NHL Hockey on Rogers' Elliotte Friedman (2/10/26)

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Oilers NOW with Bob Stauffer 20 min 2 speakers 6 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. It is brought to you by our title sponsor, World of Spas, and we're going to head straight off to... The River Cree Resort Casino Hotline, 780-451-8800. Brought to you by the River Cree Resort Casino. Don't miss High Valley March the 21st. Tickets at therivercreeresort.com. Excitement. We go to Italy, and we're pleased to hook up with Elliot Friedman. Brought to you by Abe's Door Service, where services are specialty. Visit abesdoor.ca. Elliot, how are you doing? What time is it there right now?

Elliotte Friedman 0:40

It's midnight.

Bob Stauffer 0:41

So it's just starting for you. You got at least another four hours.

Elliotte Friedman 0:45

No, no, no, no, no, no. That was last night. Last night we had a good night out, but it's game day tomorrow and you can't fool around.

Bob Stauffer 0:57

Game day tomorrow? Who's playing tomorrow? I thought Canada doesn't play tomorrow.

Elliotte Friedman 1:01

No, Canada's two days from now, but the puck drops tomorrow. There are other games tomorrow. We've got Sweden and Italy and Finland-Slovakia tomorrow.

What is Elliotte Friedman's on-site perspective from the Winter Olympics in Italy?

Bob Stauffer 1:13

All right, awesome stuff. Before we get to NHL stuff, before we get to the men's side, Team Canada women played today. I think I saw a stat today that the United States had nine players on their team younger than Canada's youngest player. I was in Edmonton. I watched a period of the rivalry series and the United States absolutely obliterated Canada. Canada didn't have their best player. There does appear based on today's performance. Is it fair to say right now that the U.S. is on the uptick in a major way in women's hockey?

Elliotte Friedman 1:49

So I was able to go for the first period tonight. We had to record a podcast, so I ended up coming home after the first, going back to the hotel after the first period. It was 2-0 after one. You know, the game started a bit late, too. It was 8-10 local, so I couldn't stay the whole night. But, you know, obviously Marie-Philippe Collin was out, and it's a much different Canadian team when she's not there. She does so much. You know, she's on both special teams. She's the leader of the team. It's really difficult without her there. It changes the dynamic. But, you know, it's only one game, although they've dominated them in the pre-tournament games, and we'll see what happens in the medal round. Tonight, they just looked faster than them, Bob.

Elliotte Friedman 2:35

They really dominated from the opening, and you can feel it in the building. There was a lot of excitement. I would say there were probably a few more Canadian fans than U.S. fans there, but there were a lot of U.S. fans, and there was a lot of excitement to start, but the fair is fair, and the U.S. dominated this one tonight.

Bob Stauffer 2:54

Yeah, I just I have some very strong feelings, as you know, at times about what happens with Hockey Canada. And sometimes the toughest thing to do is not to reward the past, but stay in the present. And I know there's some higher like I'm not going to profess to be all over it, but. I know that at times there's some younger players on both the men's and women's side end up, or 17-year-olds instead of 19-year-olds on the world junior side, they get overlooked and they go with a little bit more experience. And I'll be intrigued to see if Canada can somehow close the gap the rest of the way. What are your early interpretations of what Team Canada's men's team, who are a squad that has consistently had the upper hand against the United States best on best,

Bob Stauffer 3:44

dating all the way back to the mid-1990s. What did you think of Tom Wilson? Do we read much into the line combinations on the opening day, Elliot?

Elliotte Friedman 3:53

Yeah, I think the thing is, this is a different tournament than the Four Nations, Bob. The Four Nations was four games, and there was no time to fool around. You had to hit the ground running. It was a hurricane, basically. It was fast, and you had to be ready to go. It's interesting talking to a few of the Swedish players, Bob. They think they really blew that tournament in the first game against Canada. Mario Lemieux came out, and they got caught up in the emotion, and they felt they lost that game in the first period, and it really cost them the tournaments.