Oilers Legend Craig MacTavish (2/19/26)
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Who is Craig MacTavish and why is he guest-hosting today?
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 534 in oil country. On Thursdays, normally we have Louie DeRusse join the show. Louie is in Italy as we speak at the Olympics Working World Feed broadcast. His appearances and orders now are brought to you by our friends at GCL Diesel, critical engine component suppliers, pumps, injectors, and turbochargers for the transportation, mining, agricultural, and oil and gas industries. GCL Diesel, diesel understood. And Royal Pizza, all February long, get a medium gourmet pizza, a meal-sized salad, and a slice of dessert for only $37.95. For a menu and a location, visit royalpizza.ca, but the stop for recommendation is the Mediterranean Chicken.
All right, we're going to head off to the River Creek Resort Casino Hotline. Normally, MACD on Mondays is on Monday, but it was Family Day on Monday. So nothing says, hey, man, look who's joined our family here at Oilers now. And as the official president of this man's fan club, when he coached the team or not, we welcome back to the show for contract equipment, Canada's premium heavy equipment dealer with rental and sales. He was always my guy. Craig McTavish, back to you on Mondays. How you doing, Craig?
Yeah. Yeah, well, the listeners are going to be more disappointed than normal, Bob, with I'm filling in for Louie. But, yeah, no, I appreciated all your kind support during the years of my tenure as coach of the Edmonton Oilers. And from time to time, some of your very good insight. Or not. Or not.
Yeah, it's... Lots going on. Yes. I'll get your thoughts. So, Canada at the Olympics on the men's side. What have you seen so far, Mac T?
Well, just amazingly how... Some superstar players can seem at the superstar players in the NHL when you get over. And I mean, I talked to Kevin Lowe a lot about this when he was a manager, but just how important speed is to the overall dynamic and your success rate. In this elite competition, it's just another gear or maybe a gear and a half higher than what the speed of an NHL game is. But I mean, for me, my takeaways from is, I mean, Connor McDavid obviously is just reaffirming his total dominance as the best player in the world. I mean, he's just a different level player than even McKinnon and some of the other guys that Salabrini's been good. But it's just, I mean, he's just played unbelievably well.
And he's stepped right into the exact same role on Team Canada as he has with the same responsibility as he has with the Edmonton Oilers. And I mean, when they were done, it looked like he was going to have to get it done. And, you know, he's he's played well on Sal Brini's played well and at times Tom Wilson and other times they've got McKinnon on that line. But my takeaway is how dominant he's been on the USA side of things, how dominant that Quinn Hughes was. But Lucas Raymond too. I mean, I don't know a lot about him. I know he's a really good player, but I had no idea that he was that good. What a pass and what a one-timer Zibanejad had to tie that USA game. I mean, there's only one guy I know that could one-time a puck from that angle, and that was Craig Simpson.
Zibanejad caught that perfectly. So, I mean, it's been unbelievable hockey.
Craig, you said something about speed. I don't know if you remember this conversation. You were GM of the team at the time as we went into the 14 Olympics. I know I brought it up with Kevin. There was a study done in international soccer about having attacking wingers with pace. They drew more goals, more free kicks, and that allowed teams to create more off of set pieces. And Taylor Hall in that season finished sixth in the NHL. The top six scoring players in the NHL in the 13-14 regular season were Canadian. Only three of them played on the Olympic team. So Crosby did, Getzlaff did, and Corey Perry did because Giroux, Sagan, and Hall did not. I don't know if you remember it, but speed does matter. Like, it does.
And the theory on it was they just – what happens with international officiating is they don't –
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
Who is Craig MacTavish and why is he guest-hosting today?
0:00–8:52
2
What are Craig MacTavish's first impressions of the Olympic men's hockey tournament?
8:52–9:25
3
How is elite international speed changing NHL players' performances?
9:25–11:40
4
Which Olympic players stand out and how do they compare to NHL stars?
11:40–20:14