NHL experts not giving Edmonton Oilers any respect in Conference Final predictions
NHL experts, by and large, are not giving the Edmonton Oilers the benefit of the doubt heading into their Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars.
After knocking off the LA Kings and Vegas Golden Knights in impressive fashion, you’d think that the experts would start to take Edmonton more seriously, but that hasn’t been the case going into this new series.
The majority of writers and analysts across the league seem to think that the Stars are well on their way to exacting revenge on the Oilers after losing to Edmonton in six games in last year’s Western Conference Final, and the margins are not close at all.
It’s a curious development, considering that the majority of experts also picked the Kings and Golden Knights to eliminate the Oilers. Yet, that plucky squad from Edmonton found ways to not only win but to do so in a dominant fashion.
This is probably exactly where the Oilers want to be as they can now rightfully claim to be an underdog for the third-straight series.
Let’s take a closer look at what the experts had to say:
NHL.com continues to be Oilers haters
There is no doubt who the writers at NHL.com like in this Western Conference Final matchup.
Similar to their first-round predictions, just three of the 16 writers polled chose the Oilers to advance to their second straight Stanley Cup Final, while 13 picked the Stars. Edmonton fans will be hoping that the majority whiffs on these predictions.
Editor in Chief Bill Price and staff writers Derek van Diest and Mike Zeisberger chose Edmonton over Dallas.
The Athletic overwhelmingly picks against Oilers
Similar to NHL.com, the folks at The Athletic have also continued to doubt this Edmonton team going into the Western Conference Final.
Instead of showing how each individual writer voted, The Athletic tallied up all the results and showed percentages of how everyone voted. The final results gave the Oilers just 22.6 per cent of the vote to advance past Dallas, while the Stars got an overwhelming 77.4 per cent of the vote.
The Athletic
Of those votes, nobody picked the series to end in four or five games for either side. The most common answer, with 41.9 per cent of the vote share, saw the Stars winning the series in seven games, while just 16.1 per cent think the Oilers could do the same.
Only 6.5 per cent of voters chose Edmonton to win in five games, and 35.5 per cent picked the Stars in five.