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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. Still about four hours away from Puck Drop. Crazy when you think about it. 822 Puck Drop tonight. We are live in location at Ford Hall, and it's going to get busy down here shortly.
We will tell you that guests and Oilers Now receive gift certificates to Japanese Village. I got to go see Don and the staff at Japanese Village. It's a true celebration for the census.
quality ingredients and unmatched grill side experience book your seat at jvedmonton.ca keep texas on the ashley five floors text line at 780-451-8800 we're going to go off to the river creek resort and casino hotline and welcome back to the show frankly hockey's frank cerevalli for summer's drilling your trusted water well expert since 1917 visit summersdrillings.com to request a quote today hello frank how you doing
Pretty good. I seem to recall you and I having a couple of dates in the playoffs. Very romantic at Japanese Village.
That's just the image that everybody really wanted out there, let me tell you. Yeah, I think we went at least twice over the last two years. Once a year to go see Don and everybody out there. Wonderful people. Great people. Nice job about the cross promo there. Well done, Frank. This is the last series to get started. The Edmonton Oilers and the Anaheim Ducks.
Give us your perspective on the matchup.
Well, I think this is probably the best matchup, all things considered, that the Oilers could have hoped for, given what they were facing heading into the final day of the regular season, crazy enough that there were so many different permutations. And I'll say I'm going to take it one step further beyond that.
I think this team, as topsy-turvy as this regular season was and all the different ups and downs that have been part of it from start to finish, from no Zach Hyman at the beginning to no Leon Dreisaitl at the end, Paul Coffey returning during the Olympic break,
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Chapter 2: What insights does Frank Seravalli share about the Oilers' playoff matchup?
The goalie trade, I mean, there's been a lot to unpack. The arrival of Connor Murphy and Jason Dickinson. It's been, you could write a book just on this season alone. But I think when you compare this year...
As much in some ways as this year might feel like the Oilers are in a more precarious position, they're probably way better situated roster-wise to compete and chase for that Stanley Cup than they have been of late.
Wow. That is an interesting comment because if you talk to a couple people around the team in fairly significant roles... They were not necessarily bullish on the team as the squad went into the playoffs last year. There were a lot of unknowns. As you know, no Matthias Ekholm for, you know, probably two to three rounds of the playoffs. Good seeing you, Juergen. I'm already ahead of you. Anyhow.
We're just live at Ford Hall, so we've got people coming by and, well, you know, making various different physical gestures. And anyways, somebody made me laugh. But, no, like, well, you take a look at last year, okay? Game one against L.A., Josh Brown was in the lineup as the number six defenseman.
Now, he played under five minutes in that game, but they didn't have Matias Ekholm for the first three rounds of the playoffs. Jake Baldwin was coming back from a significant groin injury. There was a scenario in which they didn't know what they were going to get out of John Klingberg, which turned out to be fairly decent. They got a decent productivity out of Ed Wallman for that case.
But then even if you looked at their forward lines, like Evander Kane joined them in game number two. But there were things that are a lot, and I know people say, Frank, Well, we don't know about Dreisaitl, and we don't know about Dickinson. If you watched practice yesterday and who didn't practice today in the optional, I think we know about Dreisaitl and Dickinson.
I think signs are pointing to those guys both playing in the second and third lines. Put it this way, Frank. This is the healthiest lineup Edmonton could have had, all things considered. I'm not convinced Matthias Janmark, if he's healthy, plays ahead of Colton Dock on the fourth line. So this is as healthy of a lineup as we're going to see. And it's not like the ā I don't sense it.
Like, they got pressure to win the series, Frank. But I don't think everybody's looking at Edmonton saying, well, they won 55 games this year. They're the cup favorite. Like, you know what I mean?
That's not how I look at it, and I don't think the regular season means jack squat, to be honest. All right. Okay. This team will be graded purely based on ā
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Chapter 3: How have the Oilers' roster changes impacted their playoff potential?
Like, this is a guy who's been on the radar for a while in terms of having high-end capability. But there's something about the psyche of the position, too, that I think matters. And the one thing about... Connor Ingram that I get a sense of from watching. I'm a huge believer in body language.
And I think your teammates, every part of it, from your coaching staff down to how the team comports itself to how the goalie reacts in net, I think everything is interconnected. And I think the Oilers respect Connor Ingram a lot in the same way that they respected Cal Pickard, except... Conor Ingram actually has the ability to win you a series.
Interesting. So here's how I would respond to, I guess the point I'm making is a lot of years, Edmonton was like one, two, three, or four in terms of the favorites to win the cup. Maybe in a couple of these years, I would assert to you, Frank, that maybe a lot of people have Edmonton sort of in the five through seven hole right now. That's why I think there's not quite the same scope.
I do concur with you on Ingram. I might suggest that Stuart Skinner might have a higher ceiling, but Ingram has been steadier. And certainly, Ingram has been far steadier than Tristan Jari. And that's part of the reason why. And the defense is, because of two primary reasons, Coffey and Murphy, simply different than it's been.
Like, think of how they were floundering before they went to the Olympics.
and where they're at in the last four or five games to close the regular season so uh there you have it what makes anaheim if you want to if you want to play the devil's advocate and you want to flip it around and you want and i look i don't think this team is going to have a hard time against anaheim um i think if you if you really were to look at things through a different lens what's the difference between this year and last year the oilers might be better but also the rest of
the west might be better i think colorado is better i think minnesota and dallas are way better than they've been um it's you're going to be running into a buzzsaw in round three and and to be fair the last two years a lot of people picked dallas over edmonton and a lot of people the oilers the even made quick work of dallas last year so i think some of it's it's unpredictable for sure but
There's also a steadiness in the expectation of this team knowing that you're playing for keeps now. You don't get the same regular season malaise that sometimes you run into on a night-to-night basis that I think serves this team really well. They know when it matters. And they have an ability to rise to that level.
And I think someone like a Leon Dreisaitl, for instance, he's going to be shot out of a cannon. Like tonight, multi-point night from Leon Dreisaitl for his game back in the lineup.
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Chapter 4: What are the main challenges facing the Oilers in this playoff season?
Where does Matt Sundin fit into any of this, if at all? Is there a president of hockey ops involved? Is Mike Gillis still in the mix? I think there's lots of questions, but those are some candidates that I can tell you for certain are meeting again this week in Toronto.
Patrick Alvine fired Thursday night. Canucks getting blown out here with a moribund performance against the Oilers. Second time this year they just got absolutely you-know-what kick. Both games the shots were like 37 of 14. The first time they still had Quinn Hughes and Connor Garland and so on and so on and so on. But anyhow, I digress.
Anything at all on Canucks' potential management individuals that might move into the mix out there?
Yes. So my understanding is that they're advancing to some Zoom interviews this week. to begin talking to candidates. Sources indicate early in the process that the Canucks are focused on managers who have prior GM experience. And the interesting thing about that is there's not really very many that are out there. There is Mark Bergevin, of course. There is Tom Fitzgerald.
There is Brad Treeliving. I... Peter Chiarelli? Peter Chiarelli, yeah. I mean, the list is not crazy long is my point of people who could be in the mix if that's what they're dead set on hiring. I'll throw in my own commentary to add to that, which is I think the Vancouver Canucks are living in an absolute alternate reality.
If Jim Rutherford is allowed to present Patrick Alvin being fired as him, quote, making poor decisions, he didn't have any decisions to make. He was being puppeted. The real person involved or running hockey operations and making every consequential decision was Jim Rutherford himself.
And when you had this disastrous season that they did, all they could do is throw a body on the tarmac for everyone to see some red meat. And that's unfortunately what Patrick Alveen ended up being. And I thought it was distasteful and devoid of leadership to
to try and slag his reputation on the way out any update on nashville yes uh they're continuing with their process tom fitzgerald expected to interview in nashville this week uh three names that have had at least two in-person interviews include oilers g assistant gm bill scott Also, Scott White from Dallas, as we mentioned, and Brett Peterson of the Florida Panthers.
Their process is ongoing, and they've actually been talking to, over the last seven days at least, new potential candidates, including some first-time conversations on Zoom. They have not been in a rush to do anything, in part because...
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Chapter 5: How does the Oilers' current lineup compare to previous seasons?
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