A major doubter of the Edmonton Oilers heading into their series against the Dallas Stars is now raving about the team.
Dallas Stars TV and radio commentator Daryl “Razor” Reaugh, who was just named to the Hockey Hall of Fame for his media work, has for two years running predicted the Dallas Stars would essentially stomp the Oilers in the playoffs.
This year before the series began Reaugh said on the team’s official podcast, “I honestly think that the Stars can flush them in relatively short order.”
But after the Oilers flushed the Stars in five games, Reaugh has a different take, saying that Edmonton’s best players dominated.
On The Ticket Top 10 radio show, he said, “The Oilers’ elites all rolled up their sleeves and really did embrace blue collar work and responsibility and driven defending, McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Bouchard, all these people. And they scored at critical moments. And they seem to have morphed into one of those teams who get their offense from the shadows a little bit, their depth. And they get sort of steel gate hard defending from their superstars. That’s a tough team to overcome.”
Reaugh continued: “(Dallas) just could not find their way through that Oilers team that played just phenomenal defence when they had leads. And they had to lead most of it…. The Stars just couldn’t crack it…. It was like three games in a row chasing the score where they couldn’t mount much of an attack against them.”
Reaugh noticed something different about the Oilers. “The thing that struck me with them was they did not try to do each other’s jobs. Like it was almost perfection of, ‘You do your job, I’ll do my job, we’ll support one another.’ There were layers to how they defended. And then when they needed that goal and when the Stars afforded them some opportunity, trying to catch up in games, they would convert. And that’s why they’re gonna play in the Stanley Cup Final again.”
My take
1. First off, congratulations to Reaugh, who played seven games in the 1980s with the Oilers, then became a bedrock part of Texas hockey and the Dallas Stars with his eloquent, clever and pointed broadcast work. His naming to the Hall of Fame is well deserved. He’s one of a kind.
2. I don’t blame Reaugh for doubting the Oilers against Dallas. I had my doubts as well, though I picked the Oilers to win the series. I felt Connor McDavid wouldn’t be denied and that the Oilers had found a key to playoff success in six d-men who can really move that puck.
3. Overall this playoff year the Oilers are getting more of the very best 5-alarm shots on net than they did last year, 5.1 per game in the 2024 playoffs, 7.7 per game this year.
Against the Stars in 2024, Dallas had a +2 Grade A shots per game differential against the Oilers, but the Oilers turned that around this year with a +1.8 Grade A shots differential over the Stars. That’s a major change in one season, a massive improvement from the Oilers, with most of Edmonton’s best work and improved play coming at even strength.
At 5-on-5 this playoff season, the Oilers have been monsters on the attack, while throwing up a steel curtain on defence.
So far, so good.
statws
4. Florida isn’t Dallas, nor is it Vegas or Los Angeles. Florida has better d-men than those teams, a better goalie, and three forward lines that can flat out play two-way hockey.
But I’m still picking the Oilers in six.
I see what Reaugh now sees in the Oilers, a team with some defensive steel. The Oilers are also healthier than they were the last time they met Florida. Leon Draisaitl, Evander Kane and Darnell Nurse were all shadows of themselves last year in the Final, with Zach Hyman (now out) and Corey Perry also banged up and not themselves.
Aside from Hyman being out, this Oilers team looks good to go.
At the Cult of Hockey
STAPLES: McD leaves practice ice early. What of it?
STAPLES: ‘Do I chopper in?’: Evander Kane jokes about grand entrance vs Florida Panthers
‘F*ck you’re soft’: Can Evander Kane stand up to the Florida Panthers bully boys?