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It’s hard to remember when there was ever this much pre-season optimism about the Edmonton Oilers, certainly not in this century. You’d have to go back to 1987, before Wayne Gretzky was sold out of town, to find such praise and positivity heaped on the franchise.
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ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski got things started earlier this week with his prediction that the Oilers would win the Stanley Cup this year.
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But the positivity keeps piling higher. 
We now find Czech analytics hockey bloggers Andy and Rono using various statistical inputs to predict how many points NHL teams will get, with their model cranking out the Oilers will earn more points than any other NHL team this season, 108 in total.
Next best are Carolina and Florida with 107, then Toronto, Calgary and Colorado with 104.
Over at TSN, 20 experts voted on who was the best player in hockey. All 20 of them had Connor McDavid as their first choice. It’s the second year in a row that McDavid has been the unanimous pre-season choice, the sixth year running (Leon Draisaitl finished fourth in the vote).
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TSN’s Steve Dryden noted: “McDavid’s bona fides are impeccable. The Edmonton superstar won the regular season and playoff scoring titles – setting career highs in goals for each – becoming the first player to do so since Evgeni Malkin in 2009. As usual an extraordinary number of his goals and assists shouldn’t have been counted as much. as hung in a museum to preserve for future generations to appreciate. McDavid remains hockey’s most spectacular player, even in the face of a challenge from Makar, and is justifiably regarded as the most highly evolved player in hockey history.”
Finally on an Oilers Nation podcast, NHL insider Frank Seravalli weighed in on the future of McDavid in Edmonton and whether or not the superstar might be tempted to leave down the road: “Unless the wheels absolutely fall off in Edmonton and they’re not competitive. , I don’t think there’s any way Connor McDavid’s leaving.”
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My take
1. All this positivity and praise and $2 will get you a cup of coffee at McDonald’s.
2. All this positivity and praise is certainly much better for the spirits than the opposite, the pain and angst of the horrid Pocklington era of the 1990s and, more recently, of the Decade of Darkness-plus.
3. I found Seravalli’s words particularly encouraging since I don’t expect the wheels to absolutely fall off in Edmonton and Servalli is an NHL insider with good sources. If the Oilers challenge for the Cup, I agree that it’s likely McDavid will stick around, as he probably won’t have the chance to win with his friends Leon Drasaitl, Darnell Nurse and others in any other city. It’s one thing to win and accomplish something major in life, but it’s all the more meaningful to succeed working closely with great friends and allies. I can’t read McDavid’s mind but I feel that kind of thing is deeply important to him, a major driver.
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4. It’s odd to me that McDavid is voted as the top player every year at the start of the year but he doesn’t win the Hart Trophy every year at the end of it. Go figure.
5. I should not mention that over at The Athletic, analytics writer Dom Luszczyszyn has his own model for predicting points and he has the Oil with the ninth highest total in the league at 101 points. He has the Flames at 106 points. Who has it right, Luszczyszyn or Andy & Rono? I have no idea. What matters to me is the Oil make the playoffs and go in with a healthy roster. Those are the keys, not how many points over 100 they get.
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