience and worth analyzing, is also a remarkably small sample size and doesn’t itself erase the progress made my a strong season on the whole. Games 3 and 4 easily could have gone either way as well.
3) For the constant talk of D being a weak spot they have very exciting young depth at the position. Klefbom (26), Larsson (26), Benning (25), Nurse (24), Lagesson (23), Bear (22), Jones (22), Bouchard (19) and Broberg (19). The present & future is bright on D. Lacks experience.
4) For the constant talk of being a “two man team” up front they had an outstanding season from RNH at a point-per-game and Yamamoto was a point-per-game player after his call up. Some depth players had good seasons too. Neal and Chiasson were very effective on the PP.
5) For all the fingers pointed at goaltending and Koskinen having a bad contract he actually had a very fine season that had him tied for 15th in the league in save percentage with Crawford and Vasilevskiy. I also thought he was fine in playoffs if not a difference maker.
6) The new management and coaching staff has proven to be generally quite competent with some nice smaller additions that helped move things in the right direction. Deadline deals didn’t end up helping as much as hoped, but they were logical low risk moves. So far, so good.
7) McDavid and Draisaitl were two of the top ten players in the league this season at only 23 and 22. They are still getting better and both were able to drive production from their own lines. They can and will make improvements defensively. They’re an embrassment of riches.
8) If this organization hadn’t been so directionless for a decade before the last four years people wouldn’t overreact so much. Put the current era in the proper context. It has nothing to do with the one that came before it.
9) There are a number of exciting prospects coming and a first round pick that will be much higher than they’d have received for their actual finish. We can overrate prospects, but that is still reason for more optimism.
Those are just a few things. I know there are flaws and big improvements to make before the Oilers are a legit cup contender... but this isn’t the bad old days all over again. It’s a good young team who had a bad playoff result. In the right context we should still be optimistic