NHL Hockey on Rogers' Elliotte Friedman (2/3/26)

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Oilers NOW with Bob Stauffer 22 min 2 speakers 5 chapters transcribed 2 months ago

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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

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. 334 in oil country, Bob Stauffer with you, along with Derek Scott and Aidan Ganim. Guests on orders now receive guest certificates to Japanese Village. It's a true celebration for the census. Quality ingredients and unmatched grill side experience. Book your seat at jvedmonton.ca. Momentarily, for our friends at Ebes Door Service, we'll hook up with Elliott Friedman. Where service is there especially, visit ebesdoor.ca. I asked you on the Ashley Fine Floors text line. A couple questions today. Number one, about what the Leafs should do, what the Flames should do. That's the opponent's next two nights.

Bob Stauffer 0:46

And then I said, for me, the biggest single key for the Oilers the rest of the way will be how the tandem, the pairing of Darnell Nurse and Jake Wallman do in the second pairing. and the majority of your texters all say the same thing. Bob, we agree. If they're great, the Oilers will have success full stop. Part of that is in large part because of how Evan Bouchard, for two months, strong argument can be made that he's been amongst the best defensemen in the NHL. So I believe the trade freeze is over, so let's head off to the River Creek Resort and Casino Hotline, and we welcome back Elliot Friedman for Abe's Door Service. Hi, Elliot. How are you doing?

Elliotte Friedman 1:25

Bob, the trade freeze is tomorrow.

Bob Stauffer 1:27

Oh, well, there you go. It's not over yet. Thank you. See, that's why we have you on.

Elliotte Friedman 1:31

Yeah, no worries. It was funny. It's just something that not a lot of people are used to, so I can understand why not everybody knows it. It's tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. your time.

Bob Stauffer 1:45

Okay, so we'll be in Calgary. The team is unlikely to have a morning skate tomorrow just because it's the second of a back-to-back. You know what? And we're going to have James Myrtle on a little bit later on in today's show as well. But look, you're based in Toronto. You work a lot of Maple Leaf games as the first of the two Hockey Night Canada doubleheader games on Saturdays. What has, like, I'm going to be honest. I did not envision Brad Traylor and his squad to be in this position right now. I agree. Okay, so I thought that they would be close. Now, seeing that, Calgary finished with 96 points last year, didn't make the playoffs. The Canadiens had 91 and did. This year, the opposite has taken place where the East certainly appears to be infinitely better than the West.

Bob Stauffer 2:32

So realistically, what are the Maple Leafs' chances right now to make the playoffs?

Elliotte Friedman 2:38

It's not likely. And I think one of the things that makes it tougher for them As you know, Bob, it always seems like there's one division where your only choice if you're not in the top three is to go through the wild card. You can't catch your own division. For example, this year in the Central, whoever's fourth, they're not going to catch Minnesota or Dallas or Colorado. Your only hope is the wild card. That's in the West. In the East, it's very unlikely they're going to catch, especially if Buffalo's the way they're going. you're not going to catch Buffalo or Detroit or Tampa Bay. And the Islanders, who are third in the Metro, are below the wildcard teams. So for teams like Toronto and Ottawa, you really don't have your own division as an option.

Elliotte Friedman 3:28

You're too far behind. You have to go back and get there through the wildcard. And those are their same division teams. So I think that that's part of the problem here is they really dug a huge hole. I think Ottawa was the one team that has a shot to do it because their underlying numbers have been so good. They just can't get a save. Suddenly they're getting saves and they're kind of alive again. I just think Toronto's built themselves too big a hole and I think they know it. You know, last year, Stoller's and Wold together, they were some of the best goaltending of the league. They covered up. They were like Oxy 10, Bob. They covered up a lot of acne. This year, they haven't been able to do it.

Bob Stauffer 4:11

All right. Does that mean Florida is in a similar position?