If the Bruins had failed to rise above mediocrity despite having both a young Bobby Orr and a young Phil Esposito in their lineup in the late 1960s and early 1970s, would that be tantamount to the ongoing failure in Edmonton?

If the Penguins hadn’t been able to make a dent with both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin joining their squad within a year of each other in the early 2000s, would that equate to the white noise coming from the Oilers, with both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at the mutual heights of their powers?

You’d say that the Oilers are the NHL’s version of MLB’s Angels, except that Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani have never really played a full season together and that almost every time I see McDavid speaking in any type of public setting it seems as if he has just been force-fed a pint of lemon juice.

Though if you were sent out there to answer hypotheticals about adding Evander Kane without the accompaniment of owner Daryl Katz and general manager Kenny Holland, the people actually responsible for making the decision, you probably would be a bit sour about it, too.