Loss to Avs Shouldn’t Dampen Optimism for Connor McDavid and the Oilers in the Future

It’s a sad day in Alberta’s capital city.

Flags are coming down. Wagers are being paid. Beards are being shaved.

Because the Edmonton Oilers didn’t win the Stanley Cup.

After a gut-wrenching 6-5 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final completed an inglorious weeklong sweep, the franchise in the NHL’s northernmost city won’t be having a parade.

It’s been 31 consecutive seasons since the franchise last hoisted the Stanley Cup when the team won its fifth title in seven years.

So for fans of a certain age, it’s just another unsatisfying spring in the “City of (Ex-)Champions.”

Still, it seems a little different this time around.

Rather than compiling post-mortems with more laundry lists of reasons the team can’t win as currently constructed, those closest to the group are actually suggesting (gasp!) optimism.

Not surprisingly, the biggest reasons wear uniform Nos. 97 and 29.

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Though the dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl captured four scoring titles, three MVPs and four Ted Lindsay Awards, they managed to win just eight playoff games—and one playoff series—across their first six seasons of playing together since McDavid was picked No. 1 overall in 2015.

Certainly shy of the four banners that Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier hung before their partnership ended in 1988.

But stirring series wins over the Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames this spring created the momentum to suggest it can happen again.

At least once—because they’re still a pretty good pair.

Even after a four-game erasure by the Avalanche, both McDavid (33) and Draisaitl (32) are still well ahead in the league’s playoff scoring race thanks to the cartoonish rate at which they’d produced against the Kings and Flames.

That clip was on the heels of an equally absurd season in which they’d finished first and fourth in the league with a combined 233 total points.

And the best news? They’re no longer alone.

Individual accolades notwithstanding, the uptick in Edmontonian positivity has more than a little to do with the sturdier supporting cast assembled by embattled general manager Ken Holland.

Winger Zach Hyman was brought in on a seven-year, $38.5 million deal last summer and paid off with career-highs in goals (27) and points (54).

Evander Kane was plucked from the NHL bargain bin in late January and scored 35 goals in 58 regular/postseason games.

Minor-league coach Jay Woodcroft arrived about two weeks past Kane after Dave Tippett was fired on February 10 and the Oilers responded with a co-league-best 26-9-3 record down the stretch, including a 14-0-1 run across the final 15 home games that was the best in the franchise’s 42-year league history.

In fact, his eight playoff wins are already fifth in its NHL coaching history.

“(He’s) a little bit of a younger voice,” McDavid told The Canadian Press (h/t TheStar.com).

“He’s brought a lot of energy and a lot of passion to the job. We fed off that. The message he preaches is something that I think we all agree with. Something that we all can buy into.”

Woodcroft’s bond with youngsters Ryan McLeod (two goals against Colorado) and Dylan Holloway (NHL debut in Game 4) were forged in AHL days and make them vital pieces as Edmonton heads to an important offseason with an onerous salary cap situation ($7.1 million) and uncertainty in goal and on defense.

Evan Bouchard, 22, and Philip Broberg, 20, both defensemen, could be promoted to full-time, too, potentially giving the team eight of its own first-round picks in the everyday lineup.

The prolific Kane warrants a big boost from the prorated $1.38 million he made with the Oilers through season’s end, and the trio of McLeod, Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto are due for raises as restricted free agents alongside decisions to be made on another eight with unrestricted status.

A deep, skilled Colorado team revealed Edmonton’s soft blue line, with an average of 43.3 shots allowed—following a season with a rate of 32.3 shots (12th-most in the NHL) and overall playoffs with an average of 38.7 shots (fourth-most)—that simultaneously magnified questions in the net.

Forty-year-old starter Mike Smith was statistically sound—2.81 goals-against average and .915 save percentage—for a second straight regular season.

But his inconsistency was never more apparent than in a series-defining Game 3 when a series of spectacular saves was followed by a game-winner by third-line center J.T. Compher that trickled through his legs with 7:18 remaining.

He allowed six goals on 42 shots in the finale—including four in the third period—and finished with a pedestrian .879 save percentage and a downright ugly 5.39 goals-against average. On the flip side, Avalanche backup Pavel Francouz posted a .932 and a 1.97 GAA.

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Smith is signed for one more season at $2.2 million while backup Mikko Koskinen’s three-year, $13.5 million deal is expiring, meaning Holland will have to stand pat, give AHL stalwart Stuart Skinner a shot at the full-time job after a 14-game audition or swing a deal to bring in an established commodity.

It’s a lot for a GM, particularly one who’s 66, to contend with.

And if he doesn’t make the right choices, it won’t be long before familiar fan angst returns.

But while the season’s practical result was similar—no Cup, again—a surprise run to the league’s final four and the continued prolific presence of the world’s best player go a long way toward exorcising a generation of demons.

And providing Holland some additional time to keep the good vibes going.