With the Olympics winding down and the gold medal game between Canada and the U.S. on Sunday morning, we went down memory lane to talk international hockey this week, and whether or not the Oilers need a big deadline shakeup.

What was your experience like representing Canada internationally?

I’ve played in quite a few different, international tournaments for Canada, starting with under eighteens, both u18 World Championships and then World Juniors. I’ve also played in the Spengler Cup, and the World Championships as well, so I’ve got lots of experience with representing Canada.

And they’re all very different tournaments.

One thing that was unique when I grew up was that I thought Canada just didn’t lose international events. I thought we just went over and steamrolled everybody that we played, and that we were that much better than everybody else. So I did have a bit of an eye opener in my first u18 World Championships when we finished fourth. We didn’t get dominated or anything, but we had an unlucky game in the semi-finals, and then got smoked in the third-place game.

That was my first experience seeing how well other countries can play too, and like in the semi-final game between Czechia and Canada this week at the Olympics, games can really go one of two ways.

Canada often comes in as the heavy favourite, and it and become difficult becuase you almost change your game a little bit in terms of pressing. For example, we had a World Chamiponship game against Slovenia, and I remember playing that game. We were tied 2-2 and we went to overtime, and we had a good team with guys like Steven Stamkos and Jamie Benn — we were stacked.

And I just kept thinking “I’m going to be th guy on record that lost.” Dan Hamhuis sent a three-line saucer pass to Stamkos for a breakaway to finish the game, but those games can happen in a way. It’s just about understanding that sometimes, these games aren’t the blowouts you expect them to be when they’re single games.

Do the Oilers need to make a big deadline shake up and trade one of the big guns for help elsewhere?

I’m going to go with no. I don’t think they need a big shakeup.

I think this is a team that’s been to the Cup final two years in a row, a couple of wins away both times. This is a team that knows they can win, and they’ve got the experience to win.

They’ve got the two best players on the planet, and this is a team that tinkers. I don’t think having a big crazy shakeup and when you bring the salary cap into things, it makes it more difficult when you talk about trading for a big piece. Salaries have to lineup, all that kind of stuff, and then what are you getting when you bring somebody else big into the mix? Do they fit into the team?

I htink the Oilers top players fit in the way the way they have — they’re some of the best on the planet — and they do their thing most of the time. When the Oilers can be more successfull is when they get that secondary scoring, that secondary punch, that secondary defensive efforts through the lineup, so if you can bring some players into the lineup to help with that, they’ll be okay.

We saw last year that when the Oilers got this, and they needed it at times, when they got that secondary scoring, that’s how they got all the way to the end.