Mattias Ekholm Re-Signs + Edmonton Oilers Season Opener | Oilersnation Everyday with Tyler & Liam

Mattias Ekholm Re-Signs + Edmonton Oilers Season Opener | Oilersnation Everyday with Tyler & Liam

Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Bring [Music] it on. Bring it. [Music] [Music] Switch. [Music] [Music] How you feel? Welcome to Oilers Nation everyday with your hosts Tyler and Liam. Stan Bowman just announced that the Oilers have signed Liam Horb into a contract extension. Who won’t this guy sign? Let’s get into it with the lead. Ah, welcome in Station Everyday. The show is coming to you live from the Sports Closet studio. Not only is tonight opening night the return of hockey season, but it’s the return of the Kingsway location. Newly renovated and back open for business. And just a reminder, those beautiful new alternate jerseys, they are releasing in store and online in 4 days at our friends at the Sports Closet. Open today. Open today. Sports Closet. Well, that’s pretty good timing. Oh, yeah. Well done. Giddy up to um You said his name Yes. Noah. Noah. I’m assuming he runs everything. We have a $25 sports closet gift card to give away a little bit later on this show. You guessed the player. You nailed it. You didn’t tell me. I guessed it though. So, uh, the show is a presentation of Bet365. Download the app today. Use the promo code nation. Whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary at Bet365. It was the topic of our lead, but the Oilers kicking off the first game day of the year with a little bit of breaking news. Matias Eckholm has been signed to a three-year extension. It comes with a $4 million AAV. The defenseman set to be a UFA at the end of the season. While set to be a UFA, he is no more. He will be an Oiler until 35, 36, 37 through the his age 38 season. Um, really good stuff here from Stam Bowman. And we’re going to talk about it from a bunch of different angles and be joined by Jeff Merrick in about 10 minutes time, 8 to 10 minutes time. Jeff Merrick is going to swing by and uh give us his take on the McDavid number, the Echome number, touch on maybe even Brett Kulak’s future with the Edmonton Oilers. Whole bunch of stuff with Jeff Merrick. And on a day when one Oiler defilers defenseman signs an extension, why not go to a former Oiler for some analysis and that would be Latty Schmeed. He’ll be our second guest of the day joining us at about 12:45. It is a game day edition of the show. It is a battle of Alberta on deck tonight between the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames and it just feels good that hockeyy’s back. It does feel nice. Um, hold on. Sorry. I’ve keep my cough I don’t even have a cough. It just seems to me when I get on this damn show, all of a sudden my throat just gets clogged up. I just get nervous, I guess. I thought you were doing that to like I thought you were going to like say something bold and prolific about the start of the hockey season. You just had to clear your throat. I just had a bit of a cough. Uh my bad. Thank you everyone for coming back to the show today. First game of the season, of course. Yeah, very exciting. Uh last night’s three hockey games. Not bad. Couple one dull one I think is fair to say. But good to good to have the NHL back. Um I’m more excited about this home opener today than I was premonday. Yes. Oh my god. It’s not even close. So, if we were to throw numbers on it, going to bed Sunday night, Tyler, how excited are you? I mean, keep in mind at that point, the Jays are up two nothing on the Yankees. Tyler, how excited are you for hockey season on Wednesday? Three out of 10. McDavid signs, echome signs, watching the boys practice combinations, all this stuff. Let’s go. Nine out of 10 for tonight. Oh, I’m I think I’m a 10. 10. I’m very much a 10. I was like, I did watch most of the Kings ABS game last night and I that that I think I showed my level of excitement. I usually don’t sit down and watch many other teams play, like go out of my way to do it. If they’re on, I’ll flick it on, whatever. But yeah, last night I I stood there. Oh, I didn’t stand. I sat and watched. And now I’m ready to go. I’m very excited about tonight’s game, especially against the Calgary Lames. Good one. Thank you. You got him. Uh, friend Dustin Wolf, did you see he used my voice in his hype video? I did. You know what the funny part about it was? So, I saw you post that video and um I really thought it was going to be a clip of you ripping him, like just being like, “These are my haters.” So, what’s actually pretty funny about it, so Dustin Wolf posted like his own little preseason montage video. Very well done. Uh had Post Malone in the background, but it’s a clip of me going, “Dustin Wolf is a superstar.” And if you were to actually go watch the clip, it’s me doing my buy or sell segment where I’m like I’m presenting it as a question. So it’s me like asking the question, but he just cut out the part at the end where I kind of say like fire like agree or disagree. A bit of a lame thing for a player to put out. Ah, who cares? He’s fired up. He’s got the bag. No, I want I want to put him down. Okay. Doesn’t play for Edmonton. He’s going to have a sophomore slump. Yep. Get ready to pick the puck out of your net tonight and be sat on the bench in the third period. Bold, bold proclamation, Leo, why not? Uh, game day bets coming up a little bit later on. I already told you about the guest sports closet giveaway. But let’s kick off the show with our Sherid Ford Giant question. It’s brought to you by our friends at Well, guess who? Sherwood Ford the Giant dealer day is coming on October 18th. Yes, that is just around the corner. Yes, that is only 10 days away. They encourage you to bring a food donation for their charity food drive and in return you can take advantage of the ticket prizes they have for both Ford and hockey fans of Edmonton dealer days Saturday October 18th from 1 till 3. The short for Giant question today is obvious. What do you make of the Matias extension? And I’ll be honest if if you would have told me before this to guess what his AAV would be on a three-year deal, I probably would have guessed $5 million. And I’ll be totally honest, I probably wouldn’t have been okay with it at that number. We’ve talked about this a lot over the last honestly 6 to 8 weeks saying there really isn’t much of a need to commit to Ekholm yet cuz you do not know how he’s going to look this year. He’s coming off a significant injury. He’s 35 years old. His play declined when he returned in the Stanley Cup final. 4 million bucks. That’s third pairing defenseman money in today’s NHL. Go look at what the Kings gave Cece and Dumlain and all of those guys. Go look at what, you know, a guy like, and this isn’t like a slanderous statement, but like go look at what a guy like Eric Good Branson makes. Like this is four, five defenseman money. Maybe third pairing is a little bit too far, but like this is four or five defenseman money. If Matias at home can just get he doesn’t need to get back to Matias at home level. No. If he’s 80% of what he’s been so far as an Oiler, this is a great contract. I agree. I I’m surprised it happened when he did. I I won’t lie, but I we when we speak about it the other day just saying how it felt like everyone else who was unrestricted or willing and needing a new contract was a bit of a wild card. You didn’t fully know what you were going to get from them. And Ekhol for me was probably the biggest one. It’s not based off him like on what he his body of work. It’s based off what happened the last time we saw him play. And I know that’s the most intense hockey you can get. Yeah. But he was bad. You could argue he cost him quite probably too many goals and maybe that’s why they lost the Stanley Cup final. I’m not putting it all on him, but I think the cost is fine. It’s three years so they can get the AV down. And Aaron made a good point before the show and we’ve talked about it a lot too, but just him and War essentially just the same combination of money they’ve all been making with the slight inflation of the cap going up. I think it’s probably what is it 1.6 million more cuz combined they would be 11 million before they were six to 3.4. Yeah. So 9.4 to 11. Yeah. So that’s pretty good piece of business, I would say. I agree with what you’re saying, too, of if he progressively gets worse, which he probably will. He’s 35 at the end of the day, just turned 35, and he becomes a four, five guy, then so be it. I’m very curious about the Brett Kulak thing, which we’ll get into a little bit later. But again, my final point will be I thought this was going to come a little bit later just so we could all make sure this guy could still play at a high level. But I do think there may have been an angle of if he came back and played at a high level, you don’t get him for this. Yeah, there’s always there’s a devil’s adequate side of it, too. And and let’s be totally honest here. If he isn’t good the next two years, your hip hurts, right? His hip might get really sore. It’s also very tradable. I know it comes with a no movement clause. No move. Yeah. Um but still, like again, if he’s bad in year two of this deal, heading into year three, you just go like, “Where do you accept to go?” And he goes, “Nashville’s rebuilding. I always go back there. Do you think Fair enough do you think it’s a good thing that the Oilers have locked up so many pieces on their blue line? Cuz right now the only guy who the key piece who isn’t in is Brett Kulak again bit of reporting but like Booard till 2029 Nurse till 2030 Mat until 2029. Warman obviously 2030. So you got your top four y today locked in. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Is it? Was it broke? No. No. Like I think it’s one of the better blue lines in the NHL when all those guys are playing well. So like lock them in, get that cost certainty. And again, like if you want to go upgrade at some point in the next 18 months, like it you have versatile pieces. Wing can play the right side or the left side. Echol, he’ll get to a point in his career where he can play on the top pair with Bouch or you’d have him on a shut down third pairing with whoever. M there’s room to still move in here. Um there was a comment there from Brian. I think it’s interesting. He said Kulak is ultimately replaceable. Yep. Agreed. But the counterpoint of it is look at the players who got paid this summer on the blue line who I would say Koulak’s better than pretty much all of them. Yeah. And if you go to the market and you need to fill that role, you’re paying four and a half million for a Cody Cece a Ryan Lingren could get five on the open market. It definitely could. And that’s why I would you I would opt to always keep Kulak over and I don’t know who the players are on the market. I’m just saying from last year. Yeah. That’s what I it’s better to keep him because you know what you’ve got. He’s only 31. But do you want to pay Brad Koulak $5 million knowing his ceiling is your third pairing left shot defenseman? No, but I’d be willing to pay him four and a half for a couple more years. So then the question gets flipped onto is he willing to take a hometown discount as well. I would think yes if reports are already coming through. Yeah, maybe if they get him if they were to get him under four and a half, I think that’s tremendous work. Yeah, I do as well. I think if they were I think it might be about a fouryear deal. First guest here. All right, we’ll get to him in a couple of minutes here. I think I did tell him 12:15. So, um that’s on me. Uh yeah, I So, if you guys missed it, I can give you the reporting from uh from one Ryan Rashog who uh talking a little bit about Kulak. He said, quote, “Sounds like there have been some extension discussions with Koulak camp, but nothing imminent. Will be interesting to see which way he goes with it. Free agent Dark might be something enticing to explore for him, but his role with Edmonton is important and he has a chance to win. Excellent playoff performer and great skater. So again, yeah, Walman being able to flip to the right side, even Koulak to some extent, if they don’t mind that being able to flip to the right side, that does open you up to like the door is not slammed shut on him coming back because you have Ekholm signed and because you have Wman signed, like I can see a path to it. I just really think from the Oilers perspective, it only makes sense if he’s coming in at a pretty good hometown discount. I Here’s a good question to flip to you. Okay. What is the percent chance that these defensemen are the starting six defenseman 12 months from now? Bouch, Nurse, Echol, Wman, Regula, Emerson. They’re the uh I feel like you missed a player. No, those are the six they have signed. Bard, Echol, Nurse, Wman, Kulak, my But like what are the chance? Like Kulak’s gone and just those are your six next year. Yeah, I mean bit. What is Regula on right now? another year seven firm. Yeah. I mean, if you wanted to save a little bit of cash, it’s not I I it’s going to really determine how Regula goes, right? Like I think and that’s why I I do find it interesting locking these guys up right now because there is some guys there who are like, “What if Emerson takes a big step? What if Regula takes a big step?” And you can be like, “Oh, we can play this guy every single night. He’s a great penalty killer and we know what we’re getting. He’s just Brett Kulak, but $3 million cheaper.” Maybe. Um, percentage I I would put it below above 50. I’m above 50. I would put it just below. I’d say about 40. I do think in favor of Kool-Aid. I’ll go 60. Damn. Split. Interesting. Uh, before we get to Jeff, can I tell you my brand new least favorite narrative that makes me roll my eyes every single time? Well, they’re just wasting the money they saved on McDavid. I had someone tweet that at me today. Someone in the chat. And listen, I love you, chat. You guys are great. You’re our friends. Why would they sign to that? That’s just wasting the money you saved on McDavid. You got to sign players. You need players on your hockey team. It’s cheap to sign players on your roster and then go to the market and get totally and like already this roster has also been to backtoback cup finals. Correct. The Oilers add that. Yes. I thought they were done. You save 6 mill on you just gave it to Wman. What the hell? Why would you spend that money right away? They have lots of money next summer. It’s fine. You need good players on your roster. Sign them. Good lord. I hate it. Hate it. Uh, someone made a comment yesterday, too, of like, “Oh, well, you can move nurses contract next summer.” Uh, incorrect. It’s 2028 when he finally gets a 10 team. Couple more years. All right, let’s get out to the Star Mechanical Guest line. They’re Edmonton’s number one plumbing and heating company. You can find out more by visiting them online at star mechanical.ca. Jeff Merrick is the host of the sheet. If you want to go back, listen to his episode from today. He had Brian Burke, Nick Albera on. Nick Albera just reeling after the McDavid extension. Right, Jeff? Yeah, he’s got to recalibrate everything now. He’s pushed it back. I can’t remember how many days it is. It’s like 900 and something. Uh the the the count the countdown changes. Um Berky was interesting. He thought Kyle Connor left money on the table. When you think about Conor McDavid leaving money on the table, he thinks that Kyle Connor could have and he probably could have going going to market this summer. That was an intriguing one from Berkie uh today. And um the point when I when I brought up the Conor McDavid contract, what do you think the first thing out of Brian Burke’s mouth was when I brought up, “Oh, look at this. It’s unprecedented. We don’t see players doing this.” What was the first thing that Brian Burke grumbled about? Was it an expletive? Sydney Crosby. That’s fair. Crosby did the same thing. What do you Crosby doesn’t get any This my nickel and dime Brian Burke. Crosby doesn’t get any credit. Oh, you guys. Um, hey, can I bring up a name? Mhm. You guys are closer to it than I am. Atro lamin. Is he going to be on this team? Um, this year. I don’t think he plays good enough defense yet. I think eventually he maybe can be more in the conversation, but that would be my worry about him right now. There are there are two players that I’m wondering about the first 25 games in Bakersfield about what if the defenseman has a good 25 games and what if Connor Ingram has a really good 25 games? I was going to say what’s the deal with Connor Ingram? Like is he able to play right away? I I I don’t know how much he skated. Someone asked me that this morning too, but I know he’s on the roster but they still have three goals. I I’ll piggyback on that a little bit and just throw a whole bunch at you at once. Like is there a plan with him once they do get him up to speed? Is it like Pickicketard or Skinner have to lose their job before Ingram gets a look or are they maybe going to sit there and like once he’s played 15 games if it’s good are they just going to come up and maybe even go three goalies for a bit? You know what we we’ve totally forgotten about how good peak Connor Ingram actually is. Like we’ve really forgotten him quickly how good this goalender can be. And you listen, you you worry about the person first before the player and you hope that everything’s straightened out and and everything’s good in in his life and the performance is second. But I think we’ve like I don’t think that this was a move just to have an AHL goal. Oh, just a depth movement. I know they want to they want to sort of tamp down expectations for Connor Ingram, but I don’t know, man. like what if he what if he just goes lights out in the American League for 25 games? And I do think like part of the reason they went about it the way it did. I I don’t think they want to disrupt that room. Calvin Pickard is loved and you’re not going to come into the year move on from Stuart Skinner right out of the gate. I’m not saying they won’t at some point, but going about it this way gives you the chance to like I feel like you can justify it to Connor and the guys in the room and be like, I know you guys love Calvin Pickard. This guy has a 945 in the American League. We have to bring him up. And here’s a guy that fights around screens. Like you need guys like that, especially against teams like I mean big phys. This is the thing too. One of the things that goalie coaches have always mentioned about look for the guys that fight around screens that battle through screens and they’ll just kind of stand there and and and try to block. When you’re playing the Oilers know this all too well. Now when you’re playing against teams like the Florida Panthers, you’re playing against teams like the Vegas Golden Knights. When you’re playing against the teams that like park bodies in front of you, you have to have goalies that fight fight fight around screens. you you you you just have to and that was, you know, one of the crit criticisms that we that we heard about about Pickard. I don’t know like I just think that there are some things that are obvious and some things that are sort of low-key with this Oilers team that they’re like I heard the the conversation about Brett Kulak a couple of seconds ago and you know I like many wonder you know if they’re going to be able to do anything dear where are they going to get the cap space from? you know, like Koulak at was it 2.75? Um, could that be a place and you know, then you then you look at Lapinan and maybe that’s a cost savings of what is it guys like 1.7 1.8 million like that could be one place you do it. Like Edmonton is Edmonton’s a fascinating team for a lot of reasons. One because it’s cuper bust. Two because you know every day they’re making headlines with their signings. And three, even underneath all of that, there’s these other little stories. And then there’s, you know, what you were talking about a second ago, where do they spend this money in the off season? You know, I know the name Alex Tuck has come up and rightfully so. Uh, we’ve heard that in in a couple of different places. You know, his wife is from Western Canada. I believe she’s BC. Um, and you know, it’s not as if the Buffalo Sabres are, you know, lighting the NHL on fire. He still hasn’t signed an extension for the with the Buffalo Sabres as salary cap is is going up. I don’t know. That one seems kind of hand to glove. Part of me looks at, you know, Adrien Kempe with the with the Los Angeles Kings. Who knows how LA is going to look. Uh but if there’s anybody that’s going to be able to keep up with Conor McDavid on a line, it’s probably Adrien Kempe. So, I don’t know. Like, it’s like the Oilers are anytime you have, you know, two of the best players in the league, you’re going to be the most interesting team in the league. But somehow the Edmonton Oilers have made themselves even more interesting than they were 5 days ago, 15 minutes ago, 5 minutes ago. It’s like every couple of minutes there’s a new headline coming out of this organization. Uh there’s been, you know, some reporting that the first time the Oilers kind of heard a number from McDavid was like Monday morning when Jud calls Stan and says like it’s 12 and a half. You said what Berky his first words when hearing uh the McDavid number like what do you think Stan Bowman’s first words were? Do you think there was legitimate shock or was there maybe a sense in the organization that like ah Conor’s going to come in low? Uh I think that they were shocked. I think that like I don’t think that they were as shocked as we were because they’re a lot closer to Congress, specifically Jeff Jackson, his former agent at Wasserman and understanding what his motivations are like. So the day that it the day that it um um uh oh it was it would have been yesterday. So yesterday um when I was on with with you and Carter on uh on on DFO Live, I was talking to someone in the morning. I’m like and I mentioned this saying like you know what should our takeaway be here? Like what should the lesson of what Conor McDavid just be like? Because you know this person really knows Connor well. And this person said to me like, “Look, what this means is when Conor McDavid makes up his mind, you can’t change it.” Like, I’m sure there were people like, just for a sec, guys, like do you not think that there were people in his orbit that said, “You can’t do this. This needs to be 17. This needs to be 18. You’re Conor McDavid.” I’m sure you guys got, you know, similar texts from from various agents like I did saying like, “That’s an that’s an awful contract.” You know, like if Bob Goodnau was running the players association, there’s there’s no way this this would happen, right? It’s a great contract for general managers. It’s a great contract for fans. Is it a great contract for Conor McDavid? And my answer to that is yes. It’s a great contract for Conor McDavid because what he wants isn’t just dollars and cents. That’s all going to take himself. He’s singularly focused on winning the Stanley Cup and giving the Edmonton Oilers the best chance that they have his team to win the Stanley Cup. You know, there’s a guy in there’s one person in Vegas who hates it when I refer to the Vegas Golden Knights as ruthless, but I mean it I mean it as a compliment. Yeah. Like they have this ruthless pursuit of the Stanley Cup. They’re not interested in feelings and they don’t care if they break some of the china in the shop. They don’t care. They are just singularly focused on winning the Stanley Cup. And I’ll put Conor McDavid in that ruthless category as well. This is a guy that said, “I am going to be your state tax discount with my contract. I am putting my contract up against all those deals signed in Florida. I am your state tax balance here. You can have your state tax in Florida. That’s fine. I’m going to do this organization and this fan base a solid. I am your taxbased discount. Let’s level the playing field starting with me. I have a question for you guys. Oh, sure. Go ahead. Really quick. Sorry, Liam. Really quick, by the way, great Jasper Bear sweater. Thank you. It’s very cool. Can I throw one thing at We’ve I’ve heard like I was saying today on the sheet, the loudest I’ve ever heard in arena was Montreal Bell Center. It wasn’t for a hockey game was for George San Pierre versus Diaz. I’ve never heard an arena that loud. But hockey back in 2006 when I was working at CBC, uh me and Tracy Lightoot, who was my producer, and Colleen Jones, who was hosting Morning Sports with Heather Hiscox, went to Edmonton for games, uh the Anaheim series and the San Jose series. That’s the loudest I’ve ever heard a hockey arena ever. Full stop. How loud is it going to be when Conor McDavid gets introduced tonight? We were talking about that, too. How loud? I think it should be crazy. I think everyone’s going to be on their feet and I think it’s going to be somewhat of like a playoff vibe like thank you so much. Thank you. And I think it’s going to be okay. So if so there’s going to be two I see two two chants. There’s going to be thank you Connor and I think there’s also going to be 12.5 and then you think we get 12.5 chance? Why not? Like take take take your pick. 12.5. Like if it were Winnipeg there’d be 12.5 chance. Yeah. They’re like the most creative creative fans in in the NHL. I wonder if we have something similar with the Oilers. It’s going to be apologize. It’ll break McDavid a little bit. I bet you he gets a little smirk or we see some sort of emotion out of him. Um cuz usually when he does get those big cheers, he remains pretty like straightfaced and whatever. But back to just the number and Connor taking less. Do you think we saw some of the trickle down of Connor taking less today with Matias at home where like I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was four and a half or five but he goes four. or do you think that was discussed earlier and nothing? No, I I think that because like I I look at this extension and it’s it’s probably and we all be on the same page. It’s probably one year too long, right? It’s it’s one year too long, but you look at but then again, you look at, you know, where the salary cap is going to be and if Betas at home, let’s just say by the end of this when he’s 38 by the by the end of this deal, let’s just say he’s a a third pairing defenseman by that point. Well, third pairing defenseman are probably going to make $4 million in a salary cap that’s, you know, 113 114 at the at the at the upper end. But really, like it’s it’s probably one year one year too long. And that’s that’s where that that’s where that number that’s where that number comes from. So I I don’t know that there was a the Conor effect of Yeah, boys, let’s all make sure that uh there’s there’s more there’s more money on on the table here. that this is the you I was I was saying on the sheet today, you know, the you know the big winners out of all of this are the big winners and the biggest influence through this entire saga. Who are the big winners here outside of the Oilers and Oilers management? The big winners are the Golden Knights. They get to maybe signal cheaper. Us. Yeah, there you go. Us. because this becomes one of the greatest discussion points we’ve ever had in this game. Like I started my career in 1995. This is one of the most interesting discussion points we’ve ever had in hockey. At least as far as I’ve since I’ve been a a professional in this in this industry. And what it’s done is for every single marketplace, right? 31 other marketplaces reporters have and they’re the right to do it. You may say, “Oh, this is lowhanging fruit. I can’t believe you take it.” But I’ll always tell you low hanging fruit is still nutritious. Now you have every reporter, every single reporter going up to star player on team X, Dallas Stars, Utah Mammoth, New York Rangers, whatever. And you go to the star and you say, “Hey, are Tammy Paneran? What do you think of Conor McDavid and what he did with his contract?” And it’s legit, like it’s the it’s the right thing to do. And every single answer you get is a headline. like this like this McDavid situation is the gift that continues to give and all week long we’re all dining out on it and it’s fine because sometimes the obvious question is the right one to ask like you know media lesson 101 has always been you know don’t ask you know player X after they win a championship how do you feel right now because it’s a lazy question well sometimes it’s the right question just like superstar X how they feel about McDavid’s contract situation you might think it’s a lazy question, but it’s not because it’s going to give you an interesting answer and everyone’s got a a subtle different perspective on it. I talked about this on DV Live today, but I also kind of like that McDavid takes his discount obviously like here in Edmonton and the Oilers are in that cup contender window where they are a bit of a destination now at the new rink. But I also love like Kyle Connor signing in Winnipeg and Hella Buck signed there and Shley signed there. Like the narrative that like oh people don’t want to play there that’ll never fully die. But I feel like it’s it’s a nice little win for us in Western Canada that like, hey, the stars are sticking around. You know what Brian said? You know what Bricky said today? He’s like, “Everyone thinks that nobody likes likes the cold.” He goes, “The cold.” People ask me, “Do you have a place in Florida? Why would I have a place in Florida? I like the cold. I like being in the We just assume that everybody that nobody likes being in the cold for crying out loud.” But you’re right. Listen, I’ve always maintained that Kevin Day off has the hardest job in the NHL as a general manager and getting people to stay in Winnipeg and we all understand the challenges associated with that. But if you look at the track record and what Kevin Shival able to do and he did it again today with Cal Connor and you may look at that and go like ah maybe that’s too much money. No, it’s not. Even though a comparable would probably be Alex Debranket who’s at 7.5 or somewhere in that that neck of the woods they’ve played almost identical amount of games. I think Kak Connor has like 20 more goals in his career, but they make a significant different amount of money. I think guys, what we need to do now is, and we’re starting to see it, and we’ll probably see it with Michael as well, and we’ll see it with, you know, NASA, we’ll see with Kempe, etc. We need to recalibrate what’s an overpayment. Like, if like it feels like a lot of these are overpays outside of Connor, but they’re not. When you’re looking at a 107 salary cap, they’re just not. This is a transition era right now where teams are more interested in just retaining players or acquiring players more so than well this one feels like it’s too much money. That’s where a very interesting place right now with salaries. Fascinating because this is this a this is a transition year. This a big transition year. Even with Connor like he’s just so underrated how many goals he scores. I just looked it up since he came into the league and became a full-time player in the 2017 2018 season. He is eighth in goals with 282 and the players ahead of him are who you would fully expect. Matthews, Dry, Lovichkin, Pastnac, McDavid, McKinnon point like how can you overpay for a guy who’s scoring that many goals? Yeah, it’s hardest thing to do. So, so Liam then uh and I know this is sort of historical revisionism here. If you were a team that Kyle Connor was on and you decided to scratch him uh for a player who couldn’t even finish the game and the game ended up going into overtime and you wanted someone who could score an easy goal, you might want that guy on the ice. Thank you so much for not dressing Kyle Connor in that game with the Four Nations for exactly the reason you talked about Liam. Yeah, I take it one step further. really tell him how much you didn’t want him to play by don’t sending him to the Olympics. Yeah, he doesn’t need to go to Milan. You don’t need to go, Kyle. He likes one of them. Yeah. And you don’t need Tae Thompson either. You made the right choice last year at the Foreign Nations. Leave Tage Thompson at home, said the Canadian hockey fans. Uh, I want to send you off with one more question. It’s something I wanted to ask you on DF Live, but we ran out of time. Um, what’s one storyline, and this is kind of like a leaguewide thing. What’s one story we’re not talking about enough or casual hockey fans aren’t talking about or hearing about enough? It’s a loaded one. I know. Great. No. Great. Let me I I I listen. I I kind of winked at this with with Tae Thompson, and that is if the Buffalo Sabres have another season like they’ve had the past 14 seasons, who sticks around? Don’t laugh. Who should None of them have to? I I again like I I wonder about Ta Thompson there. Um we talk plenty about um the the the Florida Panthers and and can they three repeat? We tend to focus more on, you know, what’s happening up top, but make no mistake about it. It’s it’s very Let me put it this way. I wonder if the Buffalo Sabres are having looks at their team and this is like I’m talking like ownership level and going in sort of markers of 20 games 20 games 20 games 20 games and then making their decisions because let’s not forget you know Yarmmo Kalenan is there and everybody trust me people there feel it that maybe the next general manager is right there and if The Buffalo Sabres have another poor season. The Buffalo Sabres have a poor start. Do we see the rare inseason firing of a general manager? Now, I want to defend Kevin Adams in one very specific way, and that even though they lose JJ Purka to Utah with that trade, and I know Kessle Ring’s hurt right now, but I do think that the Buffalo Sabres are a more complete team given Don and Kessle Ring in the lineup. They’re a different team. Um, and the 29 goals is going to be tough to replace. You cross your fingers and you hope that Jack Quinn is going to be a to have a bounceback season. Um, but that is still a good trade. Like I will defend Kevin Adams on that. The problem is, is that enough? And is that enough, you know, to keep Raasma Stalin happy? Is it enough to keep Taage Thompson happy? And then if they’re not happy, then you’re right back into the same cycle that saw Ryan O’Reilly go to the St. Louis Blues and win the Stanley Cup and Jack Eel finally say, “No mass. I’m done here.” Yeah, those are fun. Not the most positive story. Not the most positive story, but none nonethe and it’s too bad because it’s such a great market, right? Like those are great like not just Buffalo Sabres fans, but like hockey fans like those fans will tune in to not just Sabres games, but Penguins and Blackhawks. Great. Look at the numbers from Buffalo. They’re good. Like that is a really good hockey fan base that’s just had it so bad since the bought this team. And who would who would have thought that when we saw that press conference and there’s Joe Perau sitting in the front front row and Terry Pagula has got a tear in his eye and he’s thinking of the French connection and whatever if I wanted to make money I’ll drill another oil well and go spend go spend money Darcy Regier and here comes Christian Airhoff and Billy Leno and money’s flying around that we’d still be looking at the Buffalo Sabres and saying man they got to get in the playoffs this year right it’s 14 years that’s bananas Uh, Jeff, 20 minutes always flies by with you. We look forward to doing this every week. Thanks for popping on. Thanks for thanks for indulging all my goofy theories. I appreciate it. Thanks, boys. And again, Liam, great sweater, bud. Great. Thank you. Nationgeear.ca. All right. Thanks. See you, Jeff. Jeff. Thanks, boys. There you go. Can you imagine you’re down by a goal and Knoblock standing there, looks up, minute and a half left, goalie comes off and he goes, “All right, Connor Leon Tage, can I float an idea to you?” Is it about Tage Thompson? Because it’s basically all I want to think about now. Yeah, that would be awesome. Um, and I don’t want to steal a thunder because I saw this idea. I’m sure it was Bond Burner. Usually I strongly disagree with a lot of the stuff those guys say, specifically on New Orleans. The other stuff is fine. What if they moved Buffalo? Market’s too strong. It’s not. They were like bottom five in attendance last season. Yeah, but that’s because they stink. But what was Winnipeg? And I know there’s like the corporate sponsor thing and I don’t know that side of it for Buffalo, but like when they moved, like weren’t they a very well supported team? Like there’s all this conversation of like we’re expanding. We’re expanding. But it’s Houston, Atlanta, and Phoenix. Are they going to expand three teams? There’s no way they’d ever move Buffalo because I the upside if you can put a good team in Buffalo, it’s sell out every night and all that. I totally I agree with you 100%. But they never do. You know what I mean? Like you can talk about like what if they do, but it’s like but they never have. Well, they have a very long time ago. But it they’re one of the most talented teams in the league. Honestly, like you look at their plays, you like that guy’s awesome. That guy’s awesome. That guy’s awesome. But somehow they just they just can never do it. I think it is an absolutely long shot by the way. But like if they’re looking at the teams like well kind of makes sense. How much do you give up for Ta Thompson? Everything. Howard twofirst. I mean what like where do you equivalent would be like a Teemo Meer which was Mukadulan buddy? It’s more than team Omire. It’s Yeah. But that’s where you can start. That’s like a good building block I think. because obviously he has so many years left. Yeah. God, I hate looking at this team Ommyra trade because there’s 40 names. I It was like Muka Madullan. Wasn’t Zetland in it? Uh there’s five players from like Scott Harrington was one of the players moved if I’m not mistaken. Yeah. So if you go Howard is the Muka Madullan piece, former firstrounder probably a bit better obviously the Muka Madulan. Yeah. And I would say at that time too, Simon Ne was then number one defenseman and Muka Madulan was two or three. I don’t know if Lu was there. You trade your number one prospect. Fabian Zetterland was in the deal. So who’s he now on the Oilers? He’s Zap Pod Coulson. Yeah. So you’re going to trade Howard Pod Coulson a first and a second. Oh my god. I I don’t even care. Like just trade everybody if you can get Tae Thompson on your team. I don’t think you would have to trade Howard and Seavoy like Matia thought maybe could happen there. Buffalo probably just wouldn’t want back either. Yeah, they did trade him at the end of the day. I think you could maybe get away with something like that as a as a building block, which is people might not think that’s too high, but like again, you look at that team on my mind. I know it was a few years ago, but like I just couldn’t think of like an elite player at that level. Yeah. Like is there anyone else you can think of off the top of your head? I mean like just cuz it’s Buffalo. Buffalo traded Eel and a third. That’s even that bad. Krebs Tuck a first and a second. So again, you try to That’s harder to put into Oilers terms because we don’t have an Alex Tuck we can trade. Um, what was Alex Tuck at the time though? He was good. Like he had he was good. So he’s 29 now. So he just come off an 18 goal season. Had a 20 goal season and a 15 goal season. He was probably about 25 if my math is correct. He’s obviously better than like Pod Coulson was. But maybe not as big as you think at that time. Yeah. Like he’s become a 30 goal scorer a couple times now. Yeah. I mean I would also take Tuck from Buffalo cuz he’s sweet in a heartbeat. Yeah. You’d have to resign Tuck. Ta has like five more years at $7.1 million. He is. Yeah. His contract ends 2030, which is when everyone under those contract ends. 7.1 million. Like you want 27. He’s 27. Like you want to keep Conor McDavid past his 2-year extension. It gets real easy to do it when you go, Connor Ta is still only 30 and he just scored backtoback 48 goal seasons for you or whatever the he would score more than that. Here he’s a right shot. He’s 27. He can play center or the wing. Taylor Brown up a good point. I don’t know how I forgot about this guy. Uh Miko Ransen. Oh, that’s a big name that was traded recently. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Taylor. The difference would be expiring deal versus not. Yeah. And that’s the thing. You’re not going to find a direct comparison for a T Thompson. So, the second rant in a deal cuz the first one, right, it’s like naturous and all that [ __ ] Yeah. I think it’d be more this the second one cuz you’d have a player who’s like, I am not staying here. Stanovven, a first, a third, a third, and a conditional first. Stanovven two first, two/3s. I’m all in. So Howard, two first and 2/3. Yep. Do you know what to No, I won’t say. I was going to say maybe you could get rid of one of the first because of the potential of Howard, but Stankov is better than Howard. You definitely more established in the NHL. That’s a big one. All right. Yeah. Two things to get to here real quick. won a super chat from Rava, who is just the best. Kicking off the season in a big way for the Ben Stelter Foundation. She dropped in $139.99 and said, “Super pumped for this season. Much more enthusiastic than this time last year. LFG, how much did we raise for Ben last year?” We were supposed to say it on Friday and then we never got our email saying it. I didn’t even know we were going to get I know you mentioned it, but okay. Well, find that out. It was a lot. You guys did a fantastic job. We’re very appreciative of it. I know Aaron gets a ton of them on these pre and post game shows. Can’t wait to start it up tonight. Y pre and post game tonight. Oilers Nation, you got Kumzi with you tonight. Kumzi, a little bit of Brett action. We’re back at Greta. Feels good to be back. You got the McDavid, you got the Walman, you got the Ekholm. Yeah, like you guys said, I wasn’t that looking forward to it. I’m back. Back back. I’m ready to go. Uh we did our giant question earlier. We threw a poll question in the chat as well. Well, that is brought to you by Sherwood Powersports and Marine. Full boat winterization with free pickup and delivery from Sherwood Powersports and Marine offers the best boat and marine winterizing services in all of Alberta. Whether it’s a outboard, stern drives, V drives, jets, wakeboats, personal watercrafts, they can do it all for you at Shrew Powersports and Marine. So, I put the poll in. What do you make of the at home deal? Your options were bargain just right or too much. 61% said just right. Uh 29% said bargain. 10% said too much. Just right’s probably a decent one. Talking to Jeff a little bit. May he’s probably right. Maybe a year or two long, but I think that’s fine. We all just I think that’s good. Otherwise, you’re looking at four and a half. You know what I mean? I think that’s good. Uh last year we raised $10,000 for the Benelter Foundation. Well done everyone. Good job YouTube. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was very kind of everyone to do that. That’s great. You guys are very supportive. Yeah. Mark request we continue to talk about Tae Thompson. Hopefully we can continue the conversation as the season goes. All I care about now is the Sabres being bad. How do they start the season? Let’s have a quick peek here. I hope they start the season. Colorado, Dallas, those are Western Conference teams. Um I don’t I hope they’re 0 and 20. And I hope Colorado’s our third game of the season, so not bad. Good estimate. They have the Rangers tomorrow. Yeah. At home, but and then Boston. They could be two and out start the year to be honest. But then they go Avalanche, Ottawa, Senators, Montreal, Detroit, Toronto, Toronto. They have a We’ll see. We’ll know who they are. If they come out of October 500, they might be okay. That means they if they come out of October 500, they will be Utah from last season. We’ll put up a good fight against good teams and beat all the bad teams. And we can get Tae Thompson in the summer. I’ll wait. I’ll wait for a guy like Ta. Ta, I’ll wait for you, buddy. I will, too. Take up a first round pick when we get you in the summer as well. Um, all right. We’re going to be joined by Latty Schmeede in a couple of minutes. Uh, so our second guest of the day there. Um, YouTube chat, by the way, brought to you by our friends at Odd Company Brewing in the Nation Beer Everyday Logger, a crisp, clean logger crafted not just for game day, but for everyday. Find them at one of their two locations in Edmonton. Yeah, Craig McNamera in the chat. You would need to move cap space to get Thompson this season. Next season is easy. 100%. Um, we also had someone in the chat who was like, “Is the guy in the hat the Oilers Nation guy?” That Yeah, the guy talking in the YouTube. That’s actually typically me or Aaron. Yeah. Um, yeah, that’s I usually don’t say much in there. I make the polls, but that’s usually Aaron or uh or Liam talking to you guys in the YouTube chat as Oilers Nation. Um, someone else said, “At least Tyler’s not wearing a shitty Blue Jays hat.” I am. This is a Blue Jays hat. Blue Jay. Go Jay. This is This is the City Connect cap. All Texas Tech. One of the two. Yeah, one of the two. um you’re not trading NGE that he’s such a good contract and like also we had someone else who was like you need to offer Henrik Yan and they listed off like five brutal guys for Alex Tuck. Yeah, it was uh Henrik Lazar and Josh Brown. Yeah, I don’t think um also too like moving Josh Brown his points pretty much does nothing. It does it doesn’t free up money. No, cuz he’s he’s buried. So you got to look at money on the thing. I did think it was interesting what um Jeff said about Kulak and like auto lepinan atro lean I always get I don’t know like I’m not I’m I’m not as high on him as other people are like I like Koula because you know what you’ve got and I know the Oilers like to play a strong defensive game and they like to get pucks up ice and I know Lepin can do one side of that but he needs to establish himself as a defensive guy first. He needs a season in Bakersfield. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with needing a season in Bakersfield. All right, let’s go back out to the Star Mechanical Guest line, Edmonton’s number one plumbing and heating company and one of Edmonton’s biggest locallyowned and operated businesses. They’ve been working with the community for more than 20 years, and they don’t have expensive rates. They focus on being as costconcious as they can be for you, the customers. We welcome in former Edmonton Oilers defenseman Latty Schmeede to the show. Always fun to have Latty in the mix here. Latty, how was your summer? Hey boys. Uh, summer was uh, good. Quick though, really fast. Uh, I went to check for the Linka Greski Cup for working with the U8 national team. So, that was I spent about a month there. So, it was really long, really long. My older kids had to stay behind. So, uh, you know, it’s kind of rough. But, uh, yeah, great experience. again. I got to see my family and like I said, it just flew by so quick and now finally the season’s back. I was going to say, well, the summers keep flying by when the Oilers play till basically [ __ ] July. Um, but it’s good to have them back in the mix. Home opener tonight. Uh, the question we kind of been asking everybody the last 3 days. What was your first reaction when you saw the $12.5 million price tag for McDavid? Amazing. like it’s uh just everybody kept asking me like I I I met uh Connor I think like two or three weeks ago at at this event and we were asking him questions about the team obviously not about the contract because he was getting questioned every morning so we don’t be we don’t want to be that people but uh yeah you know what I people kept asking me like what is he waiting for going for a max contract and I had feeling that it was never about the money it’s more about the team and and winning the Stanley Cup and and he proved me right. Uh you know, great great deal, one of the best deals you’re ever going to see going down in the history. Uh it’s it’s all about winning for him. So, he took a you know, kind of hometown discount uh to to give the the team the flexibility to to sign people around him. And we can already see what the what the Edmonton or uh did, right? signing Wman egg home. You know, basically Wman’s deal is part of uh McDavid’s deal, you know, like you’re getting a really good defenseman for for for uh for good money. And uh you know, now Egghome is signed. So, you know, hats off to Conor McDavid. You know, that’s that just shows everybody to the whole hockey world that he’s all about the winning. It’s not about the money. He knows, everybody knows he’s gonna make his money, you know, like he’s for me, he’s probably the the best, you know, nothing I don’t want to take anything away from being Gretzky or Mario Lemieu, these guys. But when you look at him as a player, like there never been a more skilled player in the history of hockey. So, he’s going to make his money on endorsements. He’s going to sign a big contract, but he wants to win here in Edmonton, and that’s what’s important. He’s very driven. I I talked to some of the guys uh after the captain skates and uh they were telling me like how intense those skates were before the camp like and and it’s uh because Connor drives the train, right? Uh you know, he holds everybody accountable. He sets the tone uh on and off the ice and uh you know, it’s great to see. I I’ll kind of ask a followup similar to that, but like when he takes less money like that, and I know guys aren’t in the room looking in everyone’s pockets, seeing how much everyone’s making, but like when you know Connor took that discount to win here, it’s got to be motivating for those guys even lower in the lineup to be like, man, like I better be forchecking. I better be doing everything I can to help us and to help Connor win because he’s willing to take $6 million off his paycheck for the next three seasons. I I couldn’t agree more, man. like it’s it sets the tone for uh for the whole team you know and and it’s not just the contract but the last few season you you can tell in in uh Connor’s game like you know he could be the guy who’s going to you know generate 150 160 points cheated the game and no he plays the right way he gets on the forche he gets in the dirty areas he does little things right and and he wouldn’t have to but he wants to win so if you if you have a captain captain, your leader, number one guy doing that, then everybody better follow like or you feel like an idiot to be honest. And you have two guys now. You have Leon Leon doing the same thing. You know, he’s in a sulky consideration, you know, year after year. He said before the season that he would like to win it at some point as well. That’s that’s big. So, they don’t want to cheat the game. They want to play the right way. They know what it takes, right? Like I I hate talking about Florida, but you have to give them a lot of respect. The way they play, they don’t do any anything extraordinary. They just do everything right. All those little small things, little details, they just do it right. And I I think we don’t have to copy what they’re ultimately, right? But uh you know, you should take few pages from their book and you know, try to implement it in your game. Mhm. I always find that the conversations over the summer like people have undervalued how good the Oilers blue line actually is because we weren’t able to see his full potential in the final with Echol being injured. But now they’ve resigned Warman. Echol’s back. It looks like they’re going to resign Kulak as well potentially from the Rashad report this morning. Like what do you make of that? Do you think it’s a good idea that they try and keep everyone together and just go for a game with the same group? I think so. And if anything, like I I would just add probably at at at the trade deadline, you know, obviously like everybody talks about right-handed defenseman and it it would probably help, but for now like I’m pretty happy with the decor. Like they have been together for for a while. Obviously, Bowman came a little bit late, but uh that uh that deal he signed, it gives him uh you know, security gives gives the security to the team. He’s a big body. He can also produce points. He he’s, you know, he’s shown that uh, you know, healthy egg home, big difference, right? Like I I don’t want to assume, but I I could tell he wasn’t 100% in the playoffs. It wasn’t the same egg uh that we watched the the previous seasons, but I’m a huge fan of his. Honestly, always respected him. He is huge. I think he he’s the captain of the of the defense when he’s healthy and, you know, like with his experience, with his age. I don’t want to say he’s too old, but uh he he plays he plays the game right way, you know. I think he makes uh Evan Bushar better. Evan Bushar makes him better. They just work work well uh together. That’s your top top deeper. Hopefully he can I’m going to knock on something. He can uh stay healthy all year. And then you know you have Nurse, you have Wman, you have Koulak, and then whoever, you know, Emerson or Ster, you know, who whoever is going to be the sixth sixth guy. But I think the top five are really really solid. Like you I I heard you talking about Koulie. I think Koulie is uh you know like undervalued guy, you know, like I know he’s 56 in the depth chart, but you can slot him in top four and and he’s fine, you know. Uh he he keeps it simple. You know what you get from him. He can he can skate. He can move the puck. I I uh he can defend. You can put him in all kind of situations and and trust him. So, I like him. Uh, you know, obviously the the top four guys, I I think they’re really really solid. Yeah, like I said, I’m I’m I’m happy with it. If anything, just just add add something uh at the trade deadline or maybe before if you can figure something out, right? I wanted to ask you about Ty Emerson because I think a lot of people are maybe forgetting about him a little bit. He fell out of favor in the playoffs, but last year was his first full season as an NHL defenseman. And he’s not one of those guys that’s, you know, getting power play time and putting up a bunch of points. He’s someone who, you know, is going to make his impact on the penalty kill and in the Dzone and things like that. And I guess maybe even going back to your experience a little bit as a defenseman who again thrived on the physicality and the PK and the DZone. Going from your first year to a second year, did you did you feel like a noticeable change in the way the game was kind of going around you? Uh sometimes it’s harder and uh uh second year might be harder for some but for some guys it’s it’s easier uh you know with that experience hopefully he can he can learn a lot from the first year right it’s not easy also like being a first year guy and the team is you know kind kind of predicted to be in the Stanley Cup finals or or win the Stanley Cup so there’s extra pressure uh yeah not easy But again, everybody takes a different path. Uh I would still give him some time like like you said, it was his first full year. He’s, you know, the NHL, the games go so fast. Uh you know, sometimes you get lost in uh in that, you know, and kind of everything tends to move too fast, you know. Sometimes it’s good to just slow it down. Uh work, you know, focus on every day, every practice, every game. not think too much about other stuff. I’m going to be in the lineup. Not going to be in the lineup. But just just go with it. Listen to the coaches, you know, be around the guys. And I I think he’s got he’s got potential. So again, like I wouldn’t uh I wouldn’t be too critical of him. Second year, probably more expectations, but uh I I think he’s got a decent chance to to be a regular in the NHL. I like him. I think he’s he’s come over and he’s in a pretty solid job. Uh what are you expecting from tonight’s game? Obviously home opener Edmonton Calgary. We were looking back the last time they played Edmonton, Calgary played Edmonton at home open at Rogers’s place, Conor McDavid had a hat-tick. So that’s pretty good. Pretty good omen. Yeah, pretty good omen. Yeah, some people call it the Battle of Alberta Latty. Some people call it the Latty Schmeid Bowl as well. Man, I love like that was like I started my NHL career at uh at Rexel against Calgary. That was my first ever NHL game. That doesn’t get better than that, man. And I know that Battle of Alberta is not what it used to be like uh in a sense of physicality, but on the other hand, there’s way more skill these days, you know. So, uh I expect a lot of energy, man. like you know previous two years you know high expectation lost in the Stanley Cup finals and now going to the you know another season lot of hype you know again Edmonton is you know predicted to be one of the cup contenders and I don’t want to put any extra pressure on them you know they they know it but like I said it doesn’t get much better battle of Alberta first game you should shitload of energy shitload of energy the the fans are going to be buzzing and I’m excited to watch it myself. Uh what do you I have the game log up from that NHL debut of yours. What do you remember from that game? Not much. I like the one thing I remember the one thing I remember was facing against Gerald McIlla like watching him as a kid, right? like he was, you know, always one of the one of the top goal scorers, you know, in the NHL, just physical, like mean on the ice, even though of the ice he’s super nice guy, super polite, but on the ice, just the beast. I I I I just felt like it was a huge honor to be like facing off against him and, you know, just just the best best experience, you know, it it doesn’t it doesn’t get much better. Uh actually David Tomasik was uh texting me yesterday and you know like he’s got to be in the lineup I guess. Uh so I was just I was just telling him just enjoy every every second of it, every moment because uh there’s only very few moments in your career that means that much. So he better not be nervous. Just enjoy it. You know he’s he’s played for a while. He’s not the you know young buck anymore. He’s experienced guy even though this is his first NHL game. But just enjoy every moment. Uh you guys won that your debut by the way as well. 3-1 Peterson scored twice. Oh Pet I don’t remember but I I remember we won but I don’t know that Siki scored twice. Good for him. Uh yeah you mentioned Tamasc. How excited are you to see to see him in an Oilers jersey? And do you have like any history with him? Did you watch him a lot when he was younger? Um you know what we play against each other in in Czech league. uh he was one of the top goal scorers there and you know he played on Sparta practicing that was uh really really good. They basically ended my career that was my last game against them in the playoffs. Uh actually uh funny enough Adam Klka who is on Calgary Flames. Yeah. He didn’t back check and I was the deciding goal that ended my career. So I always uh I always mention it to him when uh when we talk. But yeah, David Tomasic was one of the top guys there. And then obviously I I watched him throughout throughout his career. He was always a kind of difference maker in in in Europe and then when he came over to uh Sweden, he really established himself as one of the top European players. So, I’m very happy. Now, not always you going to transition the game from Europe to the NHL, but I’m happy he’s getting the chance and hopefully hopefully he can stick around and um you know, be be a regular NHL player. Latty, you are the man. We’re excited for tonight. We’re happy you could pop on and get everybody nice and fired up. The chat loves you. We’ll we’ll talk soon. Thanks, man. I appreciate it, boys. Have a good one. And let’s go Oilers. See you, Lyd. I forget David Tamasic. We we had Jeff between Jeff and Latty. We haven’t done like a lineup report tonight, but Tamasic’s in the lineup. He’s playing. Yeah, it’s uh I was thinking the Oilers have like famously had some like pretty decent check players come through. Obviously Hemsky being another one of Ly. Yeah, but like Thomas must have been the first one for a while. I couldn’t really was am I missing someone? I can’t think off the top of my head. We were linked with Joerger for a few years. He never came. Yeah, we we are always getting Joerger. Those are that’s pre-social media days too where it’d be like a write up in the journal and it’d be like orers might look at Yoger and everyone would be like, “Holy shit.” I just Yeah. I can’t think off the top of my head. Uh who who could possibly If you have an idea, let me know in the chat. But yeah, there’s I wonder I’m trying to figure out if there’s like a way to check players that played for the Oilers. Um 24 of them all time according to hockey DB. Yseph Bannic, Yuri Depa, Radic D’vorak, someone I’ve never heard of, Roman Hammerlick, Yan Hada, Alish Hemsky, Roman Horac, Dominic Kahun. What? He was German. His birthplace on hockey TV is in the Czech, but he represents the Germans. So, the last Czech player to play for the Oilers was Roman Horak, who ironically was in, wasn’t he in the latty trade? Yeah, he might have been. Yeah, that’s quite funny. Alex Pisa, Yaruslav, Posar. Shout out to original Posar. There you go. Vladislav Rosichka, Yuri Slagger, Latte. There you go. Those are the Oh, no. There’s still more. Uh, SpaceX, Tom Shersin, Peter Sakura. Now we’re done. Now there’s no. Wow. So, the last time a Czech player played for was like 2013. Yeah. Wow. That’s kind of wild. Uh, Matias speaking to the media. Quote, I just wanted to retire in Edmonton. That’s the whole goal. That’s the purpose of this deal. We’ll see at 39 if I have another year in me. But let’s start with this and see where it goes. Maybe development coach. Yeah. Hey, we always need scouts in Colona. Hey, Duncan Keith will welcome you. Yeah, you can stay at Duncan’s place. Uh, should we give away our $25 gift card to the sports closet? Yeah. Did you get me one, too? You can have the 20 bucks that’s in my wallet. Finally. I’m I’m joking. Uh, all right. We are going to do a and I think this will be the way we give them away all the time. A player who’s played in both Edmonton and Calgary. And then when they go play whoever next, it’ll be a player who’s played in Edmonton and Vancouver. But I’ll give you your hints. Number one is obviously this player played for both the Flames and Oilers, but he played just one season in Edmonton. Also, it’s going to be the first person to put it in the chat wins the gift card. Or do we want to do prize wheel? Let’s do a wheel. I like the wheel. First three, first three people to put it in the chat get put into the prize wheel. Uh first hint played for both the Flames and Oilers, but just one season in Edmonton. That obviously takes Latty Schmeid out of it, everybody. Um it also takes Chris Russell and Brett Kulak, uh James Neil. Yeah. Yeah. It takes all these guys out of it. Hint number two, since you’re going to need it, forward. He’s a forward with a careerhigh of 26 goals. a forward with a careerhigh of 26 goals. Mike Cameilleri is actually a hell of a guess, but it’s wrong. Yeah, that is funny. He played for the Oilers for one season. Yeah, but his careerhigh has to be above 26 goals. I I feel like he’s a 30 goal guy. I think this next one will give it away. Born in Kindersley, Saskatchewan. He’s a Prairie boy. He also won the fastest skater at a skills competition in his one in the one year he was in Eminent. anyone fastest skater. I remember that. I was like 9 years old. I think so. There’s another hint. Carmeleri did have 39 goals one season. Yeah, there’s one, there’s two, there’s three. We got our three. You guys nailed it. Uh all you needed was Kindersley, Saskatchewan to get Curtis Glen Cross. And you are all getting it. Uh the fourth hint if you would have needed it was he also played for Columbus, Anaheim, and Washington. But uh what do we got there? Naturalborn Gorilla, Jaden Dorchester, and MC High and Dry are the three names that we’re going to be uh putting into our prize wheel. Bonus question. Do you know where he played junior hockey? I do. Cuz I obviously looked at his hockey DB to do this. Yeah. Who was it? Brooks Bandits. Brooks Bandits. Stinky Brooks. Jaden Mai and Dry Natural Born Griller. Spin. Spin the wheel. This is what game This is what game shows should be. Yeah. Oh, naturalb born gorilla. Naturalb born gorilla. Does uh does my Tyler at Oilers Nation email still work? Yep. Yes. Email me naturalborn naturalb born griller. You can email me tyler oilersnation.com and just say I’m the winner and I’ll get you in touch with our friends at the sports closet. You got yourself $25 in a gift card. I think if you’re not ne I think you can use it online. Don’t quote me on that. Natural bone gorilla. Woo. What was this for? Sports closet gift card, buddy. Every home game day edition of the show, we’re going to play that game. So, only one this week and then we won’t have one for like three more. We can do it Friday. Oh, yeah. Unless you want to do it on pregaming. Doesn’t matter. I could do that. Yeah, it doesn’t matter either way. Okay. Um, we can do it Friday or we can do it on pregaming, but we’ll give one away for every home game day edition of the show. Uh, so yeah, naturalb born. Shoot me an email, tylernation.com. Um, okay, let’s keep cruising along with the show today. We are just all like humming through this thing. We are. I love Latty. Shitload of energy. Can we just do like a quote board? Can we do Latty space and then like Latty on the home opener? Shitload of energy. I think that would be a very good way to promote the show. I think so. Um, should we talk a little bit about uh what’s coming up tonight? Lineup report and game notes. Let’s get into the Oilers. Let’s get into the Oilers. Yeah. Okay, let’s do that. Uh, it’s brought to you by our friends at Od Noodle. Come on. It’s not just a one game day. It’s a double game day. You need to be home by 5:00 for first pitch in the Toronto, New York ALDS game. So, you don’t have time to cook. Stop by Noodle today. Get dinner for your whole family. And while you’re at it, take advantage advantage of the value menu deal. It’s ongoing right now. You can add two green onion cakes, five spring rolls, six wontons for just $2 with the purchase of any signature or premium box in store and at oodoodle.ca for takeout orders only. Uh the Oilers lineup tonight is this Conor McDavid centering Leon Dryidle and Trent Frederick. Ryan Nan Hopkins centering Andrew Mjamanji and the local boy Matt Seavoi. Well done, Matthew. Noah Phelp with Casper Kain and Vasili Pod Coulson coming into the year with a nice extension tucked in his back pocket. Rico Adam Henrik equal center David Tomask and Ikeard. Let’s go through some takes. Frederick was given this spot right out of the gate next to McDavid and Dry settle to lose it. I have no take. Ryan Nan Hopkins with Mia and Seavoi I think is a line that can honestly be trusted all over the ice. It’s actually a pretty good second line. They’re small and they will hound pucks on the wing. Yeah. Small. Don’t mistake small with not being mighty. They can be pesky. They’ll be pesky. Yeah. And I also think I think a cerebral center like NGE plays well with kind of two guys who Seavo is a good distributor. Like he’s not a guy who’s going to carry the puck into the zone, but I think Mania can almost be that guy. So I like that line. I like it too. New might score a couple goals on that line. Phelp with Kappan and Pud Coulson. Weirdly enough, I think they’re going to trust this line defensively. I think that is 100% true. And I think that line is quick as [ __ ] Yeah, they’ll move really well and they will hit. Yeah, that is that is going to be a tough line to play against if they can get clicking. Yep. Um fourth line, Henrique with Howard and Tamasic. Offensive zone starts. Damn straight. They will if they every Here’s a fun game. Every time they start in the D zone, take a drink. I like the line. I do like the way this is all set up to be honest. I worry about speed a little bit there on the fourth line. Yeah, but again if they depends how you use it. Fine. I I think speed as long they they’ll be fine because they get the home change so that’ll be good for them. Yep. But it’s about how they play. Can they play quickly? And I think they’re three pretty smart hockey players. Yeah, I I I would agree with that. Um D pairings pretty straightforward here. Echolleman and Bousard, Nurse with Regoula, Koulak with Emerson, Jake Wman still injured for those of you who were wondering in the chat. So, um, he’s unavailable tonight. He did skate. Zack Heyman also skated with the team this morning. Um, so positive signs for both those. WMAN will be back, I believe, before either Yanmark or Heyman. The return order will be probably Wman, Yanmark, then Heyman. Agreed. I do wonder if maybe and they’ll take it easy with Hyman, but it’s not like he’s coming back from a broken wrist. It’s not like he’s coming back from something that could like retar if that makes any sense. I wonder if he doesn’t come back earlier than November one. If he’s already skating with the team, I mean, definitely a positive sign. I’d see how the start goes. Like, if things are going well, I wouldn’t be too worried about getting him back in the lineup too quickly. I agree. If he does come back, I think he goes on the second line, not the top line. Um, D pairings again, I think they want I think they’re going to be very committed to consistent D pairings this year. And I think that’s why you didn’t see like Emerson move like Nurse and Regula cuz you want Kulak and Emerson playing together and you want EK and Bard playing together. So it’ll just be a simple swap when Wman’s back. Like I don’t think this is a comment of like Regula has a spot higher in the lineup than Emerson. And maybe he can earn it if he gets two three games here and and he play outplays him. Like this is an opportunity for Alec Regula without a doubt. But as it stands right now, I don’t think this is a comment on the go. Emerson might be on waiverss in a week. I I would completely agree. I would completely agree. I think Troy Stetch is the one who needs to be making sure he’s he’s playing at his best and competing hard in practice. People in the chat, he doesn’t skate with his wrist, Tyler. He wasn’t going out there with no gloves and no stick floating around. He was shooting pucks. Like, obviously, I know that. Anyways, Stuart Skinner gets the start tonight for the Edmonton Oilers. Fired up about that. Yep, that’s it. I mean, remember a few years ago when he saw Campbell and he lost 8-1? Just give your damn star the start. Yeah, don’t thinking around with that. Beat around the bush on this thing. Congrats to all of you who had Steuart Skinner night one starter bets for the Oilers on Bet 365. Bang. Looking at it right here. Cashed. Crazy that was a bet. How scared would you be if you find like hour before Steuart Skinner sick? That’s the only reason why pick would have been a good one. Yeah. So, you’re betting on an injury or an illness. Yeah. Like, you know, gets tied up. Also, you mentioned that 8-1 game. That was my first postgame show. I remember I wanted to style it midway through the second. Yeah. Uh, that was crazy. Um, what do we get? There’s five rookies in the lineup. Regula. Regula is not a rookie. Yeah. He won’t He won’t do a Oh, sorry. I thought you talking about rookie laps. Like, he won’t do a rookie lap. No, I don’t think so. He’s played NHL game. The only one for a rookie lap will be Ike. Ike Howard. Um, but in terms of rookies in the lineup, yeah, Regula, Howard, Tamasex, Seavoi, Philip, I don’t think. Oh, is Philip still consider? Yeah, he’s still technically considered a rookie, I believe. So, so yeah, you’re right. Five rookies in the lineup for the Oilers. The youth movements here. Put them all together. Call him the kid line except two of them are middle-aged. Yeah, except Noah’s 27. Thomas X, he 29. 29. Yeah, only you’ll only see Aikawa doing a rookie lap tonight. I think be cool though. Bucket or no bucket. You got to go. No bucket. No bucket. David can pay the fine. Um so they’re uh the Oilers put out a really funny video the other day. All the players skating off after practice. Oh yeah. And it was like, “Hey, who do you think’s going to score the first goal of the year?” And they’re all guessing. It was very funny. And Tomasic goes, “Davo.” I’m like, “Yeah, he’s an Oiler.” That’s how you know they’ve really accepted him as one of their own if he’s calling him Davo. and Seavoi called uh D out of Leo. Yeah, boys are in. They’re all best friends already. Everyone loves everyone. Calgary Flames lineup. Anyone? Let’s take a peek cuz uh Kale McConnell in the lineup tonight. Yeah. Ah, good one, Liam. Uh Nasam Cadre will center a top line with Adam Clapka and Joel Farabe. Surely these aren’t real. No, they are. Who the hell’s Matt V. Gridden? He’s on the second line with Morgan Frost and Matt Coronado. Gridden is a relatively high pick of theirs that cracked the team out of camp. He’s actually been one of the better stories around the league. I have a futures battle on Matt Coronado. Oo, Coronado 30 goal season. I think he can get there. He’s really good. He’s he’s very good. He’s like the only player on this team that is like a legit goal scorer. Backland Zari Coleman. I bet you they see a lot of Connor and Leon. Love that third line. I really do. I think that’s like a good legit like we are going to go out there and we’re going to work our ass off every shot. We are going to grind down your best players. Yeah, I I will a lot of respect for that one. Uh Justin Kirkland back from his ACL injury. He was one of the better stories in the league last year. Was Kirkland signature. Believe he’s like 28 29, isn’t he? Yeah. Yep. And he was it was his rookie year last year and he came out of the gates and just scored every second night. It was nuts. Um Lombberg with uh Sharon Govich are the wingers on that fourth line. They’re interesting. It would be rude to call them Seattleesque, but they’re a little Seattleesque. I think they have Oh, Hubo’s on IR. I think they have a few guys. You know what you like to do? You guy meet me? Yeah. You go into a playoff series. Who’s the guys? Who are the guys? Cadre’s a guy. 30 plus goals last year. Coronado’s a guy. I like Farabe. I I think Far’s fine. I would call him a guy though. Anderson’s a guy. We is a guy. Dustin Wolf’s a guy. Coleman’s probably a guy. Maybe not. So, guy off with the Edmonton Oilers right now. I mean, the Oilers smoke him in a guy off. So, Hubido’s a guy, Nadrew’s a guy, Coronado’s a guy, Anderson’s a guy, we is a guy, Wol’s a guy. So, they have six guys. It’s not a bad guy list. No. Where’s Morgan Frost? He’s on the second line. He’s not a guy. Oh, yeah. He is. He’s not a guy. Yeah, he’s not a guy, sadly. Uh D pairings. Joel Hanley with Mackenzie Weaguer. Kevin Ball with Raasmus Anderson. That’s actually a pretty good pair. That is a good pair. Jake Bean with Braden Pachel. So, um No. So Zayn Perk, their first round pick from last year that made the team out of CAM. Uh he was dubbed the next Kale Mar by a Flames. Unknown sources. Yeah. By unknown sources. Not in the lineup on opening night cuz they’re scared of playing him against Connor and Leon. Yeah. Eric Francis had a tweet and and he he did not openly say they were scared to play him, but he said, “I think they are.” Oh, here’s actually a quote from Ryan Husker, the head coach of the Calgary Flames. I’m scared. Husker confirms Perk won’t start the season tonight against the Oilers, which has plenty to do with the speed and skill of the Oilers. Those who think this is the wrong decision clearly didn’t watch how Perk struggled defensively throughout the preseason. Thought he was Kale Mar. I could have sworn that’s very interesting. I wonder who he is then. Ollie Y. Ollie Yvi. Is Zayn Perk just ollie Yvi more on this story? That is a I like I do respect Huska having the balls to be like you’re not playing. I’m not doing this. Yeah. Yeah. You’re not good enough right now. You’re good enough to be here, but you’re not good enough to play. On the topic of the Oilers lineup, Chris Knoblock uh revealed his forward pairs for the penalty kill. Yeah, we’re in deep. Let’s go. We are in deep. Henrik with Seavoy. Love it. Nooj with Maniaani makes sense. Dry setter with McDavid. Probably don’t see him out there a lot. They will I know McDavid became quite the penalty killer in the playoffs. Yeah, let’s leave it that way. I don’t think those guys are coming out and taking like the opening draw of a penalty kill. No, they’re probably the second unit out. I would imagine one of the other two is the first unit out and then maybe they come on with like just say 30 40 seconds left and or whenever the last face off probably will be and then blank comes out of the penalty box and all of a sudden they have a shift with McDavid and D settle. I I see that. Uh so here’s the quote from NBlock. It will take a while for everyone to read off each other and get used to one another. Just went to our forward duos and it will take a complete team effort. Last year we got off to our end to start. Yeah, we did. Yep, we did. And in the playoffs, it was awful. It was really bad. I’m a little bit surprised. And again, game one, we’ll probably see him at some point. Um, Noah Phelp, I think, will start penalty killing. I think he’s probably got to prove himself in the dot a little bit, but he’ll start penalty killing eventually. I think he will as well. Um, I think one, it’s different position, but Vincent Dean came onto this team as a guy who killed a lot in Bakersfield. They didn’t just throw him out there right away. Like, it does take time to understand the system and how you wanted to play. and he eventually became a really good penalty killer for the Oilers. So, I do suspect Phil will find a role on the PK2 at some point. All right, there’s your lineup for tonight complete with PK duos. I do think Pod Coulson maybe could be a guy who sneaks pods and Philp. Yeah, maybe. May, why not? Why not? Oilers to beat the Flames in four straight season openers. That was your game note. That is my game note. They had the one we talked about with Vladi McDavid hatrick, Jordan Evely goal and two more before that. Nice. Um, giddy up. Do we have the Ely goal? Let’s take a look. A little trip down memory lane. Jim Vand Vandermir off the boards. Classic Jimbo. Jordan picks it over the blue line. Might have been offside. Good thing there were no reviews. Who did he take that around? That is such a nice goal. So sick. God, this is the first Oilers game I ever watched. That’s insane. Yeah, like the first regular season game and I’ve been like, “Oh my gosh.” Like that is crazy. And it was all down had an assist in this game. Hov scored. He scored. I think Eve had two. Right. We declared the rebuild over. How could you not, dude? When you got a guy like Jim Vaneir out here doing this, what who was that defenseman on the Flames? Oh, that’s so sick. I actually have the box score. I had the box score. Oh, let me see if I can find it. The three of us watched the TSN joke story of Horov being like he looked off the captain in this moment and Taylor Hall going, “This is my debut. All I got is this for a memory now.” Shout out Ryan Rashad for It was hilarious. Oh, Rashad. I got a couple bangers back in those TSN days. But what much else was happening? So, what year was this again? 2012. 2010. Oh, yeah. Hall’s debut. Yeah. 66 was TJ Broady and I can’t quite catch the number on the bottom there, but it might be number four. I think I think that’s Jay Bowster. We’ll see it here a little bit. If that’s number four, it’s a single digit. It’s either Okay, it’s a Is it Chris Russell? No, the defenseman were Ian White, Jay Bowster, Mark Gordano, uh Adam Party, and uh Robin Brigia. Might be Adam Party. Adam party one number seven. Oh no. Number six. Is that Gio? Six isn’t a number. It’s three, four, five, and seven. Who is five? Five is Gioano. That might be five. And who do we say it was? TJ Brody. I don’t know cuz this is a power play. Is that a three or a five? I can’t even. Any single digit forwards? Oh, who is number three? Ian White. Yeah, but this is a power play. This is a short-handed goal. Yeah, but this is no bucket. No or no visor as Ian White on the power play. Yeah, I think he was pretty decent. Ian White definitely didn’t wear a bucket. He did finish minus one that night. It takes off uh Ryan Adam party because he was he was even. I cannot tell. Could have been on the ice for Oh, no. They won. Shut out. They won four nothing. Yeah. So, definitely takes party out. Three. Okay, that’s it’s uh Ian. Oh, well, we could just What hand is he? That would probably help. Oh, dude. This is totally Ian White. Is it right-handed defenseman? Yeah, it’s Ian White. It’s definitely Yeah, people are saying it’s Ian White. There you go. Shout out Hamick. No. No. No. Yeah, it was 10,000% Ian White. Brandon from from Steinbeck, Manitoba. You I Googled Ian White Calgary. There’s a CTV journalist who’s named Ian White in Calgary. Um, so that was all that was coming up. Um, all right. What else did uh Wow. Ian White traded twice that season. He played for Calgary, Carolina, and San Jose. A lot of time spent on White. Didn’t think we’d get there on our first game day edition of the show. But that’s the beauty of this show. Dude, laying on the ice. Let me just spread eagle and wing it from Lydia. Yeah, honestly, he was played that horribly. Just awful. Who gets Travis Haming? Yeah, just 2010. Can you imagine you come on to the big So like the Oilers win that game four nothing. Everly has that goal. Everyone’s all fired out and you come on to the jumbotron from the future holding up like a newspaper from 2018 and you’re just like we don’t make the playoffs for seven more years. [ __ ] Yeah, that would be that would be a tough one. There was god damn it. What? Three fights that game. Ryan Jones versus Maya. That was within five minutes of the game starting first period. Second period, Theo Peekham fought Tim Jackman. That’s a That is a So there was four fights. Colin Fraser fought Sutter. Can you go to hockey fights.com and get one of these? And then um Steve McIntyre obviously had to get in on the action for uh Ivanas. Ratitas. Yeah, there you go. Uh remember cuz McIntyre knocked him out in that preseason game. Oh yeah, so he wanted his revenge. That’s right. I wouldn’t mind the the Teddy Peekman Tim Jackman fight. I bet you that’s that’s probably the best of the bunch. McIntyre Vanz is a good one as the new hockey fights guy. I knew that. Yeah, damn right. Brett, there you go, Brett. Thanks for still watching Kipper in goal. I don’t think Kipper was was that Kipper. Um, it was the bulling wall at one. I tell you that much. It was Kippersoft. He had a 879 say percent. Someone said the one punch. I think the one punch is from the preseason. I Yeah, I don’t think it was. I think that was the revenge. It could have been. Ivanz was like, “You know what? CTV ain’t hitting yet, big boy.” They dropped the gloves one more time. CTV. CTE. Oh, I thought you said CTV. No, no, no. The concussion injury. Brain injury. Yeah. Ended his career pretty much. Too bad. Brett, go find it. Uh, he said he posted the McIntyre fight yesterday on Hockey Fights. Oh, Brett saying it was this. Oh, it was this night. Damn. Well, will we see over under three and a half fights tonight? If I set the line at half and said it was even money, would you take it? Like who like dark like is Regula? Does he fight? No. Eli, you’re shaking your head. Yes. Eli’s in. Eli’s in the fight. So, it’s like Nurse or Pud Cole’s got to fight someone. Nurse will fight from Eli. Okay. Why not Nurse Kevin? Nurse verse Anderson. They hate each other. Kevin Ball. Yeah, maybe nurse versus Kevin Ball. I don’t know if Kevin Ball fights, but with Wman out, maybe not fair. I don’t want anyone to break their hand. Oh, Ryan Lombberg. He’ll chuck him with someone. Yeah, but he’s the little boy. Little guy. Shouldn’t say little boy. Little bro ass. Frederick. Yeah, that’s a good one from Dex. Nah, Freddy’s topline winger, bro. He ain’t leaving the ice for five. He has a chance with Connor and Leon. You think he’s going to go sit in the box for five minutes? Maybe if something happens, maybe he just starts feeding into Rasmus Anderson. Is this the McIntyre knockout? This is Teddy Peekman. Oh, this is Pekman. Let’s go. Tim Jackman was a heavyweight. Oh, yeah. They’re not done yet. They’re not right back up. Way to go to the rest. This is when linesmen were linesmen. Damn it. Let the boys chuck. Let him go. I’ve already been punched in the head. I had two other fights. I’m not getting in there again. I give uh you know, Jackman won the fight, but if there was like some sort of a spread, PCman covered the spread. Yeah. Yeah, why not? Theo Pekkham. I keep calling I’m doing the Don Sherry Pekman. Ah, Teddy Pekman Oakville, Ontario. Oh, yeah. Defenseman. Not even a sentence. It’s just Dawn screaming. You’re 12 years old eating dinner on a Saturday night. Dad’s got the TV turned up way too loud cuz Don’s on. That’s at least my memories of it. Teddy Peekman played That’s pretty much exactly what I remember. And the ECHL and the AHL one season. But the best part about it, he only played four games for each team. He played four games for the San Francisco Bulls. He played four games for the Oilers. And he played four games for OKC that year. And he had one point. All right. What a stat. OKC Barons. Yeah, what a roster. Terrible. Uh let’s get to We’re going to go long today a little bit. Maybe first game day of the year. We have so much fun on these. Okay. So many people watching. Do you have stuff to do? I just have to go to the bathroom. Oh, well, like 10 more minutes. Yeah, that’s fine. Uh, all right. What’s trending for our friends at Greta? We’re going to get to our game day bets in a bit. But Greta hosting tonight’s watch party. Brett, Aaron, the whole crew going to be down at Greta right in the heart of downtown Edmonton. Arcade bar, street food, and elite TV setup. You can get there for 5:00, go baseball right into hockey tonight. That is awesome. I’m going to be doing they they even got food specials. Everything on the menu can be down. A couple shellings today. So, let’s go. That is very good. They have like a hat-tick promo, too. If someone gets a hatty, it’s it’s going to be a lot of fun down at Greta tonight. So, if you’re looking for a place to watch the game, go watch the boys. Also, we’re there on Saturday as well. You want to get nuts? Let’s get nuts on Saturday. Yeah, I’ll show you nuts. Okay, let me get on your solo shot. Don’t clip that. Don’t clip that. Don’t clip that. Um, yeah. Saturday tonight, Greta. It’s the place to be. Weekday weekend, let’s go. Uh, here’s what’s trending. The Blue Jays lost yesterday and I’m very upset about it. I was in a bad place last night. Oh yeah, they really blew that. You know who else is upset that the Jays lost? Um who? Sydney Crosby. Oh yeah. Uh Johnny Lazarus, our crack Rangers reporter and one half of Morning Cup of Hockey. We’ll have him on the show next week when they all play the Rangers. Uh he got a great video of they played the Judge home run on the big screen at MSG during Penguins Rangers and Sid was watching it. So, uh, Laz got to ask him a question about it after the game. Let’s take a listen. I did see you glance up at that Aaron Judge home run when they showed it on the jumbotron. Are you pulling for the Jays? I know you’re a big baseball guy. Yeah, I mean, uh, it’s pretty hard not to. Um, you know, obviously it’s, uh, pretty much the whole country cheering for them. So, um, you know, always, uh, always cool to see them in the playoffs. And, uh, yeah, I heard I heard the crowd and then I heard the jumbotron. I figured something was coming from that game. And I think it was it 66. Yeah. For that. So, I don’t know what it is now, but I’ll definitely be following. You don’t want to know, Sid. All good. Yep. Sid, it ended 66. They called it a tie. Yeah. I love that Sid’s in on the Jay’s bandwagon. I just love Sid. Every time I see him in a locker room style, though, I just think of the time he had the Mumps. Can you pull up that photo? Definitely. Remember when he got the MS? And like the whole league had the [ __ ] Mumps. How does the whole How does the whole league get the MS? Oh, I forgot about that. Like they teams had to get like mass vaccinated. Yeah. And no one complained and said the liberals are making them do it. They just got the vaccine and then everyone stopped getting the MS. When when Sid leads the way, we all listen. Sid didn’t have to get vaccinated because he got the MS. I don’t think he’s ever going to leave Pittsburgh. I came to that conclusion yesterday. No, you can’t leave somewhere when you have the scars of the months. True. True. That’s something you you go through that with an organization. You stay there for life. Stick through it. Yeah. You stick through it. When you pull Do you have the phone? Aaron’s working hard every Look at this. And they were like, “Yeah, Sid, go do your media a veil.” Looks like a character from Star Trek. Jeez, that looks like photoshopped. Looks like he’s got a mouthful of gumballs on one side right there. Oh, poor guy. There’s also that. Okay. So, I see any image of Sid, I think of when he had the MS. Um, and then I see this picture and I think of that year, the 24/7 winter classic show. There was a scene where Sid and Flurry are on the plane. They’re playing on their PSPs and Ben Lovejoy got hit in the face right before and he like leans over the seat and he’s like, “Guys, is it bad?” And the air pressure made his face like twice the size. Sid’s like, “Ooh, Benny. Ooh, man.” Like that’s dumb. He just goes back to playing like Crash Bandicoot or whatever on his flight. Oh man, bad had the [ __ ] MS. Anyways, shout out to Johnny Lazarus. Johnny’s good. Johnny’s really good. So I took points one and two in what’s trending. You want the Ben Lovejoy video? Did you find it? Did you find it? I just typed in Ben Lovejoy and it’s just the number one video on Twitter. Can you guys tell I got hit? Um, you had point number three on what’s trending. Uh, what do I put? Uh, Cody CC continues to be bad. Um, you know, we’ve talked about these a few times now, but they some hockey stats or whatever they’re called. Put those uh bar graphs of games. Here it is. Thanks, Aaron. Oh, boy. Cody CC is blast. And I’ve always I always measure this off. If you have stuff on the right, it’s good. Stuff on the left bad. Everything for CC is on the left. Tough night for Cody Cece. Minus two. Didn’t look good. Brian Duma at least showed a little bit going forward. Joel Edmonson just a big guy. Uh the LA Kings don’t look great. I’ll tell you that much. Brent Clark, God, I hate that guy. If you watched the game last night, you know exactly what I’m referring to. I don’t need to go into it, but tough one for the Don’t worry. Dumalin and CC only making a combined $8.5 million for the next three years. And that’s why you keep Breul. That’s why that’s why EKM at 4 mil is more than fine. Yeah, more than fine. That’s a good way of putting it, too. I I still think Oh, here we go. Oh, Benny. You’re not going to be able to hear it, but you’ll get the pan here. Look at his face. Jeez, look at a young Sid. Oh, man. They said the pressure would make it grow. I did. Oh man, I think he is the mom. His face is so big. Oh man. Oh my god. I used to love those road to the Winter Classics. I used to love my PSP. Yeah, me too. I did too. The Roads to the Winter Classics were good, but then they just started picking the same teams every year to play them and it just got lame. But that was like the first time you got that kind of access. Totally. Yeah. So that was so like and that’s why oil change was actually good cuz you got to like watch your team a little bit. Watch Dustin Pen get traded while I was playing ping pong. I remember oil change started coming out like right when PVRs started becoming a thing. So like I’d always have all the oil changes PVR but also PVRs weren’t advanced enough where you could set like only new recordings. So I’d just go and cuz that’s what sports would play like overnight. Yeah. So you would just I’d look at the PVR be like 48 episodes of oil change like hell yeah. Yeah. That was awesome. Uh yeah. PSP The Goat. Yeah, the original um what are they called now? Switch. Yeah, the original Switch. Um but with good sports games. Yeah, you remember was ahead. NHL07 came out on the PSP and I played that a ton. Yep. Madden 07. That was the That’s funny. I had FIFA07. Yeah, there you go. What I liked about the PSP was you could turn it off in the middle of a game and then turn it back on. You be in the middle of your drive, the middle of the game. Didn’t matter. It was good. That was I used to play GTA um Vice City Stories on my PSP. Oh yeah, that was good. I was old enough. Yeah. Lance said I jailbroke my PSP so I could play old Nintendo games on it. You always had that one kid in your class with like a he had like a duct tape wallet and would be like, “Mommy to jailbreak your iPod.” He’d be like, “No, I don’t want that.” Was with his Game of Thrones wallet. I did it once and it ruined my iPod. Yeah. I don’t want you to touch my iPod, weird kid. Anyways, shout out to Lance for jailbreaking his PSP. That just made me think of kids who would jailbreak their iPods. Uh, are the New York Rangers good or bad? Might be bad. I think they’re bad. I don’t think they’re good. I’ll tell you that much. I saw some Rangers fans already. Game one of the year. JT Miller better be hurt. I I think they’ll be fine ultimately. They’re obviously got a lot of good players, but from I didn’t watch much of this game, but from what I did see, the Penguins won’t be as bad as we’re all making them out to be. Some of their young guys were actually pretty good, man. Hunter Bruniki is such a good player. Is that his first name? Harrison, sorry. And um Kindle, another good player. He will probably go back to the Calgary Hitman. Brunicki will probably stick, I would imagine. Um sorry, Lance just goes I also had a duct table. Um, but they’re just a very co well coached team. I think they’ll win quite a few more games than we’re expecting. They will not finish last in that division. Dan Muse, that’s the most NPC head coach in the league. Do you know who will finish last? The Flyers. I think the Flyers will be bad this season. I think their goalending is just awful. Awful. Awful. The worst. I also think Rick Tucket is a bad coach. Yeah, I think he wears on guys really fast. I think Trevor Zus is going to get to January and be like, I’m good. might get to the end of October. Lance, let me tell you, the duct tape ruins your cards. Also, I don’t know if this is real, but it was in our where we share graphics and things. Oh, yeah. That was real. That’s That’s wild. Johnny boy, everyone should start tuning in to Morning Cup Hawk. That’s $100 USD. Also, where’s Johnny Lazarus? Get off on risking a grand with no upside. That’s what Johnny does. That’s fair. That’s fair. He’s a good He’s It makes me laugh. Um, okay. Let’s get to some bets for our friends at Bet365. Download the app today. Use the promo code Nation. Whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary at bet 365. The Edmonton Oilers opening tonight is minus 225 favorites. They are plus 115 on the puck line. The puck line means you got to win by two or more. The five Oilers with the best odds of scoring a goal tonight. You have Leon Dryetto minus 110. Insane. Yeah, it would be his 400th career goal. Interesting. He’ll get it then. Connor’s plus 105. Noo plus 230. Trent Frederick plus 300. Matt Seavoi comes in at number five on the board at + 325. I’d be a little interested in Majani plus 375. Oh, is that on board’s bankroll tonight? Might just be. That’s good. That’s good. I’ll say this and I mean this sincerely. Don’t get dragged into the Connor Brown hype again. We all We all did this against Vancouver a couple years ago. Connor Brown plus 400. Surely he’ll get a goal. He’s going to score 20 this season. Let it play out, guys. Let that respect. I don’t need you to start with that energy right now, Liam. If I want to do that, I’m going to Trent Frederick. Uh, plus 300. What’s Meny Pony? Plus 375. Trent Frederick is the bet. Like, if you’re going to pick one out of the two, one’s playing on the top line, one’s playing next to Navo might get bumped down for Trent Frederick point plus 135. There you go. Just getting it banked off his chin pad or something. Yeah, I just like the mania pony nude. I like I got some high hopes for that. Mja, nice. Hey P, they got more garlic bread. Uh, game day betting challenge. I’ve seen that commercial too many times. Uh, for those curious too, uh, dry sidle 44 points away from a thousand. Maybe uh, won’t get it tonight. Uh, okay. game day betting challenge. Jay isn’t here, but he’ll be here for the other game day shows throughout the season. Um, most of them. Yeah, most of them. So, we’re going to keep doing our game day betting challenge. Track the units, see who comes out first. Our our wager for who’s going to come in last. I said set by Tyler cuz he just wants to damage his reputation of every bet he ever makes. I So, hand up. I kind of just said this off the cuff. Didn’t really think it through. No [ __ ] Whoever comes last has to get a spray tan for our first playoff show. Liam really didn’t want He does want to Well, like I I do a lot of stuff outside of this job that involves me being in public and having a different side of me and that is a busy time of year. Wear a bellaclava. Yeah, that’ll help. Yeah, just I’m just not doing anything crazy at all. Like I am I was talking to Aaron. And I was like, I might try and go like 82 and 0 and just do like minus 300 bucks. Leandre at a one shot. Leandre one shot. Leandre. Stupid stupid stuff that’s just going to like get me a win. So obviously this is based off units one. Correct. Yeah. Okay. I just hate it because I know Jay is just going to hit one of his stupid bets. He’s gonna go two and 80. And then one of us who actually like play this game correctly is gonna have like a winning bracket and be like, “Oh, you only won seven units this year because Jay won 140.” It’s so I cannot believe you’ve done this to us. I’m upset about it and I hope it’s coming across that way. I I would honestly I would rather have a scoop of cat food. Yeah, it’s true. I truly I truly would. This is only going to make the bit better though that I can see how much disdain Liam has for this. It’s just a bad bet. Like it’s a bad bet because the other side of it too is you get nothing for winning. McDow sounds pretty good. Oh, loser has to try to get a hole in one for 24 hours. That would be a fun one. That’s just bad idea. But anyway, here’s our bets. Show mine first, Aaron. Okay, we’ll do Liam’s first. And there it is. Just don’t lose. There you go. Oil away. McDavid two points. You can expect this bet probably every single week. Uh I’m I’m pretty similar to it. Um McDavid 2, Leon 2, money line plus 200. Big guns. You got to back them. Giddy up. Uh if Jay’s bet hits, ours probably will too. So that’s actually maybe a positive in all this. No, I would be last. I know, but like not by a lot. Fred, it’s a long season. Uh, Frederick and Moneyline at plus 400 is Jay’s bet. There you go. Oh, man. I’m Okay, I want to put a rule in place for this, too. Yeah. If you miss a show, you lose the units for that episode. Like it not like if he doesn’t like Jay’s missing today’s show, that’s fine. But if he doesn’t get his bet in on time or anyone, it is minus a unit. Okay. Okay. Deal. I’m fine. 12:00 noon. That’s got to be my 12on the producers desk unless you’re in the show. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You wouldn’t look that bad with a spray tan. I just don’t want to go out of my way to pay for my own spray tan. We’ll find someone in the chat who can do it for free. There’s levels of spray tan as well. Correct. I’ll be getting one that’s basically like a slight glaze. You’ll do it. Thanks, Eli. You get my back. Um, all right. There you go. That’s our betting preview. Someone asked for my Jay’s bet tonight. win. Just [ __ ] win, you [ __ ] I’ll tell you this, Tyler. The Edmonton Oilers were up two nothing against the Vegas Golden Knights and they had a devastating game three defeat. You remember it? Seconds left on the clock. Second, less than a second, I think it was. And they came back and they kicked the [ __ ] out of them for two more games. They did. I didn’t see that coming. So, you’ll be fine. Tomorrow we’ll be talking about the Jays going on to the ALCS to play the Seattle Mariners, right? They’re in the same Yeah, it’ be either the Mariners or Tigers. Probably the Mariners. Mariners. A men on the Mariners. That would be fun. Would you trust anyone in this chat to give you a spray tan? Maybe someone in this chat either runs or has like a wife or girlfriend who works as a spray tanner and they’ll just let us come in really quick and get We just need like top belly button up. Lance Kane’s got this new jailbroken version. They got to apply himself. Anyone but Lance is allowed to give us. Um, my favorite bets for tonight for the Blue Jays. Last time they used Varand as an opener, it was one of their last games of the regular season. Bet him to go over one and a half strikeouts. He’s only going to face nine hitters. Where’d they get him from? Mini at the deadline. Okay. He’s only going to face nine hitters. Over one and a halfks is plus 150. He can get that. Why is he not their closer? Uh he’s young still. He I think he will be one day. Okay. Um but they still have Hoffman for a couple more years and they pay him a ton. So um yeah, Jays are plus 150. So like if you parlayed those two, it’s pretty good. Vlatt’s on another level right now. So it pisses me off last night. Home run right away. Oh, like you would you’re up 6-1 and you lost. So can can you walk me through what happened with Shane Bieber? Like was he playing better or do you think that was just part of the script? No, he didn’t have his stuff. like he wasn’t pitching well. But what pissed me off about it in the moment, I got rad on Twitter for it. My mentions were a mess cuz the gate 14 guy quote tweeted me when I was like, I don’t like pulling the starter at this point cuz you knew you had a bullpen day coming today. So keep trying to keep your bullpen guys fresh. And also the last pitch Bieber threw was a strike. The ump just didn’t give him the call. That’s why I was pissed off. Like I I would have let Bieber in. I don’t think you acquire a Sai Young winner just to be like you get to pitch three innings and then you’re out. I don’t know. Anyways, seems like a similar mistake they made in his Minnesota however many years ago. Yeah. like not quite like that was more scripted. This was more like feel in the moment, which is why I think fans aren’t that mad about it. But still, I didn’t love it. Uh the Yankees today for their lineup are going just lefty righty lefty readyy lefty readyy lefty righty the whole way. So they’re going to make it hard for the Jays to time up when they’re bringing in certain bullpen arms. Jays, this one’s interesting, too. Putting Barger right back in the lineup hitting fourth. He obviously had the really bad air in the game yesterday. Dropped a pop fly and then two batters later, Judge hit a game tying three home run. Yep. Um, well, they’re going right back to him, though, which I like. Counter it out, don’t you, with that Cody Bellinger mistake. Yeah, he dropped the ball, too. Um, putting Santandere in right field. Don’t love I’d rather have Springer out there, but whatever. Why? I thought Santandere was like not a fielder. I mean, he’s really not, but Springer doesn’t like to DH and they like putting Santandere in right over Springer because then late in the game, they can pinch, right? Or they can sub him out. So, how we looking? So, give me the lineup just in the field. I don’t need the buying lineup. Um, so outfield is Varo in center, Lucas in left, Santandere right. Okay, Barger at three, Gimenez at short, Clement at two, Vlatty at one, Kirk catching, Springer Daging, Varand on the bump. He’ll go nine hitters probably or until he gets into trouble, and then Eric Lowour will get the bulk. So he’s at nine hitters on three innings or just is it legit? He’s going to go nine hitters. I think you get him you let him go through the order once. Gotcha. And I don’t know, maybe if there’s a world where like if he’s dialed, maybe they let him face like Judge and Stanton one more time cuz his fastball plays well against him and those guys hit lefties well. So maybe you see him through a couple more, but that’s best case scenario. And then Eric Lowour, one more question. He’s he was a starter in a year, but he only gets like five innings typically, right? So this should give them like a stretch of like we don’t have to use like six arms tonight, just for example. Yeah, it’ll be in. It’ll all depend on how Lowour’s pitching. Okay. But like there’s a world where Lowour gets you through the order twice. Okay. And then again, you’re hoping that three times through the order is like six innings. Six in a bit. Like that. I’m mapping out best case scenario in all likelihood. It’s Varland once through, Lowour once through, and then you’re getting to your high leverage guys already. Like you’re probably going to be getting to them in the fourth inning. And you’re just again it’s going to be a Yario Rodriguez to Sir Anthony Dominguez to Jeff Hoffman and cross your fingers and hope these guys can you’re piecing together the game is what you’re doing. Okay, let’s do it. I’m in. Go Jays. 5:00 Jays start. 8:00 Oilers start. Probably an 8:20 Oiler start if we’re being honest. So I’m trying to time up cuz I’m going to the game with my dad. Trying to time up. When do you when do we leave the house? Oh, 7. When do I get picked up? 35. Yeah, I think. Right. Like I feel like you can park if you have a 10-minute walk to the stadium. You could probably park at like eight. Uh Bob Bashett jogging on the field at Yankee Stadium. If they make the ALCS, he’ll play. Yo, you can’t bring him back in the series. Ty, you also don’t want to miss McDavid’s intro tonight. That’s actually a good point. Okay, so maybe first pitch 508, leave at 7:08, watch the game in the car, get there 7:40ish. Yeah, should be good. Hopefully this is just like Jay’s Dyson and they win this thing four nothing in two and a half hours. the I’ll be the eternal optimist here that they have been absolutely dicing their Yankees team up until 6-1 and all went wrong, but they’ve been dominating the f they’ve dominated stretches of the first three games. Yeah, you’re right. And how about that jump from Vlad yesterday? That slide. That was crazy. My goodness, he’s the man. He was moving. Tommy must have hurt when he landed. All right. Uh that is a wrap on our first game day edition of the show. Edmonton, Calgary at Boa 8:00 tomorrow. We’re going to break it all down. on Aaron’s Live with your pre and postgame coverage tonight right here on the Oilers Nation YouTube. Also, the postgame show is available as a podcast. Damn right it is 700 p.m. We’re going live for pregame. And come on down to Greta if you want tonight as well as Saturday. We got some hot takes. We got Boards East Bankroll. We’re back back. Can’t wait to can’t wait to talk with you guys all. I miss you all very dearly. Um again, Oilers Nation Afterdark. Find it wherever you get your podcast from. It auto downloads so the next morning when you’re driving into work, you can just use that as your morning show. works great. Um, all right, that’s a wrap. Shout out to Jeff Merrick. Shout out to Latty Schmeid for bringing the energy for us today. Enjoy the hockey game tonight. We’re finally back at Rogers Place and the games mean something. We’ll be back tomorrow noon mountain. Oil up. What’s up, Nation citizens. If you enjoyed today’s episode of Oilers Nation every day, make sure you hit the subscribe button here on our YouTube to not miss any of our content. We got you covered from interviews, insight, analysis, everything you need to stay up to date on everything around the team. Hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss a

It’s finally here — Opening Night for the Edmonton Oilers! Tyler Yaremchuk and Liam Horrobin are back on Oilersnation Everyday as the Oilers open their season with a Battle of Alberta against the Calgary Flames. After back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final, the pressure is on Edmonton to finish the job — but first, they’ll need to shake their reputation for slow starts.

The guys will dive into all their usual game day routines: lineup reports, the Sherwood Ford Giant Question, and everything you need to know before puck drop at Rogers Place.

Plus, we’ve got breaking news this morning — Mattias Ekholm has signed a 3-year contract extension with the Oilers at an AAV of $4 million per season. Tyler and Liam will break down what this means for Edmonton’s blue line and future cap space.

To kick things off, the boys are joined by Jeff Marek to talk about NHL opening night, Connor McDavid’s new deal, and what the future holds for this Oilers core. Later in the show, they’ll check in on what’s trending around the sports world and make their Bet365 picks for the first game of the year.

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