The Edmonton Oilers 18 Years Later

The Edmonton Oilers were once the team to beat. They had everyone dreading the prospect of playing them, because they would annihilate any team they played. Over time, the Oilers began their slow decline into obscurity, now almost altogether forgotten about except for their glory years.

What will it take to force hockey fans to once again remember the Oilers, and perhaps even fear them like before? A Stanley Cup? We were close in 2006 and had everyone talking, but after that the buzz surrounding the Oilers seemed to die off completely. Why? Maybe because we haven’t made the playoffs since?

The Oilers need to be consistent if they want to be remembered. We don’t have that one amazing player like we used to in Gretz to take us to the cup. We don’t have an amazing coach who dreams up inventive plays. So what do we have going for us?

Well, we have much the same thing that the 1990 Stanley Cup winning Oilers team had. We have youth on our side.

The Oilers kid line of 1990 was the second greatest of all, following Toronto’s line of Charlie Conacher, Joe Primeau, and Busher Jackson.The original Oilers kid line it consisted of Joe Murphy, Martin Gelinas, and Adam Graves. These players brought the Oilers to the Stanley Cup in 1990, where they beat the favoured Boston Bruins.

This was the first year that the Oilers weren’t favourites to win the cup; they went in as the underdog and proved everyone wrong. Sound familiar? The three players were huge contributors to the run, and without them, we may have one less banner hanging from our rafters.

The kid line of today consists of Robert Nillson, Andrew Cogliano, and Sam Gagner. In the final 20 games of last season, the line had a combined total of 50 points. These three are offensive powerhouses.

So what if they can’t seem to play defense and get the puck out of their zone? That’s not their job. Their job is to score goals and get in the face of that goalie, and make him shake in his skates.

So is their really a difference between the team of 1990 and the one of 18 years later? Well, we are still the underdogs. Even more than we were back then.

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