In Wednesday’s episode, we dove into Game 4 between the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars, some of the weirdest pre-game rituals I’ve seen, and Darnell Nurse’s slash on Roope Hintz.

How the Oilers beat the Stars

Good news for Oilers fans. Things look great. Edmonton’s playing fantastic. (Game 4) was good in all aspects. I think they gave up more chances than they have in the past, so that’s not necessarily a great thing, except that was the best game I think we’ve seen Stuart Skinner play all playoffs. The most chances we’ve seen him face, he was fantastic. He was all over it all game. Only one goal against. Also good news: Stuart Skinner can let in the goal and still win a hockey game, so that was a bonus too, as it was the first time in the playoffs he’s given up a goal and won a game.

We love the shutouts, but we know we’re going to need some wins out of him when he does allow a goal. But he looked really, really good in this game. And as expected, watching the first couple of games in that series, Edmonton’s offence is just churning. They’re starting to get everything they get, a Bouch Bomb, Connor McDavid starts to put pucks in the back of the net, which is bad news if you’re a fan or you’re the Dallas Stars and might have got might have seen some chinks in the armor and Jake Ottinger. Really, the only way Dallas has gotten to where they are, and the only chance they have, is if Jake Ottinger is playing superhuman, and he has been and but chance after chance, and the Oilers are capable of putting pucks in the back of the net, we all know.

The legend of Nikolai Khabibulin

It was a long time ago, so it’s not easy to remember all of it. It wasn’t really necessarily routine, it was just kind of how we went about things.

I was fortunate enough to get to play with Nikolai Khabibulin. He’s a legend. He was a 39-year-old, I think, when I was playing with them, and this guy was in phenomenal shape. He took great care of himself. He was a good role model for me to just watch a guy at his age who’s done everything that he had, the way that he took care of himself, his preparation, the way he was, got ready for games, day in, day out, even on practice days, was great for me to see a professional like that handle himself the way he did.

Speaking of being in shape, Khabi was built like a ninja turtle. He had eight abs that stuck out. They were huge. I don’t know what was happening in Russia when he was a kid, but his body was still pretty darn good, and he made sure that everybody saw it. He would play ping pong on practice days. He’d get off the ice, go shower, he’d come in and he’d just rock a towel. He’d just wear a towel and he’d go play ping pong. I don’t know how the towel stayed on. I don’t know if you had a clip in there. It did stay on, fortunately, but he would play ping pong in just a towel. And he was also really good at ping pong, as well.

And combined with that, he used to sweat so much, he sweated more than anybody had ever seen. I think he loses eight, nine, or ten pounds in a game. And so he actually wore a different jersey every single period and a new set of gloves every single period. He might have just had two sets of gloves that they would then dry, but he wore a different set of gloves every single period because he just sweated that much.

I’ve just never seen somebody lose that much water weight in the game. But that’s probably the most unusual, maybe the ping pong routine. But, again, it was a pleasure to play with him. I was happy I got that role model to see somebody prepare professionally that way, day in, day out. And I try to take as much of that with me as I can.

Nurse’s slash on Hintz

Obviously, you got both sides of it. Oilers fans think it’s nothing. Dallas fans wanted some sort of suspension or five-minute call — I get it, you’re upset that you lost one of your best players and that’s unfortunate. You never want to see you guys go out for injury… but you can see how quickly, when they reviewed it, that they just gave it a two-minute minor. Listen, this stuff happens all the time in playoffs, in the regular season if there’s a mix-up in front of the net. They’re going to war. They’re battling against each other.

Nurse turns around to give them one extra shot and listen: It was a good shot. He didn’t wind up, he didn’t baseball swing him. He gave him a hard slash in the absolute perfect spot that you want to hit somebody if you want to make it work. And unfortunately, he did hit him, he hit him hard and and again, you never want to see injuries. But when you’re going to slash somebody, you’re kind of doing it so that they feel it.

And that’s a spot that you’re going to feel is right on top of the foot. But it happened quickly. And yes, he slashed him hard. That play could happen 100 times over and a guy is not going to be hurt. His foot might hurt a little bit, but he’s probably going to be out for the next shift.

So again, I get Pete DeBoer’s upset about it. He mentioned that if that happened to Connor McDavid, everybody would be out in arms. No offence, Roope Hintz is not Connor McDavid. So that doesn’t really work that way. It doesn’t work that way for anybody except Connor McDavid. And we haven’t seen that. So I think it was an unfortunate turnout on a play that happens multiple times a game in the regular season and the playoffs.

You can tune into the full episode of the show down below, where I also dove into my favourite Oiler and the most saves I made in a game.

ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365

Shows

Featured

Recent articles from Devan Dubnyk

Ask Dubey: Knoblauch on the hot seat? Skinner’s biggest weakness?

Ask Dubey: Favourite Oilers jersey, best road trip memories, and more

Ask Dubey: Superstitions, game-day routine, and an ode to Ryan Jones

How the Oilers beat the Stars

The legend of Nikolai Khabibulin

Nurse’s slash on Hintz

ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365

Recent articles from Devan Dubnyk

Breaking News