Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Pronger (2/11/26)
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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. It is 434.0 country. Bob Stauffer with you. Some guests on the show received gift certificates to Japanese Village. It's a true celebration for the census, quality ingredients, and an unmatched grill side experience. We're going to be talking about experience in a second here. Book your seat at jvedmonton.ca. Don and his staff will take care of you. All right, here's the deal. If you're looking for experience and experience in the Olympics, our next guest has as much as anyone that's ever played for Canada. He is our Oilers Now headliner, brought to you by our friends at Wilhock Beef Jerky.
Others could try to imitate, but nobody could duplicate the great flavor of Wilhock Beef Jerky, only available in L.A. and Leduc, Alberta. And I know Trent Wilhock well enough to know. he would love Chris Pronger's no BS personality. So we welcome back to the show, hockey hall of famer, four-time Canadian Olympian, two-time gold medal winner, Chris Pronger. Hello, Chris. How you doing?
Great, Bob. How you doing, my friend?
Good. I'm going to be intrigued to see what happens tomorrow. But I know this, that there are a lot of factors that can take place in these events, and that's why you're such a great guy to talk to because you've literally experienced them all, right? Like the disappointment.
All ends of the spectrum.
You've been there. So we can just do this by chronological order alone. You can relate to the level of the excitement for guys like Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews who have never had a chance to participate in the Olympic Games.
What Olympic experience did Chris Pronger describe from his first NHL-era Games in 1998?
Why do you ask? Because you too probably didn't think when you came into the NHL as a rookie, you know, with the Hartford Whalers that you were going to end up, you know, representing Canada in the Olympics in 1998 because of the 94 Olympics, of course, NHL players to go. How stoked were the NHL players back in 98 when you guys got to go to the Olympic Games?
Oh, we were fired up. You know, I was never on my radar to play in the Olympics. And then To A, have the opportunity, and then B, to get selected to play for Canada was a dream come true and something that I'll never forget. Just the way we were embraced over in Japan and having the NHL players there, it was really a sight to see. And then with it being the first opportunity to have the likes of Wayne Gretzky and players of Legends of the Game involved, it was pretty special to be a part of the first one.
Now, there are some interesting things that happened with that team. Eric Lindros. And you know this. I am not a Lindros hater. I have tremendous amount of respect for Eric. He was a fantastic big man. He could really pass the puck tough as nails. He could flat out play. But you guys had some experience on that team. And Eric was sort of, I think, foisted into the role of being a leader there. Do you think that gets overplayed just because you had a goalie stand on his head and steal you in a playoff game? Or was there something to it? And the fact that, you know, he sort of superseded some other, frankly, at that point, more established guys for Team Canada.
Yeah, I'm not sure that was, you know, the biggest factor. You know, I think, A, you're right. Dominic Hasek stood on his head, certainly did in the shootout. Um, you know, it was a tight checking game, a number of scoring opportunities, both ways, both goalies played really well. Uh, but, but, uh, you know, I always talk about this. I really got the sense and the feeling that there was so much pressure hoisted on us with it being the first time for pros, the names on our team, uh, expectations. Uh, we were playing not to lose and we weren't playing to win in my opinion. And, and I really got that sense of, And in years later, obviously in 2002 and 2010, I really felt like the losses and the way that we played, it was just a gradual progression going upward, getting better and better with each successive game.
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