OverDrive - Nielson on the Oilers' true identity, McDavid at a roadblock and Knoblauch's coaching style

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

Edmonton Sports Talk President Dustin Nielson joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Oilers season, the roster construction on the team, Jeff Skinner's elevation in the lineup, Kris Knoblauch's coaching style, Connor McDavid's run-of-the-mill impact and more.

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Bell, getting a new phone just got better. He is, of course, the president of Edmonton Sports Talk, host of the Nielsen Show. You hear him on TSN calling CFL games all the time. Here's Dustin Nielsen. Did you sniff that one out, Dustin? You knew that Jake Wallman was on the radar for the Oilers or what? Well, I just like how Struddy's already laid out excuses for the loss tonight. There's already guys that say like, it makes sense. It makes sense.

I don't want to talk about it for three hours tomorrow. But you know, Wallman, I mean, for what we've seen from Wallman so far, I like him. I mean, it's not tough to upgrade some of the guys that they're rolling in there. So he's looked good so far. I mean, he looks insanely physical in the first game. And I don't know if that's because he actually is or because the others just haven't played physical so far this year. But I mean, early returns on the deadline, not so bad just yet.

OK, yeah. And you mentioned Frederick, like as Strudy points out, Frederick hasn't hasn't played yet. So I'm curious, like in terms of the roster that you would expect to see come game one, like how much of it is solidified? How much of it is still up in the air in terms of how, you know, all these different roles could shake out?

According to our show this morning, nothing's locked in just yet. So people are, like we're trying to figure out who's going to play with Leon Dreissel in this city right and as of this morning I have people suggesting Trent Frederick who's never played a game for this team could possibly play on the wing with Leon Dreissel. So I mean the bottom line is Frederick's going to come in and provide something that they don't have or at least they haven't seen yet this season, which would be some physicality. Can play center, could move them over on the wing.

And I mean, Jeff Skinner's getting to play the wing tonight with Leon Dreissel. And if he scores, he might be scratched next game. Like he's had a hard time staying in the lineup. So we'll see what happens on that front. But I mean, and Nugent Hyman have been locked in with McDavid. It hasn't worked as well as it has in other years.

So, as somebody pointed out today on one of our shows, if you don't know what your lineup is 65 games into the season, you might want to start getting a little bit concerned. I don't know if they should be there just yet, but I'm also not sure what the answer is to that lineup question. So, Dusty, you know, Skinner, Jeff Skinner gets the chance to play a dry settle, but it seems like no matter what he does, he is like the ugly step kid who's just pushed out all the time, right? He's 11 goals, 12 goals.

He's had some good moments. He's had some tough moments, but I think he's gone better. So what is it about his game that has drawn this bad love from the coaching staff? I mean, I think it's a start to a season that he just sort of hasn't won them over from because since January 1st, he's like plus five, plus six. And I know a lot of people point to his plus minus, he was not good to start the season. Like he was not playing good two-way hockey to start the season. I still don't know if I'd describe him as a good two-way player right now either, but the bottom line is since January 5th, he scored five goals.

He's a plus player. The other guys in their bottom six as a group combined for five or six goals. So it's interesting with him getting a look at dry saddle tonight, because we were trying to talk about this this morning. They started the season, game one, with Arvidsson and Skinner alongside Dry Settle by the third period of game one. Dry Settle was with Connor McDavid and I don't know how much they've gone back to these two guys since and these two guys were brought in to be top six wingers.

Arvidsson has done it sparingly Skinner really hasn't got a consistent chance at all. And I'm still wondering if maybe the plan at the beginning of the year could somehow come into focus maybe by playoff time. Because in limited offensive opportunity, Skinner's actually produced a little bit. We'll see where it goes from here though. We're chatting with Dustin Nielsen,

the Oilers are on the East Coast playing the Devils tonight. And when Knobloch came in last year, Chris Knoblok, the noise, we talked about it extensively. Like, all right, you're bringing in his junior coach, like McDavid's junior coach, Jeff Jackson knows him and liked him when he was a coach

back in junior and eerie. What is this guy? What is he gonna bring to the NHL? And there was some skepticism on our show anyway of exactly what would happen. And the guy, every button he pushed was the right button. Like it was incredible the way he triggered that second half in Edmonton, we know what happened come playoff time.

I'm curious what you've seen out of Knobloch this year now that he's settled in. Is he showing different gears? Is he showing a different style? Any difference in terms of his disposition before the game, after the game? Because by this time last last year the Oilers were the hottest team in the league and they're nowhere close to it this year what gives you hope or belief that Knobloch you know will be able to push the right buttons this time to get them back into a cup final.

I will say the disposition has not changed he's as straight as a line after every game. Like you don't see much frustration, you don't see much excitement. And you know, they, you know, they got on a great run last year and from mid to late November to mid to late January, they had the best record in the league this year. It's just the rest of the season,

they played like a non-playoff team. So this is one of the hardest teams, I've been doing the show for like 15 years. This is one of the hardest teams. Like when they sucked we knew they sucked and when they've had good teams we knew they had good teams. This team is confusing me quite a bit and the thing with the thing with Knoblot who just surpassed Jay Woodcroft's 133 games coached. So he's accomplished something that Woodcroft didn't accomplish and that's getting to like 135 games as head coach

of this team. But Struddy can probably chime in on this one as well is that I feel like he's falling back into the same sort of pattern that a lot of other coaches had here and that is you know when things start to go bad you automatically put McDavid and Dreisel together and hope that it works. It hasn't worked as much this year as I think as it has in the past and I say this morning and I should watch your guys in the past and I I said this morning and I should watch your guys's show or some other shows more like Coaches and Edmonton just blend lines all the time

Like I know Winnipeg is rolling lines think the same guys over and over and over again Washington leaves a lot of those guys locked in Struts the others just I mean, it's a different set of line combinations almost every two or three games Which I didn't think Woodcroft would fall back into but that's the same thing that happened with all the other coaches here Yeah, I think that you know your points well made I think the challenge for him is he's trying to find a spark, right? Like when wins the last time we thought man look at these two guys. There's a real spark there and we saw a spark last year We haven't seen it this year

And I think part of it dusty and you know We watch all the games watch a lot of games around the league, these guys aren't having any fun. It does not, and I know that they're paid, but they score, there's just nothing, there's no juice out there to their game. Is that the cup thing over? That drives a few guys crazy here. It's just, it's okay to be excited to score and to like be

excited after you win in overtime and it's just I think I think you make what were you gonna say there Hazy? Well I was like I noticed that like in terms of the the cup hangover is something that comes up every single year and I remember talking about it in September I'm like it's it's a cup hangover without winning so you know what yeah it's the worst kind of hangover and it's understandable that they're miserable in September and maybe miserable in October and it's a long season you got to do it again but I'm with you guys like having seen them even and I get it off losses but there's been multiple occasions where like shots have been gone viral with you know dry saddle losing his mine after a loss and it was McDavid the other night in Buffalo I think he broke

a stick going off the ice or something like that. And like those guys, they're showing their frustration constantly, but you guys are intimating that even when they're winning, it's, it's almost as if they're not willing to fully engage and I'm curious if it's, if you've, what, what is your theory on that? Is it because they feel like the regular seasons are relevant? Like, is that possible that they're gonna get to the playoffs and just snap out of it? I don't know, that's a dangerous game.

I almost feel like they're annoyed. Yeah, it could be. It's like they're annoyed. They're annoyed with the regular season. It's like, man, like enough of these games. And that's a scary game to play because, you know, they're gonna be a playoff team. And we saw last year, you know,

when they faced some critical moments in the playoffs, they managed to come through. I know they didn't finish to come back, but being down three, nothing, of course, they gave seven and cup final. It's not easy to do. Um, so I, I, they might just be waiting to flip a switch, but how many of these guys can actually do that? And that's where you could run into trouble where it's like, wait a second, the switch didn't flip and it's game seven against the Kings and it better flip tonight or else it's gonna be a really disappointing season. Absolutely, with Dustin Nielsen.

So where does the big guy come into play on all this? And that being McDavid where, you know, he's still having a great season, but based on his standards, outside of his rookie year, this is probably the worst year he's had of his career guys. Would you say that? I mean, in terms of he's been healthy for the most part,

banged up here, there he had the suspension, but he's not like, he's not going to win the heart. He's not going to be nominated for the heart. He doesn't deserve to be in my opinion. He's not going to be one of the three finalists for the heart trophy. Not going to win the Art Ross. He's not going to win the Ted Lindsay.

He's not going to win the rocket. Like this is the first time I can think of in year, probably since his rookie year, where all of these are a reality. How has the market kind of handled the season that McDavid's had this year? Well, I mean, Dry Settle's had such a good year that some of whether still gonna be involved in all those.

So, but it's just, I mean, his wingers aren't producing Nugent Hyman are, I mean, Hyman scored 50 plus goals last year. He's going to maybe get 50 points this year. Nuge had a hundred points two years ago. He might get 50 points this year and McDavid, it was like before the four nations, we were sitting around going, man, something might be wrong with this guy. Like, is he sick? Has he banged up? What's going on? And then that first game against Sweden at the Four Nations, you know, he was absolutely buzzing You're like he looks like he's in a different league than even the best players in the world and they come back here And you know, he's been a minus player. He's he's barely above plus minus, you know zero this year

He's usually like a plus 20 guy And then he had like the first two periods against Dallas on Saturday, he looked like Conor McDavid again. And then it's just something just seems slightly off this year for him and the connection with his wingers. Yeah, and it's so true. And I can't put my finger on it, like because no one's really going at their best. Like if we said whichuler has lived above their expectations or played above, I think there's Leon. After that, maybe Ty Emerson.

Corey Perry. Yeah, Corey Perry. Yeah, Corey Perry. So we're talking about a top player then two no-disrespect kind of bottom-line-up guys. And I think that's the challenge. So how do you get out of that? So is it, Hayes, to your your point is that the hangover is it will carry away to the class to start the problems if you're not going by game

eighty three you could be out game eighty seven that happens quick man it happens quick and that that will be staggering because of where they were last year coming into the season everyone was picking them to do what florida did right like go back to the learn from your mistakes or learn from the you know being shaken up in the cup final and go back and do it and like based on what you guys are saying

and what i'm seeing from afar i i don't feel great about that happening like it just it seems like in the west it's you got Winnipeg Dallas Vegas Colorado Edmonton like is Edmonton fifth like that's probably appropriate odds right now in terms of who's gonna represent the West in the Cup final. I think that's fair. I think that's probably where they fall right now. We were asking people on our show this morning, like have you lost faith in the Oilers as a Cup contender?

Like they're gonna be a playoff team. And a lot of people said that they had. I view it right now that I think they could come out of the Pacific, like even with their plan, I think they could come out of the Pacific. Like even with their plan, I think they could flip a switch and navigate their way through Los Angeles and Vegas. But whoever comes out of that central is going to be that's going to be a tough out. So they're going to have to work on that if they're going to take that next step back to where they were last year.

And you know what it really does? It just makes me that much more impressed with what Florida did last year. Oh, like we've seen we've seen more teams go the way of the Oilers after losing the cup final They go the way of the Florida Panthers and climb right back. Absolutely. It's so tough to get back on the horse, man It's so tough and then you look at Tampa. They did it three years in a row with COVID in between I mean, it's it was staggering what's happened You know in the state of Florida in particular. Here's Dustin Nielsen You hear him and see him with the CFL on TSM,

president of Edmonton Sports Talk and host of The Nielsen Show. Great catching up with you, Dustin. We appreciate you doing this, man. Enjoy the games tonight. Yeah, thanks a lot, buddy. You got it. There's Dustin Nielsen.

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