The 2006 Oilers: What will their legacy be?
 

Having lived in and around Edmonton for the better part of 26 years, I have followed the team closely, and as such have my own perspective on that SCF team. As did most, I watched those playoffs closely and what seemed like an actual Mighty Ducks/Cinderella story at the time ended up being too good to be true and the happiness and excitement of having a hastily thrown together 8th seed team see game 7, quickly shifted to feelings of frustration and disappointment of not living up to their glory days, coupled with bitterness and resentment for the players who left that team quickly after.

Following years of not being able to rebuild through trades, and the general attitude of distaste toward Edmonton around most of the league, we have finally rebuilt through drafting, and have almost completely been able to separate ourselves from that Stanley Cup run.

My question is, now that we have had 6 or 7 years of perspective, will history see that team as more of a success, or more of a failure?

That was a weird year. I remember telling everybody we could go all the way if we had goaltending. Our goaltending was BRUTAL. We barely gave up many shots per game.

We were still inconsistent though. That last game against ANA was exciting when Hemmer scored. Then we had to watch SJ play Vancouver. Vancouver needed a victory to oust us from the playoffs and they lost :-)

The only 8th seed to make the final...

...Oh wait, never mind. :(

that was not a 8th place team.

Goaltending lost them each 4th game at the least. If they had Rolli, Samsonov, and Spacek all year, they could have been a 5th place seed at least.

I still remember that Conklin and "Juicy" combo, with Morissson being a beast in the shootouts.

I think I am happy with that year. It was a crazy ride, and I'm glad they went on it. I still think we could have won had Rolli not gotten injured in the 1st game.

Oh well, not crying about it. Very glad to have witnessed it, and can't wait till we get back into the playoffs one of these years.

I remind myself of that all the time.

Ten years from now, when I think of the 06 cup run, I'll remember that again.

And that will be the year we had Pronger. And the postseason of Pisani.

What is the 1986 Calgary Flames legacy? They're the team that lost in the finals and nothing else.

10 years from now people will have to google the 2006 finals just to see who Carolina beat.

A reprieve.

A surrealistic "Edmonton Spring" before the tanks of futility rolled back in and how quickly they did painting gloom on the barren landscape.

Pronger and Peca Oilers. Pisani the home town playoff star goal scorer. Samsonov an Oiler?
Raffi Torres 27 goal season and dominant in the playoffs?
Horcoff nearly ppg.

This must've happened in a foggy dream before the moment of awakening sober reality.

Mustn't it?

Now years later we again have several star players in the lineup and a very talented team

<Pinches self to see if dreaming again>

Party like its 1980.

Man, that team was just the perfect team in a salary cap era. So much grit, size, fantastic goaltending and stellar defenseman. Heart and soul kind of team, everyone cared.

Hate that the series came down to one injury in the first game. We should have won that series. We were the better team.

To be fair, most people will also forget that Carolina won. Let's not act like the winners are forever enshrined in the collective memory, and the losers are forgotten. 10 years from now, people won't remember either, unless they watched.

I actually disagree with that. I bet most hockey fans(more than just casual) could name almost all of the last 30 cup winners off the top of their heads. I was born in 1988 and my earliest NHL memory is probably from 1995 but I could do it. I'm sure the majority of my friends that actually watch hockey on a regular basis could too.

For me it was the greatest time to be an Oiler fan , Only the 90 cup Rivals the 06 run. I am old enough to have been around for all the Oilers Stanley cups & 06 was as fun as they come.

The same as the 02 Canes, 03 Ducks, 04 flames: just a fun memory of a likable team.

Same as the '04 Flames, the '07 Senators, and the '11 Canucks (minus the obvious)

Definitely not most. And definitely not 30 years back.

I consider myself a die hard, and I was having a hard time remembering who won in 1999. That's around the 10 year time frame that I proposed.

Many fans aren't even that old to remember 30 years ago.

All I'm saying is lets not diminish the fact they made it to the SCF. Just because they lost, doesn't mean fans will forget.

I can't and I consider myself a big hockey fan. Maybe I'll get 20 or so out of 30. Who won in 1996? The Wings?

I'll give you a hint. We just beat them.

I'm sure if you really thought about it, you'd be able to remember that it was Colorado. Their first year in Colorado.

I think that if you're a certain age, 20-30 years old you'll carry around fond memories of that Spring. It was pretty magical. Well, most people in that age group will look back on it fondly. For all of the... magic, that was probably the worst thing that could have happened to this franchise around that time. Various guys overachieved RE: Horcoff, Pisani and got stupid paydays within season or two. Hemsky looked like he was becoming the offensive face of the franchise and we put a lot of stock in him. Basically it raised the expectation levels far too high. Even when we lost Pronger, Peca, Spacek, Samsonov etc etc. that summer a lot of fans still expected to contend.

Remember those "Omg, look at all of this offensive talent!!! Smyth, Horcoff, Hemsky, Torres, Stoll, Lupul, Sykora!!!~!~!~ We're gonna fill the net!!" threads?

I understand that it was a tough call for Lowe but he should have pulled the plug as soon as Pronger abandoned us. We were counting on him to carry this team and those plans were sewered when he left.

I could probably remember the teams but not the exact years they won. Especially before 1995.

Haha I do remember that. Man did we crash hard

Jarret Stoll had 68 points in 2005/2006. I mean... think about that for a second. :laugh:

We had a really good team that year. If we had Roloson the whole season, we win the division easily.

I will always remember it for the performance Pronger gave. Lidstrom on his best day couldn't hold a candle to how well Pronger was playing during that run. Probably the most dominant player I have ever personally seen (Jagr and Hasek in their prime are right there).

Everything happened so fast. We moved right from a high-tension end of the season into the playoffs, and from a miracle run into a disastrous off-season. We had no time to analyze or appreciate what we had:

-TWO 70-point scorers. Hemsky's 77 points is the highest any Oiler has put up since Weight's 90 in his final season here.

-FOUR 60+ scorers - It'd been 15 years since we'd had that (1990-1991)

-a defenseman with >55 points. Even in an "off" year Pronger racked up the points (56). The last time an Oilers defenseman had done that was Coffey back in '87

I'm not even going to get started with the miracle playoff run.

I remember that team being so incredibly dominant some games. Like they were a full tier above the competition.

And then other games where they just stunk it up.

Hemsky's goal against Detroit.

That is all... that run was magical. Never have seen this city so crazy.