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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, it's Bob Stauffer. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Oilers Now ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Game two tonight between the Edmonton Oilers and the Anaheim Ducks. Oilers had a good first, a poor second, and a great third. Ended up winning 4-3. They have a one-game-to-nothing lead in the best-of-seven opening round playoff series.
The Oilers will insert Josh Szymanski for the injured Adam Henrik. Ducks captain Radko Gudis, who blew a wheel on the 3-3 goal on Monday night. He is out. Drew Halison draws in for Anaheim.
Chapter 2: What are the latest updates on the Edmonton Oilers vs. Anaheim Ducks playoff series?
This is Oilers Now brought to you by World of Spas. We are live from Ford Hall. We have Aiden Ganim, Jeff Walker, Max Reed, and a cast of thousands with us. Bruce Kerlock coming up at 435 today. We'll tell you the River Creek Resort and Casino hotline is 780-451-8800. Brought to you by the River Creek Resort and Casino. Enjoy late nights at the kitchen with their $25 buffet.
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Chapter 3: Who are the key players to watch for the Oilers in Game 2?
For legacy heating and cooling, home and home payments are no interest for one year. That's how you build a legacy, legacy heating and cooling. Oilers need to be better tonight. than they were on Monday against Anaheim. That said, they lead the series by a score of 1-0. Now, you can jump in right here, right now. Text us on the Ashley Five Floors text line, 780-451-8800.
What other series are you most compelled to watch? For me, it's Montreal-Tampa. They've been going at it. The Oilers playoff series, by the way, the least penalized per game so far. I mean, geez, there were a couple minors. Not a lot of animosity, not a lot of stuff after the whistle. Obviously, Montreal-Tampa Bay were going at it all game long. You take a look at what occurred with the ā
Minnesota Wild and the Dallas Stars. Minnesota's got a tough, nasty team. There's no question. Minnesota's going to be a tough out for whoever they play. It'll be intriguing to see if Anaheim ends up taking us down a path. He exists. He's real. He's live. It's unreal here. It's a Bruce Kerlock signing. He will be joining us, but we might get extended Bruce Kerlock time.
But at this time, we're going to go into the Oilers Now Audio Vault for Direct Workwear.
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All right, let's get to our sit-down one-on-one conversation with Edmonton Oilers head coach Chris Knobloch. Joined by Edmonton Oilers head coach Chris Knobloch, game two tonight, Edmonton and Anaheim. Support scoring, the difference of the day in game one of the series, Chris.
Absolutely, our depth guys, even though the captain is playing on the second line, he's been previously, you know, down in the lineup on the third, fourth lines. He gets two, had a great game. And then obviously Dickinson, who's more of a shutdown centerman, you know, played a really strong game and obviously scored some two big goals.
You mentioned Jason Dickinson. He did not take the morning skate today, dealing with a lower body injury. Game time decision for tonight's game?
Game time decision, yes. Well, Curtis Lazar ready if he can't play, but we're hoping that he's good.
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Chapter 4: How is the Oilers' depth affecting their playoff performance?
Connor McDavid did an availability today. The Oilers power play went 0 for 2, and one of them was awful. Here's McDavid on zone entry struggles against Anaheim.
That was me just not doing, not being clean enough doing that. That's an area we're obviously very good at, not too concerned about it. With that being said, they threw some different things at us, and we'll adjust.
And Josh Szymanski draws in. Here's Connor McDavid on Szymanski.
He's really, really solid. You know, just really, really good in his own end. His attention to detail is really good. Nothing bad seems to happen when he's on the ice. So that's a great way to get into the league, build from your net out.
There we go. Josh Szymanski, meanwhile, had these thoughts on earning the trust of the coaching staff.
Obviously building my game and taking pride in the D zone and battling for pucks and trying to do the little things right. Obviously it's not easy for the coach to trust a young guy, especially I played in the D all last year and not sure what to expect, but our staff and my teammates did a great job helping me adjust. I think just all of that.
Meanwhile, Jake Wallman had two assists, played about 16 minutes the other night. Elevated last year in the playoffs and a good run with the Oilers. Probably no other way to say it. I mean, an underwhelming regular season this year that dealt with some injury. But here's Wallman's thoughts and the Oilers focusing on game two.
Every game is something to build on and reflect back on it. Got to be tighter in some of those parts in the game there, especially the second. And, yeah, I mean, no series is going to be easy. So, I mean, it's going to be ups and downs. So we expect it.
There you go. It's the Edmonton Oilers, the Anaheim Ducks. It's 4-15. You're listening to Oilers Now live from Ford Hall. Bruce Kerlock joining us with the prospect report when we return.
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Chapter 5: What strategies are the Oilers using to improve their special teams?
We welcome back to the show Edmonton. International man of mystery and intrigue, Bruce Kerlock. Hello, Bruce. How are you doing? I'm good, Bob. How are you? It's got to be good when we have mutual acquaintances that have now got you saved on their phones and they have a complete blank for the photo. So we're having fun with this all year long on Twitter. Yes. All right.
Before we get to sort of prospect-related stuff and what's happening down at Bakersfield, it's actually part of a story. And it's part of the story. Matt Savoy had a quiet first playoff game. That happens. But Josh Szymanski draws in. This was a player. It's funny. I had a couple of broadcasters today ask me about Szymanski. Like, what was the story?
How did they get, you know, did they know when he was playing in Germany last year that he could potentially be an option for the NHL playoffs? I said, surely not. I remember we were in Calgary. The two, you went to the prospect game here, and then the prospect game in Calgary.
And at that time, if you had told me that Szymanski would have been an option for the Oilers in the playoffs, I would have said you're crazy. But...
I think it speaks to a bigger fundamental shift in the Edmonton Oilers organization in terms of not worrying about draft capital but trying to find players wherever you can and then getting a player and, Bruce, not seeing what the guy is right now but what you can turn him into.
Yeah. The first issue is, or the first part of this is, if the Edmonton Oilers are going to be A continuously excellent performer in the regular season with a chance to sort of, you know, run for the Stanley Cup every year. They're going to need to turn guys over. They're going to need to find young guys because the salary cap doesn't allow you to do it any other way.
And if you're now in a situation where you're trading your draft capital at the deadline, you have to somehow manage to find players outside of that draft capital. And Samansky speaks to, you know, a way to do it, which is unrestricted free agency in Europe, collegiate unrestricted free agency being the other one. And with Samansky, uh, you know, I had seen the player a little bit, uh,
Even when they signed him, I wondered about his skating. And, you know, I was talking to somebody else in the scouting community yesterday. And we were talking about the development of the skating ability of a lot of oiler prospects. He's just one of them. But his skating has gone from... Certainly, I would say NHL below par to NHL average to maybe modestly above average.
And to be able to, in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, put him in on the fourth line and likely probably the coach feels very comfortable with him for lots of other reasons. But to be able to put him in there because he's developed within the space of... months to where you know, he he won't be a Liability on the ice. It's that's it's a testament to You know Stan Bowman in his group.
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Chapter 6: What insights does Edmonton Oilers head coach Chris Knobloch share about the team?
So here's here's the challenge. So You know, Ken Holland, in his five years, the Oilers had the second-best record at the Western Conference. And he settled the organization down a bit. The problem is he hired Tyler Wright to do his amateur scouting, and he hired Archie Henderson to do his pro scouting. And the Oilers had some misses on the amateur side and some misses on the pro side.
And I don't know if their developmental stream, I think we could argue, based on what happened with Broberg and Holloway, that it It didn't have a congruent path for those players and was part of the exasperation of frustration, which ultimately led to the double offer sheet. And like people would look at the McLeod trade for Savoy Bruce in the summer last year.
McLeod had a 50 point year in Buffalo and Savoy spent the entire year in the minors and the orders ended up in the final. They probably could have used McLeod's speed as a third line center. But Savoy played in every situation and now is on the precipice of being a top six player capable of trading pucks with the best player in the world.
Yeah, you know, the Savoy-McLeod trade is sort of, I think, what I'm speaking to, right? And I can't remember what McLeod's contract is now. Well, now it's $5 million. So that's not a player, like you can't, you know, you can't have that player trade. Every single time we get to the moment when they sign that contract, you can't have them in Edmonton.
Not if you're going to have McDavid and Dreisaitl.
Dreisaitl and Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse, right? You're just not going to do that. So you're going to... So you've got to replace them with players that... I almost don't care if the player is modestly outproduced by the player who's left. If he's here... and he's making $875,000 or $950,000 a year. That allows the organization to fill other spots inside the roster that need upgrades.
And, you know, they've done it this year again. So, you know, yeah, you've used McLeod maybe in a third-line role in the finals.
But let's be fair. He's been a second-line player in Buffalo. He's not playing center at a Conor McDavid and Leon Dreitz.
That's right. For sure. And, again, the trade was more about, you know, and I think this is always going to be the case, and this is why Szymanski makes a lot of sense for me, is you have two guys. You know, you obviously have Leon locked in. You're hopeful that you're going to have Connor locked in long term. Line one and line two centers, that's filled.
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