NHL Playoffs 2017: 5 reasons Oilers can win Stanley Cup
By David Rouben
It’s been 11 years since the Edmonton Oilers even made the NHL playoffs but now that they’re in, they’ve got what it takes to win the Stanley Cup.
The 2016-17 NHL season has been kind to Canadian teams. A year after nobody from Canada made the playoffs, all but two the nation’s teams are in this year. The first one to clinch a playoff spot was the Edmonton Oilers who, coming into the season, had the longest playoff drought out of all seven Canadian teams.
This year, it’s a different story. Connor McDavid has made the leap to become one of the NHL’s elite players, and his team finished with 103 points. While it’s easy to think that the Oilers are a one-man show, no player is good enough to carry a team this far. They’re deeper than you think, and their defense is incredibly stingy.
Will all of that translate to a Stanley Cup win? It’s hard to say, given that the playoffs are always a crapshoot, but they have as good a chance as the other 15 teams. Here is why the Oilers can end decades worth of misery and give Edmonton its first Stanley Cup since the Mark Messier era.
5. Cam Talbot has had a historic season
Goaltending is everything in the playoffs. But goalies have to be counted on to steal a game, and Cam Talbot has proven that he can do that this year.
Talbot hasn’t had a Ben Scrivens-like performance for the Oilers, but he has been consistent across the board. He’s got a 2.39 goals against average, a save percentage of .919, and seven shutouts. He’s also played 73 games, which means he can handle the workload of an upper-echelon goalie.
But the biggest stat for Talbot is the number of wins. He has 42 on the season, and broke Grant Fuhr’s record for most in a campaign when he collected his 41st against the San Jose Sharks. It’s tempting to disparage that by saying it’s easy to rack up wins with McDavid on your team, but he’s not wholly responsible.
More often than not, Talbot has provided a steady presence in net. He’s far from the best goalie in these playoffs, but he can be relied upon as a last line of defense. And if the Chicago Blackhawks could win two Cups with Corey Crawford, why can’t the Oilers win one with Cam Talbot?