D.J. Smith

speaker

330 appearances 5 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 1 Sep

D.J. Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 2.

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Oilers NOW with Bob Stauffer · Edmonton Oilers Associate Coach D.J. Smith (7/27/26) · 27 Jul 2026 podcast

guys that you know people have given up on and getting other opportunities and how they go about it and one thing about defensemen it takes a long time for a lot of these guys to settle down and just let the game come to them and the more good D you can have the better all right so let's do this uh what type of you know some teams play zone uh the last two Stanley Cup champions Carolina and Florida played a lot of man what do you envision the Oilers playing

I think it's going to be a cross between both.

I mean, we're working on it throughout the summer to have this down to a science.

But I think the one message and the one thing that you can guarantee with Mike's teams is we're going to really be a lot more competitive.

We're going to push competitiveness, take away time and space.

And I think when you play in a zone, a lot of times you're giving the other team time and you end up standing there.

I think you're going to see us put a lot of pressure on people.

We're going to put pressure on people in the neutral zone.

We're going to put pressure on people in the D zone.

and try and eliminate time and space.

I think if you look at Florida and Carolina both, what do those teams do?

They just come at you and come at you and come at you, and they work and they don't get outworked.

And I think that's the number one thing is no matter what Mike decides and as a coaching staff, we decide to come at systems, you're going to see a constant theme is we're going to put pressure and we're going to work.

And I think it's pretty clear with Mike, if you don't work, you don't play.

I think your penalty kill and the way you play in the neutral zone and the way you play in D zone kind of all got to go together.

I don't see a scenario where you play real up-tempo, up-tempo, and then your penalty kill is just standing there eating, absorbing shots.

Again, if you go back to the last three Stanley Cup champions, they both play the exact same penalty kill, and that will be the pressure penalty kill.

There's times where you can't go for sure, but it's going to take a little bit to get used to, especially some of the D that have been used to maybe not pressuring and being as aggressive.

But I find, you know, when you pressure, pressure, pressure,

A lot of times teams just bobble pucks on their own and hand them down.

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