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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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.
Aiden Gannon joining you instead for Bob Stauffer. He's going to join us a little bit later in the show, 5 o'clock. Don't worry, he will come on the airwaves later today. And we're going to keep it open for you on the text line. A completely, fully open hour, which is the opportunity for you to call or text in and give your opinion on what would happen last night.
And I guess that kind of takes me to my next part here. You're listening to road to cup road to the cup on eight 80 Chad, but the Edmonton Oilers season coming to an end after game six in Anaheim against the ducks, they fall five to two and well, they lose the series three games to two. And now they're on the outside looking in. And it feels weird.
I mean, we've been treated here in oil country for the last couple of years, having them go very, very deep in the postseason. And even the year before that, you know, they went to the second round against Vegas. And then the year before that, they went to round three against Colorado. So this is the first non-deep playoff run that we're experiencing as a part of oil country together.
And it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out. Obviously not the way that you would have wanted this to go on. The end goal for this team this year was to win the Stanley Cup, and, well, you couldn't reach that goal. And now it's all about thinking about what you're going to do next year. All right, you're listening to Road to the Cup, brought to you by Sentinel Storage.
At 3.15, we'll hear from the Minnesota Wild side of things. The Athletics' Joe Smith will join us. They move on to the second round. They'll face the Colorado Avalanche. And then at 3.35, I have a conversation that I had this morning with Oilers radio play-by-play man Cam Moon. We go a lot into what happened last night. Road to the Cup is brought to you by Sentinel Storage. Try four weeks free.
Visit sentinelstorage.ca for details. Let's get into some audio here. And, you know, this season for the Edmonton Oilers had its ups and it had its down. But you never really saw any cohesion throughout the entire season or big stretch where, you know, they picked up a bunch of wins and they played like the team that we've been seeing the last couple of years. And Knobloch had comments on that.
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Chapter 2: What led to the Edmonton Oilers' early playoff exit?
I definitely felt it during the season that it was just a formality of the regular season and everyone was looking forward to the playoffs so much. And, you know, we pushed so hard to get into the playoffs and then the playoffs we had so many guys injured that we just weren't ready for it. So, yeah.
You know, this team has played a lot of hockey, I believe, most games in the last three years, I think most games in the last five years. And on everybody's mind was the playoffs. Unfortunately, it just, it wasn't, the timing for us wasn't good.
Now, the Oilers' offense five on five was phenomenal. And for some chunks during this season, the defense was pretty solid as well. The addition of Connor Murphy really helped that blue line kind of balance out a little bit. But
the ducks had their number when it came to the offense whether it be on the power play whether it be shorthand they scored a shorthanded goal in this series or five on five the anaheim ducks had a much faster and ready to go forward core and nabla commented on that as well you know pretty much the story for most of the year we we just didn't defend well enough at the end of the season i thought we did a pretty good job at it um you know last four or five weeks i thought we dug in and
We're playing a better game. And I knew this year was going to be a little more open with the team that we were playing. You know, so many good offensive threats on all four of their lines. But, you know, usually you win or lose on your defensive play. And, you know, it wasn't good enough.
Ryan Nugent Hopkins has been here for all of it. He played against Anaheim in 2017. He is the biggest veteran on this Oilers' core right now, and he commented on losing.
I mean, it's a real hockey team over there, and they've got some good players, but at the end of the day, I mean, we've got to find ways to just keep the bucket of our net. I mean, it's everybody. It's not just a couple guys. It's everyone, so... It's a bit of a theme kind of throughout the season. You play a team like that, they make you pay.
I'm not sure if I said... Ryan Nugent Hopkins there. I might have said Connor McDavid. My apologies if I did. That was Ryan Nugent Hopkins. The Oilers came into this postseason banged up. Leon Dreisaitl missed the final part of the regular season. Connor McDavid was obviously dealing with something in his lower body and a few other guys as well. And some guys didn't play and some guys did.
And, you know, once you play two Stanley Cup finals in a row, you tend to get pretty tired. The NHL season is one of the most taxing years ever. in the sport or in North American sports. And well, once you get into that first round, Drysaddle was asked if the Ducks simply wanted the series more.
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Chapter 3: What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Oilers' offense this season?
The special teams have been uneven, but they did come through. They did it the most in Game 5 victory in Dallas, which gave a chance to clinch the series in Game 6.
probably one of those areas they're going to want to continue to work on between series or just get better at because obviously the power play for Colorado, even though they kind of started off slow this season, it's not like they came around at the end of the year.
For sure. From an outside perspective, I was convinced that this series was going to seven. So when Minnie kind of turned it around yesterday, it came as a bit of a shock, but obviously you were watching the games firsthand. I mean, where was kind of the momentum shift where Dallas started to piddle off a little bit?
Well, I mean, the Wilds scored early with Quinn Hughes, right? That really gave the place to life. You thought that if the Wilds got that second goal, you know, it would be pretty much over. Foligno had a great chance off the rush, and he just decided to try to dangle instead of shoot it, and that could have cost him because the Stars came out and scored a couple to take the lead.
So he got really anxious at that building and quiet, but Tereschenko scored to tie it up, and then Hughes scored the winner with 10 minutes left and, you know, the empty net goals. But, you know, clearly it could have been a chance where the Stars could have moved it to game seven. But I think the better team overall won. They found a way at the end. So I thought once they won...
game five that they had a really good chance closing out at home the way they were playing and the way Dallas wasn't quite there. So I don't think anybody in that room wanted to go back to Dallas for game seven tomorrow. So I guess they much needed a day or two of rest before they go play Colorado.
No, they're obviously getting ready to go up against an Avalanche team that, you know, maybe didn't have the best second half to the year, but, I mean, they came out of the gate screaming and they took some good care of the L.A. Kings. So, I mean, he's definitely got their work cut out for him. What do you feel kind of needs to be the difference maker heading into this next series?
Well, I mean, it's, I mean, there's a lot of things, but I think, you know, can, you know, the Wild match up the middle with Avalanche and they're so deep with You know, Nelson and McKinnon and Connery, I think they're just really deep there. So I think the Wilds matchup up the middle will be important. Special teams, because, you know, five-on-five, the Wilds have played really well.
They played the Babalash well this year. So I think the special teams getting the penalty kill in order is something really important for them, too. So I'm not worried about the goaltending matchup. I'm not worried about the McCarr versus Hughes because they're both elite, elite level defensemen that can change a game.
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