Into The Weeds: The Dallas Stars versus Edmonton Oilers 2025 Playoff Preview
Join me into a veritable stats odyssey on this one. (And yes, I have been watching the games too)
Let’s jump right in. Last season, I had this to say going into the the Western Conference Finals between Dallas and Edmonton. “I think people, especially Stars fans, likely see this as a step down for the Stars. I think that’s fair insofar as Vegas and Colorado were great teams at the height of their powers (well, less so Colorado). However, this is a fool’s errand…A best-of-seven is a small sample size, so the window for teams to harness their process and performance into guaranteed victory is slim, and the margins small. Because of that, Edmonton deserves the same respect owed to all playoff opponents…However, there’s another element here. And it’s very simple: Edmonton is really, really good.”
Has anything changed? Is this true of the current iteration of each team? I would say something about changes in the margins, but nothing is trivial in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Sure, the Oilers screwed up with Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. But they had a lowkey good trade deadline. Mattias Ekholm could also be back at some point in the series. Edmonton’s regular season might not look like much, but like the Stars, they also dealt with significant injuries throughout. Nobody cares about the regular season. Edmonton’s awful start to the season is just as much a distant memory as Dallas’ awful finish. Who are these teams, right now, on their current collision course?
In the same way Colorado was a very different challenge than Winnipeg, Edmonton will be a very different challenge than either. This is less a statement linked to quality, and more about the old adage in prizefighting — styles make fights. As with previous versions, I’ll be focused on the stats for this: offense, defense, rush, forechecking, special teams, goaltending, coaching, systems analysis, and my prediction.
A preview like this takes a village. So special thanks to the following:
Paid subscribers (you rock)
Louis Boulet of LB-Hockey (he rocks)
Corey Sznajder of All Three Zones (God Tier)
Dimitri Filipovic from the PDOcast (whose insights I stole)