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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. This is hour number two of Oilers Now. Bob Stauffer with you. We had an extended conversation with the new head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, Mike Babcock, in the first hour of the show.
Coming up, Brian Lawton, and we're going to try to squeeze in Elliott Friedman, who's at the Board of Governors meetings as well. Of course, Oilers Now is brought to you by our title sponsor, World of Spas. Our spotlight conversation is coming up in 67 seconds time with Brian Lawton. It is brought to you by our friends at Cowan Graphics.
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Chapter 2: What insights does Brian Lawton share about Mike Babcock's hiring?
We go... to the River Creek Resort Casino Hotline, 780-451-8800. The River Creek Resort Casino. Excitement bent on it when we welcome back to the show the former GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He also basically started Octagon's hockey agency side, the number one pick in the 1983 NHL draft. I believe he is in the state of hockey today. That looks like the backdrop to his place in Minnesota.
Hello, Brian. How are you doing?
It is not the backdrop to my place. It's a friend's marina. I got caught in a wild storm in Minnesota. I had to pull over. Fortunately, I have a lot of friends in Minnesota, and they've allowed me to use this beautiful office at the marina. So thank you to Rick Bourne.
That's for sure. All right. Yeah, this one's going to go up on our YouTube site as well. So a week ago, one day before the official announcement was made from the NHL, and you mentioned this on multiple radio hits that you did, show me the smoking gun. And it turned out that there wasn't a smoking gun.
And upon sort of a review of the situation with Mike Babcock's time in Columbus, he was obviously allowed to work again. The orders made the announcement official today. This probably is a guy who's worked in the league. He also worked for the NHL Network. This probably doesn't surprise you that ultimately that was a decision that the NHL made. Is that correct, Brian?
It does not surprise me. I've done my own research. I couldn't find a smoking gun. I wasn't necessarily badgering anybody. I was just saying, look, I'm pretty thorough. I've done my due diligence. I know Mike Babcock. I know what he stands for. I don't think it would be unfair to categorize things that are not as kosher in today's world, but a smoking gun? No, there wasn't one that existed.
And to be honest with you, Bob, the coaches, it's not an easy job. What they do, trying to motivate players, trying to get the most out of them, as times change, society changes, there's 9,000 things that when I played wouldn't be acceptable in today's world. but they were.
In Mike Babcock's case, I think that if you really sit down with Mike and talk hockey and what he thinks and what he believes, he's a brilliant guy. I think this is a tremendous opportunity and day for the Edmonton Oilers. I really do. I feel like Mike is the missing ingredient to put them over the top. There are still some changes. I think everybody expects that'll happen.
But Mike is a leader of men. And I think people will realize that in time.
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Chapter 3: How does Brian Lawton assess Mike Babcock's coaching style?
And I found that you're the guy who's constantly reinforced with me personally over the last. You've done the show now. This is year nine. And you've said all the time it's becoming a bigger, bigger players league than ever before. You know, it's completely different than when you came out as the number one pick in 1983 draft.
So on that note, what do you think it meant in the process that Babcock requested the meeting with the players and had, by all reports, on both sides, brutally honest and frank conversation to make sure that they could get to a place where there would be alignment?
of things in terms of the getting past some of these things that happened in the past i think that's incredibly healthy and helpful not only for for mike and for what he's endured but certainly for the players and feeling comfortable with him no matter what has transpired in the past there's one thing that's always stuck out to me and that's if you ask anybody
who maybe wasn't thrilled with how they were treated, they all end up with the same thing. This guy's a hell of a hockey coach. Does that wave mistreatment, bad behavior, et cetera? No. But I do think Mike is a guy that recognizes he made some mistakes. He stood up to the challenge here. I don't think people understand it would have been easier. Mike's a wealthy guy, doesn't need money.
This is a real challenge for him. It put his family through a lot, especially, you know, and I, one of the reasons why I started saying, show me the smoking gun is because I understood how tough that must have been for him to go through again. His life was going along great. I think he's the guy that loves hockey. I think you're going to see the best coaching of Mike's life.
I think you're going to see a more thoughtful human being. And I think the Edmonton Oilers and their fans are going to be the big winners in this. You can't neuter a guy from how he coaches. But in the end, I think Mike will be more thoughtful about everything he does. But you can't completely take away what makes him
part of being a great coach, which is that honest appeal and hard edge that he brings every day to the rink. It's something that's necessary, in my opinion, in order to become a champion in the National Hockey League like the Edmonton Oilers want to be again.
We're joined by Brian Lott and Bob Stauffer with you on Oilers Now. So, Brian, when the decision was made to, you know, for the Oilers to part ways with Chris Knobloch and Mark Stewart, and Chris had some success. He also had some help. He'd be the first to tell you that on the coaching staff with a guy like Glenn Goldson, or for that matter, Paul Coffey.
I basically, I think it was May 14th, I put out that, you know, in my opinion, the Oilers could use an experienced veteran coach with gravitas that can put structure and process in a team's game. And that's won a Stanley Cup. And most people, you know, obviously everybody drew immediately to Bruce Cassidy in Vegas. Some people mentioned Craig Berube. Some people mentioned Peter Laviolette.
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Chapter 4: What factors contributed to Mike Babcock's return to coaching?
I'm starting to think politics is factoring into something, and you know where I'm going next. You take a look at what's happened here in about the last five years. The Oilers beat the Calgary Flames in five games in 2022. God rest his soul, Johnny Goodrow elects not to return in Calgary. Matthew Kachuk gets traded to Florida. Two really good Calgary Flame players, like two stars with the Flames.
Arguably their two best players gone, both American. Brad Treliving ends up gone as GM within a couple of years of that situation. Vancouver, the Oilers play the Vancouver Canucks in the 2024 playoffs. Vancouver had a great year.
You know, Quinn Hughes, I might argue that Evan Bouchard outplayed Hughes in that series, but Quinn Hughes, unquestionably top five defenseman in the world in the NHL, traded to the Minnesota Wild in a trade for several first-round picks. And now, just on the weekend, and it was the worst-kept secret in hockey.
Everybody knew basically from the Olympics on that there was a distinct possibility Brady Kachuk was going to get traded from Ottawa. Now, in Kachuk's case, you take a look at what happened after the Americans won the gold medal. There were some questions directed his way. And I don't know in the case of either Ottawa or, for that matter, Toronto.
I wonder if there should have been greater support for those players. you know, hey, like there's nothing wrong with congratulating them for winning the gold medal. Like, you know, and I'm here to tell you, if Canada had won, Mark Carney, he likes hockey a lot.
I'm going to guess he would have had a lot of, you know, tried to find a way to get Team Canada recognized, you know, in a similar fashion to, I mean, Brian, I had an American writer jump in on a Connor McDavid interview and ask him about the American players going to the White House. during, you know, when Connor came back. You know where I'm going here.
Do you think there's some nervousness and some apprehension around the league with Canadian markets that have American star players? And we might see another one in Connor Hellebach. What do you think?
Well, I don't think it has to do with... I'm different because I love Canada. I love the United States, too. Don't get me wrong. But I love Canada also. I just think that as a nation, there's so much promise. So I don't necessarily buy in. I loved living. I lived in Quebec, which some people don't know. So I've lived in Canada. I worked in Toronto for Sportsnet.
So I'm probably not a great person to ask in terms of that, but what's going on around the league is that, and it has to do with partly with the Oilers in that players are asserting more powers.
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Chapter 5: What does Brian Lawton believe about the importance of player-coach alignment?
Well, he was the guy that told us Dave Tippett was going to be the head coach back in 2019. And he said, where's the smoking gun? Did find it interesting. He thinks Babcock is the actual best choice of the coaches that were out there. It's been a great start to the year for my friends at Brentridge Ford. They need quality used vehicles.
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