NHL Executive legend Brian Burke (2/20/26)

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Oilers NOW with Bob Stauffer 18 min 4 speakers 7 chapters transcribed 2 months ago

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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Bob Stauffer 0:00

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.

Aidan Ganim 0:24

All right, we just had a conversation with Bob Stauffer. Now we're going to switch things over to the U.S. side of things as we bring in Brian Burke, brought to you by Ultrashine. Commercial cleaning done smarter. Request your free cleaning quote today by visiting Ultrashine.com. Burke, how are you? I'm good, guys. How are you? I am good. Did you catch both the games today? I did. What did you think of them?

Brian Burke 0:48

I got to say something. Listen to the traffic in Edmonton. I live in Toronto. You don't have traffic.

Cam Moon 0:56

That's a fair comment, Brian. That is fair.

Aidan Ganim 1:01

All right, well, USA and Canada in the gold medal game once again, just like the four nations. Berkey, was it kind of expected heading into this tournament that this was going to be the way it was going to work out?

Brian Burke 1:12

Yeah, I said this on the radio show here with Bob. I felt people were discounting Sweden and Finland too much, particularly Sweden, were not impressed in this tournament. I said, beware of a two-horse race. It really might be three, but it worked out well.

Aidan Ganim 1:31

Oh, yeah, definitely. Well, Finland definitely putting on the pressure for Team Canada. You see Saros, just an unbelievable performance from him. What did you think of the play of that goaltender?

Brian Burke 1:44

You look at a guy that small and you think he can't stop the puck. He's had a real good career. He's undersized. I thought he was spectacular.

Cam Moon 1:55

Brian Cam Moon here. I met you many years ago at a breakfast in Red Deer. You were working for the Flames at that time. You were outstanding. Your thoughts going into this, Canada-US, do you have any team as a slight favorite going into this based on what you've watched so far?

Brian Burke 2:16

Going in, I would say a slight favorite team would be Canada. It was set out, set as such an important part of a team. I know everyone will try and pull on the rope and make up for his loss, but assuming he can't play, I think that's a big loss. Then I'd say it's even money.

Aidan Ganim 2:32

Yeah, I heard he went down to the dressing room in between the or in the second intermission and just kind of gave a bit of a pep talk to the guys. I mean, he's captain Canada, golden goal, gold medal in Sochi as well. I mean, that's that's a guy you want in the lineup. Connor McDavid breaking the Olympic point record today. He's definitely a guy you're going to want in the lineup as well. expected to be a big factor in this one. But like we saw in the Stanley Cup final last year, if you can kind of find a center to match his play style and lock him down like Alex Barkov did, you're going to be in good shape. If you're Mike Sullivan, which center are you going to assign to Connor McDavid?

Brian Burke 3:10

I think you do it by committee. They don't get the last change anywhere. Pretty sure Canada has the last change, so they don't get the matchups they want. Do it by committee.

Cam Moon 3:21

Yeah, I would think so. Brian, looking at the focus, the profile of these games for the National Hockey League, having NHL players there, having Canada and U.S.

How did Brian Burke react to Team USA vs Canada reaching the Olympic gold medal?

Cam Moon 3:36

in the gold medal final, from a business point of view, how valuable do you think this is for the NHL to have their players on full display here?

Brian Burke 3:47

Well, I think it's a great question, but I think it's very difficult to answer because these injuries, all the compression in the schedule, all because of the break for three weeks for this one tournament. I'm not sure it makes sense long-term. I love the hockey. I'm glad we do it. I've been involved in two Olympic games. I'm not sure we should do this in the summer or do a 10-day tournament and bring eight teams. I'm not as big on the whole experience. I don't like watching 60 people do a launch for a biathlon event. Every 30 seconds, I watched one. Every 30 seconds, they went off.