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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. Welcome back, everybody. It is 4.35 in oil country, and we'll tell you that guests on the show receive gift certificates to Japanese Village. It's a true celebration for the senses, quality ingredients, and an unmatched grill side experience.
Book your seat at jvedmonton.ca. Don and his staff will take care of you. I might have to go see those guys. Maybe Sunday I'm going to go see Don. We're going to head off to the River Creek Resort and Casino Hotline and welcome back to the show. For Summers Drilling, your trusted water well experts since 1917, visit summersdrilling.com to request a quote today. We welcome back Frank Cervalli.
Hello, Frank. How are you? I was just thinking back to that romantic evening you and I had at Japanese Village. Just two absolute units sitting around by some hibachi table. It was fantastic.
You have such a way with words. Combined weight at the time, oh, let's say 450. How's that? Yeah, no. That sounds generous. Yes, it does. All right. Perhaps sometimes in life you go through certain things that provide you with a bit of an epiphany.
and uh you know it's interesting with the edmonton orders because there's no debate that the orders were gifted from the gods not once but twice uh obviously getting conor mcdavid was an automatic but as it turned out leon drysaddle turned out to be pretty damn good too the orders have been as close as you can to winning the stanley cup but have not won the cup this year
When they were vanquished in six games by the emerging Anaheim Ducks, people were, oh, don't give me any excuses about the injuries, and that's not a factor, and it's an inexcusable loss by the Oilers organization. And there is a degree of truth to that. It was a very disappointing loss, and it cost some people their jobs. That said...
We are watching a team that was unequivocally the best team in the National Hockey League during the regular season. They don't have Cale McCarr for game one and game two, Frank. Vegas wins two games in Denver, Colorado, which is hard to do when you're up at mile high. And then they get McCarr back. He still doesn't look right. And then McKinnon gets beamed with the puck yesterday.
And somehow Vegas rallied from 3-0 down and come back to win the game 5-3. They're now 3-0 in the series overall. Does this just reinforce if the wrong guys get hurt, it affects things?
I don't know. I mean, I'm sure that's going to be a common refrain from the Colorado Avalanche if they lose, and it's going to be the easiest thing to chalk it up to. But since you made it about the Oilers to start and then somehow tried to turn it into what the Colorado Avalanche are doing as an absolution to it,
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Chapter 2: What insights does Frank Seravalli share about the Edmonton Oilers' recent performance?
We know that they were shot down in their push to get Eric Tolsky or they raised a question about Eric Tolsky and that query was denied by Nashville. The Carolina Hurricanes, as far as I know, and again, not saying it's not going to happen or not possible, but a couple of these things can be true at the same time. So here are some facts.
One, Chris McFarland is among the lowest paid general managers in the sport. Two, that the Nashville Predators still continued along with their own process last week as the Avalanche are playing. And I believe we're still in contact with two individuals that I believe are involved in the search.
There you go. Frank Cervelli from Frankly Hockey. Well, Vegas, they're in an interesting spot. They also have courage in their convictions. You know where I'm going next. Judd Moldaver represented Carter Hart. You and me talked a lot about this on and off air over the course of the last year and a half. I don't know if there was ever an appetite to play in Canada for Carter Hart. I don't know.
That was a non-starter, actually, from the beginning. Yes, there you go, non-starter. But, man, oh, man, you saw how well he played with the Flyers the one year in the playoffs. Has he ever lost a game in overtime, by the way? I don't think he has. I think he's 5-0. Not in his career. Not in his career. He's playing well, isn't he?
He is, and I think when you think about their situation, a few things needed to align. He didn't have interest in going back to the Philadelphia Flyers either. So the way he presented it was he wanted to play with a team that, one, had opportunity, two, had an authentic chance to win, and three, was in a place where there wouldn't be so much of a spotlight on his past.
And all three of those things aligned in a pretty significant way in Vegas. And let's be totally fair, kind of got off to a bit of a rocky start. I mean, even in these playoffs, if you rewind back to the middle or first four games of the first round, I can find you tweets from Golden Knights fans who are saying, get this guy out of here. We need an Aiden Hill to start game five.
Through his first four games of these playoffs, Carter Hart had a save percentage of 876. If you look since then, he's, I think, just a shade under 950, 940-something, maybe 943. So he's been really impressive. And then the other thing, too, is there's obviously a really interesting connection with John Tortorella and Carter Hart.
that throughout his trial and his case in the court of public opinion, one person that kept in touch with him, even though part of the time he wasn't even employed, was John Tortorella checking up on him just to say hi and make sure he's doing okay. Now, when you suddenly have this guy come in with eight games remaining in the regular season...
and you know that he believes in you as a goalie and believes in you as a person, that's a pretty significant power. And I think he's utilized that to his advantage, and I also think he's such a creature of comfort that... The rhythm of the playoffs is probably really helpful for him.
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Chapter 3: How did injuries impact the Colorado Avalanche's playoff run?
Two, the playoff experience is a big deal. He's gone to the cup final three different times with three different teams. including one in the West with Nashville. He's never worked in Canada, which I think would be a question. And he's also done this for a really long time. He is 60... He turns 62 next season. That's so old. No, I'm saying he's done this for 1,600 games. It's a long time.
And so... You know, one question I'd have for him would be just about how much he's evolved over the course of these years. I think you're always changing, trying to get better, trying to work at it. And at some point... And look, I've covered him and I've seen him for a very long time, almost since just after his 2009. So a huge chunk of his career, I've had a front row seat to it.
He just looked a little tired to me. And I wonder if this season, the first one that he hasn't worked, maybe that have done some good.
Yeah, it's funny. I know we talked about Mike Babcock last week and we got some pushback from some people that said that that's a non-starter. For what? For being potentially in the mix to be a head coach here. Like who is saying that? Fans? There were some fans. There were some media members saying it should not be brought up. And I was like, again, you know my premise on this.
An experienced coach with gravitas that has won a Stanley Cup before that can put structure and process into a team's game. And it would be preferable if he's had good penalty kills, which, by the way, LaViolette has. Babcock scratches a lot of those boxes off as well.
Look, I know I mentioned him before, and I'm not making the Oilers list, but if you're going solely based on guys who have won a Stanley Cup previously, again, a reminder that only three people in the history of the game has done it, and Peter Laviolette has been on a two-decade-long quest to go do it again with another team, and has come as close as possible and hasn't done it.
So I wouldn't make that... I'm going to mention again, and also an Alberta native, is Dave Haxtell. I think you have to consider his experience.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of missed opportunities for the Oilers this season?
And he's got this presence, this gravitas. You mentioned gravitas. But he kind of, doesn't he remind you of Knobloch a bit?
Like, are you looking for something?
Not even a little bit. Have you spent five minutes with him? This guy breathes and spits fast. He's an extremely intense individual.
Well, I'll defer to you on that because you spent some time with Haxtell in Philadelphia when Knobloch was an assistant to him.
I'm telling you, they're not even close to the same. Chris is just a nice, mild-mannered, calm guy. Dave Haxtell has a fear. He puts the fear of God in you, and he gives you this look.
They call it the Haxtell look. I got to do this, and I know the Memorial Cup's taking place. I did talk to one of the other players over in Europe yesterday, and man, oh, man, very impressed by both of the Swedish players that are up for the draft, which is obviously Ivor Stenberg and Viggo Bjork. Do you think maybe people need to consider the level?
Can you really compare Gavin McKenna, who played at Penn State, and Keaton Verhoff, who played at North Dakota, and Stenberg and Bjork, who played in the Swedish Hockey League? How do you compare those guys against Major Junior when, if anybody watched Kelowna on the weekend in their two games, this is the weakest I have seen the WHL look? in 45 years, Frank.
It amazes me that so many draft gurus have got a lot of the junior kids pushing up and passing. What are your thoughts on that?
It's a totally different scale. I think it's been the biggest flaw in the public scouting world. In fact, among the teams that I've talked to, I don't know that enough weight has been put toward the quality and level of competition. And
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