Edmonton Oilers 2014-2015 Preview: Playoffs or Bust for Oilers

How many years has it been now that everyone dubs as “the year” the Edmonton Oilers  finally live up to their potential. Is this the season the Oilers put it all together or will supporters be left waiting for next year again?

Stanley Cup Odds +4300

Odds to make Stanley Cup playoffs: +157

Over/under regular season points: 80.5

Will Oilers make the playoffs? No -209

What’s new

Who’s in

Forwards Teddy Purcell, and Benoit Pouliot. Defensemen Nikita Nikitin, Mark Fayne and Keith Aulie. Major upgrades to the forwards and some nice depth and toughness added to the blue line, which was desperately needed.

Who’s out

Sam Gagner, Ryan Jones, Anton Belov, Mark Fraser. The only major loss here is Gagner and he didn’t really fit all that well with the Oilers’ lineup to begin with.

The skinny

This is the second year behind the bench for Dallas Eakins and he won’t be allotted much more time to make this team a playoff contender. Edmonton gave up a league-worst 3.26 goals per game last year and was constantly bullied down low and in front of the net. That can’t happen, even with the talent the Oilers boast. Eakins’ challenge is to get the team to finally accept a defence-first policy. The team has more than enough offensive talent, but if it can’t get the puck out of its own end, that all goes for naught.

Betting forecast

Purcell and Pouliot know how to play the game at both ends of the rink and that will start to spread through Edmonton’s lineup. This is a fast club that needs to learn how to play tougher and it’s running out of excuses. Jobs are at stake and the Oilers should respond. Taylor Hall is already one of, if not the best, left wing in the NHL and he’s only going to get better.

Overview

Viktor Fasth and Ben Scrivens will battle for minutes in between the pipes and that will be just one positional battle worth monitoring on a daily basis. Eakins has some forward depth now so if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov are taking shifts off, expect them to ride the pine. It’s about time this team grows up. That needs to come from the crease out and there are still concerns on the blue line. If the new defencemen can’t get the puck out, the Oilers will be chasing leads and giving up more goals.

Betting preview

On paper, the Oilers already look better at forward and goaltender, but a lot of their success depends on how the defence responds and if that group can move the puck quickly to their talented attackers. Edmonton should contend for a playoff spot this year. Having said that it would be a huge jump for this team and you get the feeling that even being in the playoff race in the final week of the season would be a major boost. Betting over 80.5 isn’t crazy and there is solid value there, but a lot of things need to fall in place for this team to make the playoffs in the West.