{"id":18770,"date":"2026-04-25T00:54:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/18770\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T00:54:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:54:47","slug":"oilers-mailbag-is-the-stanley-cup-window-already-closed-in-edmonton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/18770\/","title":{"rendered":"OILERS MAILBAG: Is the Stanley Cup window already closed in Edmonton?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each week, we check in with our readers on social media and e-mail to see what\u2019s on top of their mind, explore the hot topics of conversation and answer hard-hitting questions about the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>. Here are some of the talking points from the past week:<\/p>\n

Hi. This ain\u2019t your drunk uncle\u2019s Edmonton Oilers<\/a> team. The window was small and it passed. This is a team on the decline.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jari the Hutt (@kurri_jari on x.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

What gave it away? The fact the Oilers finished with 93 points this season, their lowest total since 2021, before said window was opened enough for the Stanley Cup to fit through.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the same roster that brought the Oilers to last year\u2019s Cup Final. Just like that roster wasn\u2019t the same one that brought them to the Cup Final the previous year. We didn\u2019t know they had it in them until they proved it by getting there. Just like we don\u2019t know the extent of what this one is capable of.<\/p>\n

But we do recognize the potential is there for them to take another deep run. Connor McDavid<\/a>. Leon Draisaitl. The league\u2019s top power play. A revamped defence that seems to have smartened up some down the playoff stretch. Goaltending that can, in fact, \u201cmake the save.\u201d All the pieces are there. The playoff puzzle just needs to be put together.<\/p>\n

The Ducks are doing their darnedest to negate as many of those pieces as they can, and have been doing a tremendous job at it, overall. But that doesn\u2019t guarantee these Oilers won\u2019t be able to get it together.<\/p>\n

Because you\u2019re right about one thing above all, Edmonton\u2019s Stanley Cup window isn\u2019t getting any bigger. And the cupboards have become more and more bare each year.<\/p>\n

N3on\u2019s courtside at the Oilers game dropping $5,000 per seat.<\/p>\n

\u2014 $in (@SinClipd on x.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Courtside? Gotta love it. I can see the confusion. Basketballs are round. Pucks are round. Sort of. Oh, and he paid too much for those seats. Other than that, welcome to Edmonton! Hope he loved the \u2018ice\u2019 hockey game \u2026 Or at least what he managed to see of it.<\/p>\n

YOU SAID IT<\/p>\n

Dear Gerry:<\/p>\n

Yes, Evan Bouchard has a penchant for egregious giveaways but his offensive talents far outweigh his shortcomings. At season\u2019s end, he was a plus-25, while Darnell Nurse was a minus-12. (And that stat does not include all of the power-play goals Bouchard figured in).<\/p>\n

That 37-goal difference reminds me of the Oilers\u2019 Stanley Cup run two years ago when Bouchard was plus-16 while Nurse was minus-15, prompting Ray Ferraro\u2019s, \u201cHow is that even possible?\u201d\u00a0 on an American broadcast.<\/p>\n

And how is it even possible that in the two overtimes last week \u2014 when every single point was crucial \u2014 that Knoblauch had Nugent Hopkins and his 47 per-cent record take the defensive zone face offs, while Lazar and Samanski, with their 61 and 63 per cent stats, sat on the bench? Why play Nurse at left D when Ekholm is plus-32?<\/p>\n

The Oilers were the better team two years ago and should have won the Cup, and they even had a chance last year until Hyman was injured. But in both final series, weak coaching let them down, as it has all year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Oilers did not make the finals the last two years running because of their coaching but despite their coaching. That\u2019s how good a team they were.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Gary O\u2019Shaughnessy<\/p>\n

Gary, you just dropped a bomb. And not a normal bomb, but one of those drone flown, break up into a bunch of smaller bombs in the air and then land amid utter chaos.<\/p>\n

And they all struck the mark.<\/p>\n

Bouchard is the Bouchard you describe, right up until he decides to flip the switch and come up with the timely offence that will help turn the tide of this playoff series in the Oilers\u2019 favour for good. It\u2019s just what he does, and why the team not only puts up with him during the downside of his cycle, but always speak so highly of him no matter what.<\/p>\n

Nurse is so ridiculously overpaid on this roster that it\u2019s hard not to come to the conclusion that it doesn\u2019t even matter what some of his numbers are like, it all just adds up to a plain bad deal. But that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t still need him performing at his overpaid best at this time of year. The frustrating part for Oilers fans is he has the ability to be not just a factor, but a force if he wanted, but shows it so rarely.<\/p>\n

Kris Knoblauch hasn\u2019t even begun the new part of the three-year contract extension he signed at the beginning of the season. That doesn\u2019t kick in until next year, so get used to his decisions behind the bench, because unless Daryl Katz wants to shell out big bucks to get rid of him, \u2018Knobber\u2019 is here for the long haul.<\/p>\n

And for the record, a severe lack of roster depth compared to the Florida Panthers is what didn\u2019t even have them in the running during last year\u2019s Cup Final. And that\u2019s on management and ownership, not the head coach.<\/p>\n

For a chance to appear in an upcoming edition, send your questions, concerns and comments on all things Edmonton Oilers related to:<\/p>\n

E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

On Twitter: @StarkRavinMod<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post, and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each week, we check in with our readers on social media and e-mail to see what\u2019s on top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1929,461,9502,1772,52,263,464,2971,6019,467,7153,1142],"class_list":{"0":"post-18770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-anaheim-ducks","9":"tag-connor-mcdavid","10":"tag-cup-final","11":"tag-david-bloom","12":"tag-edmonton","13":"tag-edmonton-oilers","14":"tag-evan-bouchard","15":"tag-florida-panthers","16":"tag-jeffrey-viel","17":"tag-leon-draisaitl","18":"tag-rogers-place","19":"tag-stanley-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}