The wild-west return of the Battle of Alberta was followed by memorable but curious media commentary from current and former Oilers..Veteran goalie Mike Smith and former player and head coach Craig MacTavish offered quirky responses following the first Oilers-Flames playoff matchup in 31 years. The 9-6 game included Oilers goalie Mike Smith getting pulled at the 6½-minute mark after allowing three goals in six shots in the first six minutes..Strangely, Smith arrived at the press conference with a big “3” on his head. Was he owning the three goals he disastrously let in or was he oblivious to the irony? Either way, he faced about as many questions as he did pucks..Question one: What did he think about how the game started?.“I don’t think it started very well!” he said, before elaborating further..“Did you wanna go back in the net?” asked one reporter..“Not really,” Smith said pointedly, before laughing. “I mean after you come out and you sit down there for a little while and you cool down, it’s not an ideal situation.”.“Let’s say after the period, though?” the male reporter insisted..“It’s not an ideal situation, especially for an old goat.”.The 40-year-old Smith, who had shut out L.A. in his previous game to win round one in Game 7, was replaced by Mikko Koskinen, who also let in five goals. In desperation, the Oilers decided having no goalie had little downsides and let in an empty netter..Despite the terrible start, the Oilers overcame a 6-2 deficit to tie the game at 6. Strangely, former Oiler player and coach Craig McTavish suggested it would have been better if the Oilers had never made a game of it..“As a coach, I would have rather just continue to get blown out if I was Jay Woodcroft because I don’t want anybody thinking we were close to winning that game,” MacTavish told the Daily Faceoff Online Rundown..“Jay will be all over this today. And there’s lots of video evidence of what they did wrong.”.If MacTavish is right, the “wrong” in the video will include Woodcroft coaching too well, bringing an Oiler team back to overcome a four goal deficit to tie. Apparently, it’s too bad this reality is actually an illusion that they almost won. Next time, Woodcroft should let his players do more things wrong, make sure there’s more bad video of them, and leave them unsure they have the chops to beat their opponent..MacTavish coached the Oilers from 2000 to 2009 with a record of 301 wins, 252 losses, 47 ties, and 56 overtime losses before being fired in 2009. He coached Laussane HC in the Swiss league last year before losing a series to Zurich in six games. .MacTavish’s was “pissy” at the closing press conference, as Jim Matheson said of Leon Draisaityl at another famous press conference earlier this year. It seems MacTavish either won his games – true to his philosophy – allowed his teams to get blown away with no illusions that victory was possible..When a reporter asked why Zurich was so much better, MacTavish insisted the series was close. Then the reporter pointed out that Laussane HC was shut out three times and outscored 22-5.."Yeah, I know that, but we did win two games and they were pretty close. And it was six games," replied MacTavish. "You want to pile it on, try and pile it on now, I guess."."It's disappointing when you lose, always appreciate guys like you who can point out the shortcomings...when the series is over. So, appreciate that.".The reporter admitted Lausanne had a great regular season, but wouldn’t concede that the series was close.."Yeah, well, ok, yeah, maybe I should be asking you the questions," MacTavish said..The reporter asked if MacTavish would be back to coach the next year. MacTavish replied that he had just lost a game and that would be figured out in due time.
The wild-west return of the Battle of Alberta was followed by memorable but curious media commentary from current and former Oilers..Veteran goalie Mike Smith and former player and head coach Craig MacTavish offered quirky responses following the first Oilers-Flames playoff matchup in 31 years. The 9-6 game included Oilers goalie Mike Smith getting pulled at the 6½-minute mark after allowing three goals in six shots in the first six minutes..Strangely, Smith arrived at the press conference with a big “3” on his head. Was he owning the three goals he disastrously let in or was he oblivious to the irony? Either way, he faced about as many questions as he did pucks..Question one: What did he think about how the game started?.“I don’t think it started very well!” he said, before elaborating further..“Did you wanna go back in the net?” asked one reporter..“Not really,” Smith said pointedly, before laughing. “I mean after you come out and you sit down there for a little while and you cool down, it’s not an ideal situation.”.“Let’s say after the period, though?” the male reporter insisted..“It’s not an ideal situation, especially for an old goat.”.The 40-year-old Smith, who had shut out L.A. in his previous game to win round one in Game 7, was replaced by Mikko Koskinen, who also let in five goals. In desperation, the Oilers decided having no goalie had little downsides and let in an empty netter..Despite the terrible start, the Oilers overcame a 6-2 deficit to tie the game at 6. Strangely, former Oiler player and coach Craig McTavish suggested it would have been better if the Oilers had never made a game of it..“As a coach, I would have rather just continue to get blown out if I was Jay Woodcroft because I don’t want anybody thinking we were close to winning that game,” MacTavish told the Daily Faceoff Online Rundown..“Jay will be all over this today. And there’s lots of video evidence of what they did wrong.”.If MacTavish is right, the “wrong” in the video will include Woodcroft coaching too well, bringing an Oiler team back to overcome a four goal deficit to tie. Apparently, it’s too bad this reality is actually an illusion that they almost won. Next time, Woodcroft should let his players do more things wrong, make sure there’s more bad video of them, and leave them unsure they have the chops to beat their opponent..MacTavish coached the Oilers from 2000 to 2009 with a record of 301 wins, 252 losses, 47 ties, and 56 overtime losses before being fired in 2009. He coached Laussane HC in the Swiss league last year before losing a series to Zurich in six games. .MacTavish’s was “pissy” at the closing press conference, as Jim Matheson said of Leon Draisaityl at another famous press conference earlier this year. It seems MacTavish either won his games – true to his philosophy – allowed his teams to get blown away with no illusions that victory was possible..When a reporter asked why Zurich was so much better, MacTavish insisted the series was close. Then the reporter pointed out that Laussane HC was shut out three times and outscored 22-5.."Yeah, I know that, but we did win two games and they were pretty close. And it was six games," replied MacTavish. "You want to pile it on, try and pile it on now, I guess."."It's disappointing when you lose, always appreciate guys like you who can point out the shortcomings...when the series is over. So, appreciate that.".The reporter admitted Lausanne had a great regular season, but wouldn’t concede that the series was close.."Yeah, well, ok, yeah, maybe I should be asking you the questions," MacTavish said..The reporter asked if MacTavish would be back to coach the next year. MacTavish replied that he had just lost a game and that would be figured out in due time.