OK Hockey Fans

[ssgross]

I really wanted Edmonton to win. Before anyone calls me a traitor for not rooting for the USA team - go look at how many American's play for Edmonton, and how many Canadians play for Florida, then go pound sand.

I was out of town for work the first part of this week, so at lunch today I was thumbing through the newspapers I missed. Tuesday's paper's sports headline infuriates me, with an AP article by Stephen Whyno "Oilers waiting for McDavid to reach 'another level'. Got to be kidding me. Has he even watched any of the playoffs or the regular season? The vast majority of goals scored by the Oilers in the post season has been when the coaching staff shuffled lines mid-game to put McDavid and Draisaitl on the same line in order to come back from behind. Whyno uses Florida coach Maurice's statement that "The Panthers have defended McDavid and Draisaitl 'reasonably well'" as ammo for the headline, but doesn't finish Maurice's statement where he acknowledges that they are unstoppable together. Edmonton's wins in the finals were from behind, and were obtained with this mid-game shuffle pairing McDavid with Draisaitl. Sorry, Whyno, the Oilers lost because the Edmonton coaching staff had their heads up each other's #** at the start. And 4 games out of 6 when they finally came up for air it was too late. Edmonton chose to lower their peak ability by "averaging" over their two top lines and failed to acknowledge this average was in a deficit with the Florida intense defensive game. Connor McDavid is the greatest technically skilled player in the NHL right now by far, and the Oilers have the most technically sound game as a team. Their coaching staff set them up for failure in the finals and got beat, not the players. I do acknowledge that Florida plays the most intensive game of any other team in the NHL. With 3 overtimes (one double) in the first 4 games, I was on the edge of my seat with every comeback. Heck of show they both put on - and hats off to Florida for pulling it off.

Edmonton - Keep your team. It's the greatest in the game right now. Fire your coaches. That's my arm-chair GM opinion, and my rant is now over.