OverDrive - Rishaug on the Oilers top players performing, the difference between the markets in Toronto and Edmonton, and the Oilers rounding into form as the playoffs have gone on

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

TSN Oilers Reporter Ryan Rishaug on the Oilers top players stepping it up come playoff time, the difference between the markets in Toronto and Edmonton, the Oilers rounding into form as the playoffs have gone on, and an injury update on Mattias Ekholm.

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I lean towards the latter. I know Skinner deserves a lot of credit. He does. He was exceptional. But there's something about McDavid when he's in the mood and he was yesterday. Here's Ryan Rashog in Edmonton. If you had to pick one player to determine why they won yesterday, would you pick Skinner or would you pick McDavid? I would pick Skinner. I would look at that second period and I would say the Stars

mustered their best and threw it at the Oilers in that period where they have 21 shots or something that second period. and Stewart Skinner was the main reason why they repelled the Stars best. McDavid had a great day I mean huge goal laid in a period looked like his old self like was really really good no question but if Stewart Skinner doesn't have a second period he had that i would be ordered in position to you know uh... be able to lean on it go for the end of the generated a file of offense but skinner in that second period was enough of a difference maker for me to give him

the not colors so what do you make of you know what's the buzz around ebb and turn about skinner because you know we ran aboard it's either feast or famine with him to mean there's no way the worst best of the worst well yeah i mean who yeah who do you want like who do you want to listen to i mean if you want to hop on twitter and look for garbage you're gonna find it uh... the polarizing player goaltending is top

this market is tough on goaltenders and thatmonton has a rabid online fan base. And the most vocal of them are the negative people. So if you want to find it guys, you can find it. Stuart Skinner says he chooses not to find it and good for him. I think we got to let the cooler heads prevail and continue to have the intelligent conversation and not dig too much into this roller coaster ride

that fans are on with this goalie. I think this is what it is. Last year he showed he could get a team to game seven of a Stanley Cup final he showed he was capable of that came back this year and wasn't as good struggled this year but it had showed enough last year that Stan Bowman was willing to stand Pat with them and while it was an up-and-down regular season and not a great start to the playoffs That gamble is paying off because Stewart Skinner once again is out dueling Jake Ottinger in a conference final

The orders once again are spending less than five million bucks on their goaltending which allows him to spend a lot more elsewhere, which is why we're talking about so much depth and Stewart Skinner has refound his form. So if you want to be on the roller coaster ride, go ahead. To me, it was simple. He showed him he could do it last year at a crappy regular season. They chose to believe in him again, bumpy start, but he's doing what they thought he would be able to do. Rache, I'm fascinated to know, and I'm sure everyone in this market would be fascinated to know about playing under the pressure of a

Canadian market because a lot of talk here in Toronto is the market's too tough and then Leon Drysidle came out and he said, well it's a Canadian market, hockey is everything, but we can handle it. What does that mean they can handle it? Does that just mean they don't care about what anybody says and they go out and they're the best players in the world? How do you describe the way the two best players in the world handle the pressure of a Canadian market?

Okay. So this is a tough one for me to answer without sounding like, I mean I cover the orders but you guys know me. I don't cheer, I'm not a fan, I don't, like I cover it straight. don't like I cover it straight either do we reach neither do we journalism journalism yeah journal we're journalists here yeah come on now I'm gonna sound you know whatever I'll just give you an answer those guys can handle it because in the final analysis in the biggest moments they aren't on the back of milk cartons and they never have been They've been good in the biggest moment

So whether the orders win or the orders lose in the biggest moments these guys have had to face in their time here They have showed up and been Pushing it in the right direction Where it gets difficult in these Canadian markets is where you're the highest paid players with the most pressure and you have these massive moments and you don't come through in those moments. So the narrative builds. So why does Leon Dreisauld feel like he can handle it? Look at his points per game in the playoffs why is carmen david feel like sure maybe get a little test you at the media now and then but at the end of the i can handle it look at his points per game in the playoffs in his production when it matters the most

so it's the culmination of year after year where the highest paid guys are coming through in the moment at the different kind of pressure the needs to not winning a game seven of a stanley cup final that there yeah answer well i mean i i think so in other words if you play well there's no pressure to play poorly this pressure so i guess what you're saying is an excuse

you have an answer when you're being asked the question you have an answer other than being be funneled in confused at the why it just isn't happened and never had happened when it matters well in the i mean yeah and to be fair for i'm obviously there's a leaf relation to this belief players have never said that publicly they have never come out so we lost tonight because of pressure it's too

much pressure for us or they have never said we do we didn't get it done here brian certainly was not expecting you to get this year issue wasn't expecting that. Wow, I like it. Yeah. I like it. Well, I'm not. You asked me a question and I'm answering. I'm not getting pissed. Well, I thought there was an angle of pissy-ism there.

But you know. No, you guys put me in a position to look like I'm waving an oil or foam finger. No, not at all. We don't do that on this show. We are all journalists, Rish. The market has something to do with it to the old and i see this respectfully like this wasn't necessarily you guys about talking about your show but i did have to laugh after

game five of that last series i mean there was a sold their down three to in a really important series there to win the way from a conference final and they played like crap an entire market did a post-mortem on an entire franchise and season. It was after game five of a series that's still very much a series. Shanahan's gone. Marner's gone. Like what's happening? It was just you, like the market there is on the roller coaster with the fans, the ups and downs. And it's just after game five of that

series is not the time to do a post mortem on the franchise and the entire market does and they bring that to the players that's different and that's why I think people roll their eyes and go this got a little silly when it was a 3-2 series didn't it and from my and I'm not seeing your guys show because I want you are though in many ways we did do we yell and scream but let let me let me i guess to go for toronto the reasoning for that yeah is when you lose in you play like that the biggest moments year after year after year

and then you justify that rat reaction four nights later i don't think the market has to apologize at all for reacting the way they did in game five i mean the way it would in game five. I mean it would you're a hundred percent justified in that comment Shager if the Leafs won game six and won game seven then you come on here you guys are a bunch of buffoons and what is happening in that market. Everyone knew when they watched game five they're like I think I know what's coming and they

were right it's exactly what was coming because it was worse in game seven it It was worse and this is where it is different. You're right in Edmonton like McDavid dry subtle the way they play if If they're brutal tomorrow night, they do it shouldn't you know, you talk about the game and they play poorly or whatever It will not lead to some big picture thing because they burst through that because of what you said They don't end up on milk cartons. When there's a milk carton nine years in a row, people are very easily triggered and I know why they are. And I think it would be different here. I know it would be different if three years ago the Leafs won a cup or two years ago they went to a cup final, then people would be like, all right, I'm going to have a different viewpoint of what's happening here, but there is it's it's deep and it's it's heavy and there

There's a lot of psychology and it's a it's a pretty it's it's been a rough ride in the biggest moments here So I'm not surprised people reacted the way they did in game five and I get why you would look at it that way I think people in Florida would and Tampa would and Colorado would other Successful teams would look at that and say that's crazy. But it doesn't it never happens here. They don't they don't do it here. They don't show up. They don't win. So people freak out. And that's the way it goes. You know, and add in Ryan add one quick thing to that too. We talked about it before you came on early in the four o'clock hour. Edmonton, you know, it was pretty noisy there after those first two games in LA. I mean that was...

That's true, Noodle. It wasn't exactly quiet out there. It was, it was, especially down the stretch. And we'd had you on and we talked to Struddy and that, like, they did, they looked disconnected down the stretch because they didn't have all their players, guys were banged up, we weren't sure the health and status of McDavid, settled that time off and then we weren't sure what's going to go with Kane and Frederick like it was kind of a mishmash and it rolled into those first two games and then the Oilers now it's 10 of 12 they've won and this looks like a wagon so it looks a lot different looks and sounds a lot different but we could argue a calendar month ago, there was probably a few question marks floating around that market as well, correct?

Yeah, and that's fair, but here's the thing, and this is where the experience of having won some series, been in some battles, battling back from being down 3-0 in a Stanley Cup final, there's an inherent confidence with the group. So when they're down 2-0 nothing in a series as a media group, we understand, yup, doesn't look good. They're not in a good spot. But we also understand this team has the ability to push back into this thing. So we don't talk about, you know, the whole season being, you know, and do a whole post-mortem on every time it's sort of a little bit down, you don't have to go big picture and question everything because this group has shown it's not out

of it, right? So at 2-0, yup, not a good start, tough look for Skinner, wonder if they made the right call on the goaltending, all those things, but it's still very much a series. And more importantly, never mind what us dummies are saying, the players in that room are not sitting there with doubt creeping in. And I don't know when the doubt starts to creep in for the other guys in Toronto and those guys because of history. I don't know when that starts affecting them, but I do know with this oiler group, you know, when we grill them, they're confident, like whatever situation they're in, they've seen it and they're confident and they kind of

ignore the noise and just go about their business. They're really, really good at doing that but they've earned that through a few years here with some heartbreak and some ups and some downs and shooting themselves in the foot and paying a price and learning and figuring it out next series and there have been a lot of miles here that they've run as a group in the playoffs and learned a lot of things. Reach quickly before we get out of here. Is Ekholm gonna play tomorrow night? Man, he looks good and I know he's pushing. Like he was following Knoblock around at practice the other day in his year

and I asked Chris about it. He said, no, we're just talking about his family and stuff. Yeah, right. Like you know the CS Ekholm. Guys, when he first got hurt, they were ready to put a release out saying his year was over. And he was like, let's get another opinion just another opinion and they got another

opinion and that created a pathway for him to potentially get back he looks good I think there's a chance he goes in game four he talked today said he wants to needs to be cleared the question I have though who comes out because and you have to bring anyone out or can you go 11 and 7 because Connor Brown's not gonna play next game so you could see seven defensemen but Troy Stetcher has been excellent next to Darnell Nurse you look at nurses numbers with Troy Stetcher I would not want to touch that pairing if I were Chris Knoblock for that reason and so it's a good problem to have. All right we'll find out what comes of it tomorrow night but uh the Oilers in the driver's seat

really good start to this series clearly uh but I'm sure it's long from over with Dallas being the team that they are. Always appreciate you doing this Shogger thank you we'll do it again soon. Yeah I look forward to coming back and just calmly discussing rationally discussing whatever happens in the game yes we do we one game game by game analysis that's what we do we do not do big picture stuff we do not put the carpet before the horse ever yeah ever on this show love you guys thanks shogger see you man there's ryam nashaw Rashad from from Edmonton Plus simple plan, boys like girls, Veronica's, Under Oath, and so many more. Camping, parking, and all the emo nostalgia you can handle. Get your tickets now at allyourfriendsfestival.com