I hope the ’12 Kings aren’t the ’06 Oilers

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Can Kings channel ’06 Oilers? « LA Kings Insider.

Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene have done it once. Can they do it again? In the 2006 playoffs, Stoll, Greene and the eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers reached the Stanley Cup Finals after they finished the regular season with 95 points. That’s the position the Kings are in currently.

The thing is, the ’06 Oilers were — it turns out — the high point of a long run of Craig MacTavish Oiler teams, teams which finished with 90+ points in four of five seasons leading up to the ’06 playoffs. After the loss, the wheels fell off, MacTavish got fired, the team finished mostly in the 60s and 70s for several years, leading to a total rebuild which, despite some world-class young talent, has delivered what is still one of the worst teams in the league.

And the only players left from that team (though I could be missing someone) are Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff. Oh, and Ryan Smyth, but he sort of doesn’t count, since he was going for most of that period.

If you were to tell me the Kings were going to lose in the Cup finals this year, and then were to spiral into relentless crappiness for several years, until six years later the only remnants of this year’s Kings team would be Kopitar and Brown, I believe I would never stop throwing up.


 

Some posts the robot says are related, but I'll let you be the judge of that:

  1. How did these Kings get here in the first place?
  2. A different Kings team: 2010 vs. 2012
  3. Dean Lombardi Trade History
  4. Every LA Kings Lineup Since 2005
  5. LA Kings Reserve List
  6. O’Sullivan is the worst defensive player on the Oilers right now – Cult of Hockey
  7. O’Sullivan really needs to get serious and other thoughts in wake of another Oilers defeat Player grades, Sharks, 5, Oilers, 4, by Smokin’ Ray Burnt – Cult of Hockey
  • Garrett79

    This Kings team is better than the ’06 Oilers were though. They flirted with winning the division and earning a higher seed. Even when they couldn’t score for the first 3/4 of the season they were still pretty competitive (usually). Since acquiring Carter they are a different team. If he is healthy I don’t think there’s any question the Kings are better than Vancouver. Without him, it’s a close series that could reasonably go either way, depending very much on which team’s goalie plays better.

    • sstephen17

      Yes, if I had to pick one key factor to the series it would be goaltending.  Quick needs to play like he did this regular season, not the last two years in the playoffs.  And if Schneider is in net at some point in the series, I like the Kings chances because it means there is a goalie issue in Vancouver.

      • https://twitter.com/geoffdes78 Geoff DeSouza

         The problem with that is that Schneider is better than Headcase Lou. I think the Kings need to win games close.  If they chase him once, Schneider’s in for the duration.

  • https://twitter.com/geoffdes78 Geoff DeSouza

    Key difference: Drew Doughty’s nonexistent wife isn’t going to decide that she doesn’t like LA and demand that he be traded to Calgary.

    The wheels fell off the Oilers for one main reason: they were forced to deal Pronger, who’s arguably been the best player in the NHL since the lockout (three finals appearances with three different teams).  Now, they lucked into pretty good return on the trade since the Ducks made the finals (Eberle), but that post-lockout Oilers team required a minutes-eating veteran D, something they’ve lacked since Pronger’s wife realised that once you get past West Edmonton Mall, there’s nothing much to do to blunt -40 winters.

    • DougS

      The version that I heard is that Mrs. P found out that hubby Chris was having an affair with a local TV news lady, and demanded relocation on those grounds. :-) But whatever the truth of the matter, I agree that he was the lynchpin of the defense and losing him hurt them badly in the short-term.

      When Ryan Smyth wanted out of LA, he did the Kings a favor. When Pronger wanted out of Edmonton, he hurt the Oilers badly.

      • https://twitter.com/geoffdes78 Geoff DeSouza

         I learned from the 80s Leafs that half of the “wife is sleeping with player (x)” stories are just bullshit.  I mean, crap, the Kings have two players who allegedly boinked the entire wives section of the Flyers at one point or another….

  • Stonewall

    Yes. But the statement was about the ’06 Oilers (who I had in my playoof pool to win the Cup. Yes. I won the pool!) NOT the ’07-’12 Oilers. I’ll take a trip to the Finals and then see what happens any day!

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