Louie Debrusk joins Oilersnation Everyday

Edmonton Oilers color commentator Louie Debrusk joins Tyler Yaremchuk and Liam Horrobin to discuss his relationship with Jack Michaels, the Oilers play as of late, and the improved play of Vinny Desharnais.

He is a former Oiler and he is the color analyst for sportset Louis de brus hopping in on the show Louie thanks for doing this hey guys how are you doing today thanks for having me yeah just it looked like it was going to be our first

Real cold day but it’s getting sunny again so our luck continues with our weather here which is nice oh it has been very good I I grew up in England and not to have snow on Christmas wasn’t too different for me but it was H it was

Nice not to wake up and be like minus 20 on Christmas day that’s for sure yeah I hope this is okay guys sorry I’m just on transition here and kind of in between so just sitting in my truck if that’s all right you are all good Lou uh you’re

A busy man I wanted to start we’ll get into the Oilers in a little bit but first I wanted to talk about you and Jack Michaels I think I mean whenever I hear people from outside of Edmonton who tune into a regional broadcast are always like you guys are lucky you got

The best Regional crew in the game and you guys have been doing it for a number of years but I want to I want to go back to maybe when you first started was the chemistry with you and Jack instantly like when you work your first game with

Him were you like damn I’m going to like this guy I remember the first game was actually against the Bruins and Kevin Quinn my longtime partner was Ill at that time and I think one of the few games that he missed in his career and Jack slid over into the into the

Broadcast booth and uh ra away um you knew he was going to be really good I mean I we were friends obviously uh traveling together we’ve known each other for a long time but that was the first time that I had actually worked with them and uh it was a pretty

Seamless transition to be honest with you was just jump in the booth and I mean listen he’s always prepared obviously has the voice uh has the lingo sometimes he says things that I have to look up afterwards in the uh in the dictionary to understand exactly what it

Was that he said but uh he’s super colorful and it’s been a blast so yeah I knew right away I I knew right away just because I’d hung around him so much and we talked a lot of hockey that it was going to be a pretty easy transition and

And the nights that I wasn’t doing the games guys I would typically pick it up on the radio when I was driving around driving you know to skates or whatever I was doing I would pick up the feed so I had listened to them for quite a few

Years before we started working together and uh it’s been great it’s been awesome you know we don’t have a whole lot of say on who we necessarily work with in this business it just happens organically with the way things work out but uh I’ve been blessed to kind of work

With great guys and Jack is no different he’s uh he’s he’s one of the best I’ve always been curious now that you’re between the benches are not even really between the benches you’re literally on the Oilers bench does he ever get awkward like do you ever kind

Of have to watch what you say maybe a little bit when you around the players that close you know what I could tell you the first time I ever did it for Hockey Night in Canada I was in Vancouver and it was Washington Vancouver and it was a real uh

Introductory into that because Alexander oetkin is kind of one of those guys that likes to kind of come and hang out and look at the screen and see what’s going on and so right away my first time down there low he’s he’s he’s right in my face throughout the night and then at

The same time Jake fanan was uh you know Canuck at that time and there was a lot of expectation on him that year he was a young guy played a couple years and they were looking for that next step and the first thing that I did was a video pack

Of ver tanan and talk about his game and I look over to my left and he’s literally right beside me watching the pack right but I’ve known Jake for a while from Junior to but it was just it was a real lesson that yeah you’re going

To be really close to these guys and they’re going to be right there to be honest I think most of the time they’re so concentrated on the game that they don’t really list they’re not listening to you they don’t really care what you’re saying but I will say this though

I’ve always kind of approached the game and I’ve said this throughout my entire broadcasting career that I wouldn’t say anything on the air that I wouldn’t say right to a person’s face so I’ve always lived my life that way if I’m going to say something negative about a person or

If you want to call it constructive criticism whatever you want to call it I would walk in the room the next day and I would look in in the eye and say the same thing and that’s just how I’ve always done it so if you live by those

Those rules you kind of can be honest and up front and just call the game yeah also helps when you played in the league too right like I feel like you got a little bit of clout right like guys tend to automatically have a respect level

Right 100% And it truly they do and I and I know I’ve talked to Jack about that in my other broadcast partners that I’ve had Bob heat house was my first uh broadcast partner in in Arizona Phoenix at that time but um you know salt of the

Earth just a great guy um no ego whatsoever just really allowed me to screw up and grow to be honest with you he allowed me to do a lot of things and it was uh really instrumental for me in my career just to learn how to to do it

Do it number one but also how to work how to go into a room work a room talk to players how to you know talk to other people in the business general managers coaches and that’s all part of it right you have to introduce yourself and sometimes it’s an uncomfortable

Situation where you’re walking into a dressing room you might not know anybody in that room but you’re right as an ex-player for for the first good 10 12 years I would say that I still had players that I played with in the league that I could walk in and that was a good

Introductory into a room or hey how you doing how are things going it broke the ice and then now I think just from being around for a while the players know it’s a small world everybody sees you and the more times you go in there and shake a

Hand introduce yourself to a player the next time they come in they remember you from the last time and that’s kind of how you build up that Rapport and that relationship with players but it did help being a player no question um it also helps that I have a kid in the game

Too so you know Jake um is is relevant player right now he’s a you know a kid that’s playing um actively now so the people in the league know that for the most part I’m his dad and that’s also a connection to because he knows a lot of

Guys from the Eon area and from other areas that he’s met over the years so that breaks the ice so I’m lucky that way I get to I get to break the ice a little easier than some all right let’s talk a little bit about this team right

Now the Oilers are red hot I think there’s only been something like four six game winning streaks in the entire league this year the Oilers got two of them when you can consider where this team was on November 10th after that loss to San Jose and what they’ve done

Since what’s been the most surprising part of this turnaround to you yeah it’s been incredible hasn’t it and I know it’s funny because when we we just finished up that road trip in Anaheim and uh we um Jack put out a tweet it was other tweeter on Insta I’m

Not sure I’m I’m not the greatest on social media as you guys probably know but um little old school way but I um when you look at the three years respectively from the last three years the Oilers were almost in an identical spot two years they had the same amount

Of points and this year one less Point than the last two years and I know when you look at it the start of the year because of the expectations that were on this team it’s magnified greatly and the fact that you know I I think all the conversation in the summertime guys and

I know you guys were privy to that dry settle coming out winter bust you know and that’s how every team Feels by the way he was just honest about it so that kind of magnified how we felt about how the start of the season was it wasn’t

Good and you could tell this team was really frustrated the thing that stood out for me I think is just the way they’ve been able to shut down teams and stay in the pressure of games which we saw last year down the stretch uh when they finished really really well and and

Went into the playoffs on a real High um high level but they’ve just been able to weather storms and I and I think it’s because of the team game I really do I I mean listen con is Conor again he had some struggles earlier in the year for

Him when I say struggles we have to keep that in context but you know Leon same thing it’s been a little tougher of a grind teams are very prepared when they come in to play Edmonton for what they have and what they’re going to try and do and some guys just weren’t getting

Off to Great starts now you’re seeing guys start to find their game start to play together you’re seeing line combinations start to mix together that are having chemistry and that’s really important I think that’s so important to have that cohesiveness and that consistency at times times to allow line

Mates to kind of figure each other out a bit and uh I think Chris no Block’s done a nice job of not changing too much and making tweaks when he’s had to but I just think the overall Team game I really think that early on um they were

Creating a ton of chances is can put the puck in the net uh they couldn’t keep the puck out of their own net as well the transitional play the outnumbered rushes were just starting to pile up they’ve cleaned that up immensely and that would be the one area that I would

Say that they’ve been the best at cleaning up is not the highrisk play is impressing the game where they’re giving those outnumbered rushes the other way I mean it was literally two to five a game early in the season they were given up you don’t see that anymore if it happens

They’re gonna have to work to get that yeah they they feel a lot calmer now I think is a good way to put it too the uh I’m curious what you think though Lou of like where how high do you think this team can go in the regular in the

Regular season like is the division still in reach or do you think it’s more realistic to say like maybe third in the division or a wild card yeah I personally I think it’s just get in um you know I think is the mentality they’re going to try and finish as high

As they can I think every player kind of strives that and this team in particular always has great second halfs they’re a team that really does turn it up in the second half of the season and I think that’s for two reasons number one I think the great players on this team and

The identity of this team they understand how good they are and what they can do and they start to get excited about the end of the year they start to build towards that playoffs they’ve had a taste of it they went to the conference final a couple years ago

Lost to the Stanley Cup champions again last year they’ve had a taste so it’s in their mouth so they understand kind of how to build towards the playoffs and then the other thing for me is I just think it’s the best time to play hockey

I do I think once you get over that hump of the middle part of the Season which we always kind of consider to be the new year but again you could go to the all-star break if you want in a month but around this time is when teams

Really settle in you found your midseason form so to speak where you you understand how your team’s playing where you fit in that team’s or uh depth chart how you have to play the game to be successful on this respective team and then teams just start to gel and

This team’s done it really well and you’re starting to see that now with as you mentioned earlier the win streaks they’re putting together when they’re winning now they’re winning in bunches like they’re not just and they’re finding ways to win different ways so I like that too and that’s another aspect

That um you know when I’m watching the team and it’s funny because early on in my broadcasting career and I and all the coaches that have been over the years they would reel off a couple of wins but then you would hear the coach say yeah

But you know we got a chance almost double in that game we had great goal tending we don’t really want to win games that way it’s not it’s there’s there’s no longevity in winning that way the way they’re playing right now that’s what I see I see a team that’s building

Towards a game that they can replicate they can duplicate they can do it over and over again and win games in that regard staying in the pressure of the battle and not being too risky and giving that next goal that takes you out of the game YouTube chat is buzzing so we’ll

Get to a couple of listener questions here before we let you go someone going by the name bring Cassian home wants to know your thoughts on Vinnie dear’s growth as a player over the last couple of years I think it’s great you know when I

Uh I I tell you what I’ve seen big improvements in Vinnie I really have and I I think it it comes from different areas obviously Dave Manon worked with them at first and you had him down the American Hockey League as well so they had a really good rapport I think Paul

Coffee has come in and really Enlighten these defensemen to do more you know it’s about when he first took over it’s about not just putting a puck off the glass not just shoving it out of the Zone get your head up get your feet moving and make a play now that’s Paul

Coffey I mean one of the greatest offensive defenseman ever played the game one of the best skaters ever that has played the game and probably be still a great skater in today’s game but he came in and he kind of took that approach of we need to do more we need

To get that puck in the forward’s hands a little bit cleaner if you watch Vinnie’s game from the start of the Season till now it’s changed in that regard from last year till now it’s changed he’s holding on he’s making that play down to the four instead of just

Dumping it back down the corner he’s actually getting his head up and looking for sticks he’s got such a big frame right and it’s funny I know that uh you know Jay Woodcraft and Dave Manson when they were down in the American high they called them seaweed because you know

When you’re swimming in water that has seaweed you can’t not get stuck in the seaweed or have a little bit touch you I thought it was the perfect nickname because he’s got that long reach at six foot seven six and you know with his wingspan and the stick he it’s he’s

Going to get a pcia somehow and he’s really settled in so I I I have a lot of time for Vinnie dear I love the fact that he works really hard in his craft I know that he takes a lot of pride in being that defensive guy and that big

Solid guy in the penalty kill where he really comes in but I’m seeing improvements and that’s a great thing I I think he started late but sometimes late bloomers and guys that kind of get their opportunity a little bit later have a much have more appreciation for

It and are willing to dig in and really look at the things that they need to work on and I think Vinnie de har is one of those guys uh Oilers back in Action tomorrow taking on the Ottawa Senators are you on the call with Harner Ryan yep on the

Call tomorrow night I’ll be between the benches or on the bench like you say so should be a good one I’m sure it’s going to be high octane right out of the gates as Ottawa is a team trying to find their way and have had a couple losses and

Evon understands I talked to a couple guys in the room today and they know there’s going to be a lot of pressure it’ll be a physical fast game and they need to be ready for it and uh you’re also going to be you the co-host of after hours with Scott Oak uh

What’s that like and I mean it’s always so interesting for me sitting and watching that late on a Saturday night when you’re watching is there a little part of you you’re an unbiased broadcaster but when a guy’s coming on after us are you like damn I really hope

They have a good game yeah absolutely no 100% it’s and we kind of joke about it like uh when um a player that we do have on after hours we have Brady kachuck this Saturday or tomorrow night sorry and he’ll be exciting I mean he’s is always a great conversation I played

With his dad Keith obviously Matthew is a character himself and they’re chips off the old block they really are and Brady is a unique individual in this league there’s not a lot of players like him and I’m actually going to build a graphic and try and find players that

Are similar to him and I’ll tell you you go down the list just think about it for a second 30 goal scores two years in a row you had 30 and 35 over 100 family minutes fighting majors and hits I mean there’s a combination there of a power

Forward that with an elite finishing ability Tom Wilson is in that conversation he’d be the closest to it and then the list really gets small from there I’ve got a few guys on that list but he’s a very unique player almost a unicorn in the game of today which makes

Him very very valuable but uh no I agree with you we always when we have a uh a guy on we’re we’re hoping that something good happens for that player individually so that we can bring that up but also you know you’re just hoping that the game is a good game I’m not

Really to be honest with you I don’t necessarily care who wins the game I just I’m looking for a good game I want it to be a game where it’s battled right to the end if it goes to overtime even better in my opinion I always think

Those are exciting games and two teams that battled it out but uh yes individually we’re hoping for a good game from those players because they’re always in a better mood when their team does well and they do well we’ve had some tough ones with guys coming on that

Panel afterwards where they’ve had a tough loss and they’ve had a tough game and we try and get away from the game as quickly as possible and get into other stuff because that’s really what the show is all about yeah all right I know

You’re a busy man so we’ll let you go we look forward to the call tomorrow night thanks for hopping on Lou thanks thanks guys for having me take care what’s up Nation citizens if you like that video then you need to be subscribed to the Oilers Nation YouTube podcasts live shows exclusive interviews

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