– The Edmonton Oilers model 2025 is an extremely deep team.
Thus emphasize Jouni NieminenEdmonton living journalist.
Over the last ten years, the Oilers is known as the non-so-deep, starring attacking machine by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, two Hart and Art Ross winners.
The situation has certainly changed. Today’s Oilers defends high quality and throbbing with four attack cylinders.
Behind the Star Distor Connor Brown, Adam Henrique and Corey perry They have hit the board on the board at least in relation to their account ribbons.
– In decisive games, all the chains scored against Dallas Stars, Nieminen recalls.
– The Vegas Golden Knights managed to keep Edmonton’s famous superiority game and McDavid and Draisaitl. Still, Vegas fell in five matches, like Dallaskin.
GM know-how
Edmonton Oilers have lost only two of their fourteen last playoffs. Aop
The defense has quality and diverse expertise.
– gm Stan Bowman Has invested in the same way as in Chicago in building championship teams in defense that can move the puck up quickly.
Number one Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm are a complementary super standard. Bouchard is beautifully designed by a highly attacked defender, Ekholm’s sturdy everywhere.
– Fans are frustrated with Bouchard during the regular season, but no one remember when he plays a crucial role in the playoffs, Nieminen sums up.
– Bouchard is a defender who always raises his level in playoffs.
Bouchard leads the playoffs in the playoffs, but even more impressive information grain can be found in all -time statistics. Of the defenders, the tougher point per game per game -Playoff reading can only be presented Bobby orrNorris magnet of Boston Bruins.
GM skills skill can be found in the third pair: John Klingberg and Jake Walman.
A few years ago, Klingberg shone as the Dallas Stars YV engine. After a circular piece and a severe injury, he plays a great third puck at the NHL meter almost free.
Walman’s Oilers picked up San Jose Shar from the transfer limit. He has become the main power of the Pakisto in the playoffs: 15 matches, six points and power rates +12.
– Against Dallas, Edmonton defenders were able to retrieve the reels at the end and turn to the openings, Nieminen says.
– Now, against the hard -haired Florida, this situation is changing.
“Pronger principle”
Florida Panthers, who flooded with Finnish expertise, tries to sand Connor McDavid in the finals series. Aop
There is a final session ahead of last spring. The Oilers encounters the Florida Panthers, the reigning champion, who Nieminen calls the “Bad Boys group of hockey”.
– Panthers play Chris Pronger Following the old principle: in every exchange and in every situation, they are played so bravely that the judges can not allow everyone to cool. It has worked great until now, Nieminen says.
-The Oilers is a physical team that is not won by anything other than a physical game, as seen in the Dallas series. The Panthers will drive the goalkeeper and take McDavid and other important players as hard grips.
Panthers Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand and Matt Tkachuk There are prominent attackers who play always on the border and often cross the border.
– If someone has regretted their minds of the outrageous ones, it is even worse – or better if there is a Panthers supporter.
A year ago, the Oilers pushed three wins to the levels of the series, but the Panthers took a bun in Game Seven at home.
– The loss in the seventh game with one goal has been involved throughout the season’s Oilers, and it has been raised now as a second -spring replica, Nieminen knows.
– Even in a well -known documentary, a film about the grieving locker room of the Oilers, where Zach Hyman With the power words, we swear by his team that we will return here in a year, has appeared.
Finns of the finals
Edmonton Oilers: Kasperi Kapanen.
Florida Panthers: Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, Niko Mikkola and assistant coach Tuomo Ruutu.
“The best place”
The Oilers started the playoffs with two losses, but when the oiled machine rumbled properly, La Kings, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars went into a holiday department.
– The team’s operations are clearly cold, not the same roller coaster of emotions as a year or a few years ago, Nieminen estimates.
– The celebration, for example, at the end of the conference final, was restrained. The goal is in a different trophy.
Edmonton pulsates with the Oilers jug. Tickets flutter on car windows on match days, and people are already in their workplace.
Nieminen talks about the People’s Festival – and something that “once unites citizens”.
– The tour of the round is more of a nation on the streets to celebrate during and after matches. This is especially evident in the Ice District, built next to the Rogers Place Hall, which was completed ten years ago.
Nieminen has been following the North American reel since 1998. He is currently operating as an NHL correspondent on the Athletic site.
-Edmonton is the best place to experience a playoff match throughout the NHL as to the mood in the hall itself-and I’m not the only one who says that, Nieminen says.
– In Edmonton, the audience is proven to be younger, and there are more expensive people who bought their tickets with their own money than anywhere else in the NHL. It brings the mood.
Frustration?
Oilers switched from WHL to NHL in the summer of 1979, rose Wayne Gretzky With the leadership of the 1980s and celebrated the Stanley Cup five times: 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990.
After the dynasty years, the oil people have not been able to celebrate, but there have been two finals before this: 2006 and 2024.
Are there frustration in Edmonton, with 35 years since the last encouragement and the best player in the world is unable to take their troops to the finish?
– Not really. The prairies are called Tomorrow Country. People here have an optimistic attitude to life. The people have always encouraged and remained positive, though sometimes the Oilers Kynti deep and was out of the playoffs for ten years, Nieminen replies.
– Here it is understood that this is a team game. Although McDavid is the number one star, the American -style worship of one player is not the same. As a team is won, as a team is lost.
Jari Kurri and Esa Tikkanen are gigantic pieces in the Oilers history. Kurri celebrated all the Stanley Cups of the club, the last four Tikkins
– The five -star hotel halls next to Rogers Place are named after the players. Wayne Gretzky Ballroom is the largest, Jari Kurr’s second largest and Mark Messier The third largest, Nieminen says.
– McDavid can be won by the Stanley Cup as if to get its name among these legends.
“A real wizard”
Edmonton Oilers have been seeking power from last spring’s final disappointment. AOP / USA SPORTS Today
Big Question: Can Oilers be able to push Alexander Barkov Directed by the Panthers train full of rock hard and masterful players?
No, anticipates Nieminen.
-I believe Florida will win its second Stanley Cup championship with its excellent coach Paul Maurice Defense -based tactics and a tough game to soften the opponent as the series progresses.
In the same breath, Nieminen praises the first season in the first NHL head coaching bar Kris Knoblauch.
– Knoblauch is a real wizard in match coaching, Nieminen says.
-He shines in playoffs in important confrontation, mixes pack and changes more than any NHL coach I see Scotty Bowman Including – and sometimes his bold moves always seem to succeed in the button.
The first match of the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers finals will be played on Thursday at 3.05am.