Oilers Legend Craig MacTavish (3/9/26)

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2:01That helped the orders win the game. Didn't see a lot of ice time for flying. Didn't see a lot of ice time. And I'm asking you for your thoughts. Do the orders need to involve more players? And that's going to be the conversation point we go to next. On the River Creek Resort Casino hotline. The River Creek Resort Casino excitement bet on it 247 for friends. A contract equipment Canada's premium heavy equipment dealer with rental and sales here is the former general manager and head coach of the Amazon orders a great third line center himself back. Let a Mac T. A Monday's Craig Mattavish. Hello Craig. How you doing? Very good. Bob, thanks. Good to have the boys get a much needed win last night. Must have felt a lot better getting on that plane last night after the game. Well, there's been a lot of pressure and they went through a brutal stretch and they gave up way too many goals against. And it wasn't all on the goalies. We know that. When the team won 16 straight games a couple of years ago, they gave up 24 goals against.

3:03Okay, so they were playing pretty well defensively. They haven't come close to that. They can score. We know that they're tied for the second highest scoring team in the NHL. Stam Bob and went out and he added three players at the deadline. He brought in Connor Murphy a right shot second pairing D. That's an excellent penalty killer. He brought in Jason Dickinson, a third line center that loves tough match up minutes against good players and is an excellent penalty killer. As you know, Mac T. Chicago had the best penalty killing in the NHL and Dickinson was their first center option and Murphy was their first pairing right D option. And he also added an energy forward and Colton doc that's a six foot four kid that can skate and is not timid. He's an aggressive player. What did you think of the assessment or give me your assessment on the two acquisitions and how they could potentially help the Edmonton orders? Well, we got bigger and stronger for sure.

4:03And our penalty kill looks like it's going to be much improved with the addition of Dickinson and Murphy is it going to be enough to push us into the equation of the conversation with some of the best teams in the Western Conference. So that's going to remain to be seen. I mean, a little underwhelming given the assets we gave up. But the reality is for Stan and Jeff and the management team is that you know, negative asset value players. And by that, I mean players that don't play at a level of their contract and you have to give something for other teams to take them. It's expensive and as much as you'd like to add a higher profile player or two than what we did, the reality is that we couldn't. Those guys put in the work and they do the work and they explore all the options.

5:04And to me, Stan knows both all three of these players really well, which I think is always a pretty significant benefit when you're doing a deal with a general manager that is controlled. Some of these players in the past, I've liked what I've seen of the competitiveness of Colton doc. I mean, we're not going to add much to our offense, but it doesn't look like we need to add too much more with the way that we can score goals. Obviously, the focus for this management team was on defending and giving us some greater depth. And I think, you know, it's a small sample size so far, but I like the size. You and I have talked about that a lot. All three of these players have significant size and they're going to be able to compete physically in the NHL playoffs. So I think we addressed the reality of where we are as a team.

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7:10Pay for it by pharma. All right. So here's the deal. Congressman David's playing 23 minutes, burying in a compressed schedule. Leon Drysettles playing 2156. There's an old saying, right? Many hands makes light work. Doc was under three minutes through two periods last night. Chris did deploy that, you know, Doc Semansky Frederick a little bit more in the third. I think the others have got to simplify. The top guys got to simplify their games. And I think Chris has got to find a way to play Dickinson Savoy and cap it in at least 14 minutes of game. That's what they're averaging in different, you know, 14 to 15 minutes of game. But I think they got to find a way to get their fourth line. More involved. What do you think, Matti? Well, you know, in a perfect world, yeah, you would like to be in a position where you're not always chasing the games. And when you are chasing the games,

8:12you know, you need to have the guys that are going to put the puck in and out on the ice to get back in a hockey game. It's just as simple as that. And until we get off to better starts and start defending more leads than we've done over the last, I don't know, month or so. It's going to be hard to integrate fourth line guys when you need goals to get back in hockey game. They just simply don't provide it. And, you know, in a perfect world, we get off to a good start and now we can roll the four lines. When I was a fourth liner, I used to drive me crazy when the coach would get out of the rotation of the fourth line. And, but, you know, when you're chasing the game, that's exactly what happens. And the other side effect of all this is the wear and tear you're going to have on your stars. So, let's give this group an opportunity to integrate and hopefully by their play,

9:14they demonstrate that they can handle the minutes and we're in better position in terms of playing catch-up. I know we're going to do right now. I think we have Aiden Gannum back at the 880 Chad Studios at this exact moment. Aiden, are you there? My man, think he's there. What's up? Sorry. Can you replay the clip right now from Connor Ingram talking about Vesilli but goals? Can, dude, just give me a second. Sure. Mac, you're going to find this interesting. This is right in your wheelhouse. Yeah, well, he's awesome. He's a guy that's on every day, early with us. He's selfless. He's out there shooting parks. You know, when you shoot on goal, he's there's not all the time you get a chance to score. He never says a word. He just puts his head down and goes to work. It's incredible. I mean, it gets a garden to where it is and it's awesome to see him as a success, too. There you go. And that's something I noticed right away with him. And as you know, Craig,

10:15I try to get there for about 12 to 15 minutes before the schedule practice time to see who's working with the goalies, to see who's working on their own one. Timers working on their skills a bit. I'm not as hung up at the end of practice. Okay. I mean, I'm assuming the centers are going to work on draws and that sort of stuff. But Vesilli put goals and would be the leading goal scorer in the Vancouver Canucks. He's got 15 goals. He's plus 15. He's stepped up twice this year and fought for his teammates. The order's got him for a fourth round pick. And another player who is tracking the same way completely different type of player but works very hard in practice and a transitions into his game is Matt Savoy. And you can see the confidence level and how much the order's top guys like and appreciate that. You know, you played a long time in the league. You coached a long time in the league and you managed in the league. You're always looking for guys like that, aren't you? Because usually what happens and you can educate your listeners here.

11:16But as a rule of thumb, guys that work hard that are in practice, it often does translate to their game, doesn't it? No, it works for sure. When I was in St. Louis, Ryan O'Reilly, man, that guy spent so much time on the little details of his game. And it, I mean, he's not a naturally elegant skater or anything like that, but highly functional guy. And when you mentioned Matt Savoy and Vesilli putt Coveson, I mean, those guys have a lot of promise. I mean, we identified that, everybody identified that fairly early in the season. You talk about negative asset players, positive asset players, where you maximize the cap space that you have is incredibly important. And both those guys are outplaying the value of their contract and Vesilli pod-cosen by a lot. I mean, last night, the goal that he scored was an incredible goal. Like a Mark Messier-style goal, where he took off up the medal in blue by Rasmus Anderson.

12:20And, you know, he's 215 or 20 pounds, I'm told. And he was just flying up the ice and tireless worker and great teammate and just gets the game. So, I mean, amazing addition for a fourth round dropkick. I mean, it's, you know, it's buyer's remorse, or seller's remorse in Vancouver, for sure, when they watch what this guy has been able to do, not only on the ice, but how he's been able to integrate himself because of his work ethic into the team and gained so much respect from his teammates. And, you know, one thing I learned in the game hockey very early on in my playing career is every bit of work that you put in on your game, whether it's on the ice or off the ice, pays off. And people notice, and I used to tell players when I was coaching and managing that, you know, get caught doing things right occasionally.

13:24And as a result, you will affect on the leash that you get from the coaching staff. And obviously, these guys are, you know, development seldom happens in a straight line. And there are peaks and valleys, but when you consistently do everything that you can control from a work ethic, work ethic, and, you know, pay attention to the details of the game, that development curve goes consistently up. And both those guys are on that path. There's plenty of room left for both those players to evolve into something much greater than they are today. Well, Valery Nichuskin, who is probably a more gifted player than put Coleson, but they were both drafted 10th overall. He had a season in Dallas, Matti, where he did not score in 57 games. But there were people that thought he wouldn't even

14:24be in the NHL, you know, when he was 25, 26. And he's a merciless sort off the ice, but he's, you know, he's had multiple 20 goals seasons. And I guess the point that I'm making in this, and even Zach Hyman, like at the same age at 24, nobody saw Zach Hyman. I mean, Zach Hyman's had five straight years at Edmonton, Matti, of 27 goals plus. He's got the most goals in the league since December the first. He's got 26 goals. Nobody, I'm not saying, but Coleson will ever score 30. But I sure have to believe he can score 20. Oh, so I think this this boasts well for Edmonton. Invermium. Yeah, those guys, you match in Hyman, I mean, they just, they get the details of the game and they put the work ethic in. And they're going to maximize everything in their God-given ability because of their work ethic and the way they conduct themselves. There's no stone unturned.

15:24And that's why those guys get the results that they're getting. And, you know, the guys that drive coaches crazy are guys that, you know, are accepting performance far below a level with their capability. And those guys drive coaches crazy. But when you have guys like Matti, Zach, home, Zach Hyman, the silly putt, Coleson, those guys, they drive the bus in terms of your day-to-day work ethic and practice with the rest of your team, too, as well. All right. We're going to talk goal-tuning. So here's the deal. It's way too early to judge the whole situation. The goal-tuning story this year is still to be told here. Edmonton made a bet. The general manager made a bet. The Tristan Jerry had a higher ceiling. It was better, certainly better pocket handler than Stuart Skinner. Since the trade, Skinner is 8.5 and 3,

16:25with a 2.63 goals against Savage, 8.89, save percentage. Jerry's at 8.61, he's 6.5 and 1. 3.96. He hasn't really been the same since he came back from the injury, where he's got an 8.55 save percentage. The orders have not played well defensively in front of Jerry either. But Conor Ingram's Matti out of his 16 starts, he's had 10 quality starts at 62.5 percent. And Tristan would be the first to tell you, he needs to play better. He's had three quality starts and 12 starts at 25 percent. Is it too early to just write this whole thing? I think it is. I think the story still will be told here, don't you? Well, we've seen amazing turnarounds from goal tenders that come from the depths of despair to getting on top of their game and being unreal. Bobrovsky was one of them. I mean, it's happened. It's hard to predict goal tendings evolution. And it's way too early to write Tristan Jerry off.

17:29I mean, his next start is he's going to be under intense pressure and a huge focal point for the majority of the fans, certainly the media. And this welcomed a goal tending in Edmonton. It's not an easy place to play net, especially if things go sideways. But that's when you need to rescue your team to throw a gem of a defensive game in defense of your goal tender. The synergy then that does create between the team and the goal tender. The goal tender has to bail the team out at times. But right now Tristan Jerry needs the team and needs the team to step up defensively and play a really good game in front of him and help him out. And help him out blocking shots and good positional play, clearing the front of the net, letting him see the puck, all winning battles, controlling cycles, all that stuff. They need, Tristan needs the team and the team needs to do it for him.

18:34Yeah, all right. Well stated Craig, I enjoy your story. I'm going to see you coming up here in the middle of the middle of March. You stand down until the end of the last bit of March. I'm coming home for the end of the season. And hopefully a real good solid playoff run from our oilers. All right, great stuff. Thanks, Matti. Okay. Thanks. Greg Metaviche's appearances are brought to you by contract equipment. Canada's premium heavy equipment dealer with rental and sales. You can catch exclusive video clips. Highlights tomorrow in the orders now. X account 80 chance YouTube channel probably presented by legacy heating and cooling. Um, again, you can text us at 780 4518 800. We'll get to some of those texts when we return in orders now. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast, smart move. Being financially savvy, smart move. Another smart move, having State Farm help you create a competitive price when you choose to bundle home and auto, bundling.

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