Chapter 1: What are the key highlights from Ron Maclean's career?
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. We return to Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer. Brought to you by World of Spas, Edmonton's number one hot tub and swim spa dealer. The ideal place to start your daily vacation. On Oilers Radio, 880 Chad.
All righty, 4.33 here in oil country. Ron McLean brought to you by Century Casino and the all-new Selly Sports Bar and Lounge. Experience big screen energy and game day specials. Every day is a game day at Century Casino. Ron is also our headliner today, brought to you by Wilhock Beef Jerky.
Others can try to imitate, but no one can duplicate the great flavor of Wilhock Beef Jerky, only available in Leduc, Alberta. Without further ado, NHL Hockey on Rogers, Ron McLean. Ron, how are you?
I'm great, Aidan. How are you doing? I'm great, as I said to you just a moment ago before we came on. I was excited last night, not to interrupt, but you were at the game, so you mightn't have seen. We did a really fun thing with a horse race call by Dave Johnson, Jack Michael's hero, calling the Preakness in 1989. I couldn't run the whole horse race.
But I wish we could have because mid-race, Dave Johnson has to sort of sort out the horses where they are on the backstretch. And it's absolutely magical. And it reminded me of some of Jack's best moments come when there's a Pier 6 brawl and he can figure out who's fighting who or whom.
I love that. I didn't catch that. That's awesome, though. So obviously you caught last night's game. What were your thoughts on it?
Well, several things. I was concerned about the special teams, of course, but that's, as Connor said after the game, maybe the fact that Hyman and Leon missed the last stretch of the regular season accounts for their timing being just a smidge off. The thing that caught me, two things. Obviously, the whole... You know, as much as you can say, Connor should be fine.
He looked, he had a little fright in his eyes to my way of seeing things. And I know how much he went through when he was young in 2019. The whole documentary, whatever it takes, was based on. How he decided to approach his injured knee and he went to Colorado and they said have an operation and he went to Los Angeles and they said don't. And he had to do several things.
He got Mark Lindsay, a therapist involved and Tracy Wilson, a figure skater and all kinds of lengths to, as he said, I was 22 years old and the next 20 years of my life is sort of hanging on this decision. And I don't want to be an alarmist and say this was anything like that. But I could tell he was really processing, you know, is this serious? Because it sounds like he said he rolled his leg.
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Chapter 2: How did the recent Oilers game impact their playoff chances?
And when Szymanski gets that absolutely gorgeous tying goal, it's two minutes later, not even, a minute and 17, and they go ahead again on Gauthier's goal. So those windows where they had the inability to kind of ride the crowd and the energy of Rogers Place, that Anaheim was able to do that was, to me, a storyline.
Yeah, 100%. Does it feel sort of in a way that the Oilers maybe played Anaheim style of hockey yesterday? That was a question that was being asked quite a bit, and the Oilers didn't really agree in that facet, but it seemed like in the case, the Oilers were simply playing one goal after another kind of hockey there, which is pretty much how the Ducks run things.
No, that's a good point. I would say they both do play similar games. They both have tons of talent and kind of can outscore their defensive lapses when they have them. The feeling had been, as you know, that Edmonton was buckling down and doing what they've done in the last two playoff years, and that's play great defense.
It felt like Connor Murphy's arrival had been like Ekholm's a couple of years ago, and that they were really solid on the back end and they should be able to defend, and especially on special teams. You know, that was everybody had it tilted Edmonton's favor. So for them to go for four and the other guys two for three, you know, these were all surprises. And and you could be right.
Maybe that just comes from them thinking, you know, they are good enough to do that. But for sure, they'll have to reapply themselves defensively for game three.
It seemed like the physical play really, really took a jump in game two where, you know, in the first it felt a little bit more loose. Guys had opportunities to create space for themselves and maybe make some plays. Zach Heim and tons of hits. Vasily Podkols and tons of hits. And on the other side of things, the Anaheim Ducks were doing just the same thing.
Radko Gudis obviously not playing last night. Do you think that that maybe created some confidence for the guys?
Well, it's been a big man's game early on in these playoffs. Five games in, or five days, I should say, into the playoffs. You look at the list, and we showed it on hockey night, the list of the game-winning goals. Nicholas Roy over in Colorado, 6'4". Pavel Zaka got one for Boston, 6'4". Alex Tuck for Buffalo, 6'4". Porter Martone has taken the lead by storm as two game-winning goals. He's 6'3".
Uriah Slavkovsky, 6'3". Jason Robertson, 6'3". Dickinson had a key couple of goals. He's 6'2". Nick Dowd had a winner. He's 6'2". J.J. Moser had a winner. He's 6'2". Jordan Martinuk, you can only get him in Leduc, Alberta. He's 6'1". But, you know, by and large, Logan O'Connor, Logan Cooley, these are 6-footers. They were going into last night.
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Chapter 3: What concerns were raised about the Oilers' special teams performance?
Now, Wyatt Johnson got a goal, but Kirill Kaprizov and Stankov were the only two winners from guys under 6 feet. And why that's important is... You know, that physical game you see with Montreal, it's been tough for Caulfield and Suzuki to find space. So when it's heavy hockey, your reach is kind of a real extra edge. That's how Nicholas Hoa scored the overtime winner for Colorado in game two.
And I think, you know, that's something to keep an eye on. The themes or threads early in the playoffs are a lot of overtimes. Youth, you know, obviously Utah, Philadelphia, and now the Ducks. And the size of the people that are kind of owning the rink so far. Because penalty minutes, Aiden, are way up. During the regular season, it was two teams combined for 18 minutes per game, Pimms.
the penalty minutes going into the edmonton game last night two teams combined was up to 34 so nearly double the number of penalties are being called you mentioned porter martone i i can say for one i did not see this coming the kid comes in late in the season final nine games and he gets 10 points then he goes into the postseason and he just continues to dominate and that's sort of been the reason that the flow well not the full reason dan vladar has had a really phenomenal series as well but
a big factor as to why the Flyers currently hold a 3-0 lead over Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins?
I couldn't agree more. We're all saying that. You know, he was a captain of Canada, so you know that he's got great hockey sense. That's the thing when I sit with Kevin or Luke or Kelly watching him play, they're just stunned at the maturity of his game in terms of, you know, the little details. So I would say Owen Tippett has had a bit of a breakout this year.
You're right, Vladar, they all think we'll win the Bobby Clark Trophy, which is the MVP of the Flyers. I think Couturier, their captain, has had a real bounce back. He had kind of vanished there for a couple of seasons, but he's been just tremendous. And Sanheim, oh, my God, Travis Sanheim, he's kind of a mix of Drew Dowdy and Colton Pareko. He is playing lights-out hockey right now.
So the Flyers look good. And just seeing Marton do that, and again, the Ducks with their 14th Montreal, when I first started in 1986, they won the Stanley Cup with 13 rookies. They had Patrick Roy in net, of course, but they had Claude Lemieux, got 10 goals as a rookie that year in the playoffs. StƩphane Richer was a rookie, Shane Corson.
Brian Scroodland, Mike Lawler, Shell Dahlien, he's out before your time a little bit, Steve Rooney, Sergio Mameso, Serge Boisvert, Randy Busek, John Cordick from Edmonton, David Maley. They had a really young team, and they won the Stanley Cup. So it's not the first time, but it's a surprise to see kids just absolutely owning these playoffs.
Yeah, and you think about it, it's not just the Philadelphia Flyers and their young core. The Ottawa Senators took the Canes to double overtime. Obviously, they fell and went down 2-0 in that series, but they're looking really good. Montreal, Utah, a lot of groups with younger talent. Are we sort of heading into a new generation here, Ron?
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Chapter 4: How is Connor McDavid's injury affecting the team dynamics?
Anton Forsberg on L.A., Linus Olmark on Ottawa. What have you kind of gathered there from the goaltending so far through this playoffs?
You know, that's for sure the biggest surprise is Hallmark has been completely in command of his game and really, really nice to see. The first game, the two that beat him were both flukes. One was where the stick got interfered with on the shot, so a changeup came his way. And the second one, he made an amazing glove save but lost the puck and it ended up settling in behind him.
That's the only way they beat him. You know, he's been just great. And I would say that in the Edmonton, even though the scoring is a little more wild, I feel like Connor Ingram, you can't blame him for any of the goals. So he's done his job. And Dostal, you know, made a name for himself at the Olympics.
So, yeah, goaltending right around the loop has been, you know, the thing about the safe percentage, and Bob, we've talked about Stoffer, of course. We've talked about that on the show. I look at the Carolina Hurricanes, and they were 26th in the NHL in team goals against, or sorry, in team save percentage. But in team goals against, they were number five.
So their shot suppression changes the whole dynamic of how you look at those numbers. So that's kind of an important consideration when you look at save percentage. You have to also include goals against average just to see if, in fact, a team only allows a very few number of shots.
We'll go to the other side of that here because there's another oiler I want to talk about, Leon Dreisaitl. He misses the last 14 games of the season and he comes in for game one of the playoffs and it looks like the guy hasn't missed a beat. Four points in just two games. I mean, how invaluable has he been for the Oilers right now, especially with the play that Connor McDavid has had?
Well, and Paterka has been great and Stutzel has been great. He's snake bit, but he's been great. And Marco Serm's doing a great job on. So look out, look out for Germany again at the upcoming Olympics in three years. But yeah, Leon, you know, he came out of the gate there in game one, just flying. It's really nice to see he's a, he's a big body.
So that kind of stays with that theme of the guys that seem to be finding space and are the ones who can make it for themselves. And Leon's, you know, leading that line. Kapanen and Pod Coles and Luke Gazdik told a story on our show last night, Aiden, where he was out there doing some interviews. He did Connor McDavid.
I don't know who all he interviewed, but we're running them, you know, sprinkling them through our playoff telecasts, Luke Gazdik and Oilers. And he said he went to a practice where two guys who aren't in the lineup or not on the team were on the ice, sort of black aces, and they were skating with Pod Coles and Kapanen.
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Chapter 5: What strategies did the Oilers employ against the Ducks?
wall into the sense that they're a lock to go right back to the final the way they're playing even with colorado uh i i think you know that that feeling was that edmonton was there now i'm saying okay this is going to be one of those you got to survive this first round in order to go to the final and that happens calgary flames in 89 when they won the cup they were life and death to get by the vancouver canucks went to double overtime in game seven
Gilmore was terrible but once they dodged that bullet you know he was great he he took off and it's kind of feeling like Edmonton may have to go through one of those just survive this first round and and then they're on their way one last question for you Ron you you're obviously watching the postseason on a much broader spectrum than I am what's been your favorite series so far
Well, last night's double OT with Minnesota and Dallas was electric. There was a funny moment, the winning goal by Wyatt Johnston. Before that goal, the penalty happens, the puck's over the glass. It's 10 minutes to go in the second overtime, so they come out to scrape and take care of the ice.
And all that while that they're doing that, Branton ends up at the bench just giving it to his defense, you know. Shoot the puck from the blue line and shoot it so that I can deflect it. Shoot it low because they've got a power play coming. And as soon as they get back to action, shot comes from the point and it's high and Rantanen can't handle it.
So he starts saying to Nero Haskinen, who's the one who shot the puck, he's actually gesturing with his stick. No, no, along the ice. Keep it low. Keep it low. And then not 30 seconds later, Haskin has got it at the point again. And what does he do? He shoots it three feet off the ice and Wyatt Johnston tips it home. So that series has been as, you know, advertised.
The Central Division had a year. And I would put that right there. But they're all good. I find that Utah-Vegas one really compelling as well.
Yeah, for sure. Ron, you're a legend, man. Thanks for joining us today.
Right back at you, Aiden. Keep up the great work.
Thanks a lot. That is Ron McLean from Hockey Night in Canada. A reminder, some guests on Oilers Now receive gift certificates to Japanese Village. It's a true celebration for the senses, quality ingredients, and unmatched grill side experience. Book your seat at jvedmonton.ca. We are going to put a bookmark in Oilers Now when we come back. The injury report for James H. Brown and Associates.
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