Edmonton Tampa would be a killer final.

NYI>BOS?
Not sure bout OTT > BOS either

I think Boston makes the playoffs, Ottawa doesn’t. Boston is most likely could be getting Marchand,macvoy and grzelcyk back by December. Boston also has soild goaltending and still pretty good offence and there defence well it’s questionable if there missing 2 main guys. So I say they make the playoffs

Cup finals McDavid and Drai would be f-ing scary, watch em drop 20 points in 7 games each

With Boston's injuries I am pretty confident in that. Ottawa is loaded with talent, and the Islanders always perform when slept on, just had a very flukie year for good reasons.

Idk about that vs Playoff Vasy,Hedman & Sergachev

Colorado's offense was able to solve Vasy, Edmonton has a similarly strong offense to Colorado, if they can keep the puck out of their net this would be an awesome series

Edmonton also crumbled against The Av’s defence

Ain’t no way you think the islanders are a playoff team in the division of death 💀

Makar - Toews definitely gave the boys a run for their money, but the biggest problem was choking leads, giving up easy goals, and Francouz had a couple of games where he played pretty insane

They had 13 combined in 4 games vs Colorado and got swept. No team can shut those two down, but the rest of the team makes them beatable.

Have the Oilers gotten all that much better as a team? I personally don't see it. But i guess maybe if Bouchard and Broberg take some big leaps.

Draisaitl scored 1.50 P/GP against the Avs and McDavid scored 1.75 P/GP.

Edmonton as a group had nearly twice as many High Danger Chances/60 as Tampa did against Colorado, they had 56% more Expected Goals and 33% more actual goals. That's hardly crumbling!!

You don't think goaltending is better? Also, the Avs have gotten much worse over the summer in key areas.

Bouchard having someone like Nurse or Kulak as his pairing over Keith will help,
Plus Campbell, while he is inconstant, is still an upgrade over Smith, Skinner played very well last season in his small sample size

I don't think they are cup favorites but I definitely believe they are a top 5-6 team in the league, team has a lot of potential, gotta hope the young d-men step it up

Also have a pretty deep defensive prospect pool that we can pull from in case of injury

And Smith was injured throughout - so much so that he'll likely never play another NHL game.

I'm not sure goaltending is better tbh. If Campbell is the guy he was at the start of last year, then it might be way better. But if he's the guy he was by the end of the year (and in the playoffs), then it's pretty lateral. It doesn't seem like a sure thing.

I agree that Colorado got worse, mainly due to Kadri's departure, but they'll also have a healthy Girard and more seasoned Byram and Newhook. But that's more of an aside for this conversation. I still personally look at the Oilers roster and think their depth and backend isn't there yet. I could be wrong, but that's my take. Even great players like McDavid and Drai (and even when they're dialed in) need the depth guys to pull off a few wins in a long playoff run.

This narrative is fairly common on this site, but it's so far from the truth I seriously wonder whether people actually watched the series or whether they just looked at the headlines after it was over.

Here's how each of Colorado's opponents fared against the eventual Cup Champions during the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring. All numbers are 5v5 play.

CF/60
NAS: 51.55
STL: 43.64
EDM: 62.13
TBL: 49.77

SF/60
NAS: 29.24
STL: 24.50
EDM: 32.01
TBL: 23.39

GF/60
NAS: 1.81
STL: 2.30
EDM: 3.45
TBL: 2.60

xGF/60
NAS: 2.04
STL: 1.82
EDM: 2.72
TBL: 1.74

SCF/60
NAS: 21.71
STL: 18.37
EDM: 29.18
TBL: 23.79

HDCF/60
NAS: 9.95
STL: 6.89
EDM: 15.06
TBL: 8.99

The Oilers were NOT stifled by Colorado's defense, they were undone mainly by their own injured goaltending.

You're forgetting that Smith was injured in that series, an injury severe enough that he likely won't play at all this year. Campbell most definitely is better than injured Mike Smith.

I envy your confidence, but I'm not as comfortable with Campbell as you are. I really don't think they were just a Jack Campbell (or healthy Smith as the case may be) away from being a Cup team. We'll see though.

They likely weren't last year. But this year they aren't facing the 21-22 Avs. Incremental improvements put them up with any 22-23 team IMO.

Isles beating the Canes, now that’s funny.

Are people really that high on Ottawa?

They are a team with a core built to make the playoffs. It won't be easy but I believe in that group.

Just my opinion, not much else I can say.

Yeah, I understand rooting for your favorite team. Got to love unbridled optimism when you see it.