Millard: And were you waiting for the phone to ring from the boss?
Marek: Ummm, no! No.
Millard: Bosses call?
Marek: One, yes. He said he had our back.
This is from the March 3rd Hockey Central @ Noon podcast hosted by Darren Millard. Disgusting that there’s nobody being held accountable for the embarrassing performances from Armstrong, Whitney and now Marek. I actually was okay with Marek’s response during the telecast but after listening to this podcast, I can’t side with him on this one. I like the guy and I think he’s the heir apparent to Ron MacLean but his judgment on this one is right bloody terrible.
Could you imagine if Whitney or Armstrong would’ve made fun of Wendel Clark, Mats Sundin, Doug Gilmour, Saku Koivu, or Ray Bourque? There’d be backlash no doubt. But since it was Ryan Smyth and he’s from out west, that’s fine.
Weird that Whitney and Armstrong haven’t been heard from since…
— BLH (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast} (@BeerLeagueHeroe) March 5, 2017
“I told Horcoff I wouldn’t do it!” – Ryan Whitney
That’s two times in a week he’s taken a shot at Horcoff. Whitney and Taylor Hall had a good chuckle at the former Oilers’ captain’s expense on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast last week. Now, Gretzky AND Smytty… Wonder what kind of gems Whitney has up his sleeve next? Maybe he takes a shot at Messier’s guarantee at some point? Or maybe this is a gentleman (barely) that is so sickened with himself and his career as an NHLer that he has to revert to taking pot shots at some of the classiest players to put on an NHL sweater.
So, this is what was said if u don’t want to listen to the link in the tweet above.
Marek: At the intermission we thought we’d do a little bit about pranking players, chirping players, that kinda stuff. Ryan (Whitney) told a story about Ryan Malone about how whenever he’d see Whitney come by the bench, he’d you know, loosen the Gatorade bottle and sure enough, dump all over him.
And Colby told a funny story when he played in Atlanta in a game against the Colorado Avalanche and Ryan Smyth was a member of the Avalanche. And all in unison, like all 16 guys all along the bench, started crying. Like doing the Ryan Smyth 2007 press conference when he was an Islander.
**Somehow I don’t think that these two stories equate… Maybe it’s just me.**
Millard: Oh, when he was traded from Edmonton and he was at the airport?
Marek: Correct, when he decided to turn down the offer to stay in Edmonton and ended up getting traded instead and then Ryan Whitney jumped on it and talked more about, you know, cause in the press conference Ryan Smyth talked about bringing the Cup back to Edmonton. He (Whitney) said,
“The Islanders? Potvin’s not there anymore, Billy Smith’s not there anymore.”
And Twitter was not amused. The nerves were close to the skin. We just thought it was a harmless chirp story involving the Atlanta Thrashers and a member of the Avalanche.
**The thing that pisses me off here is that Marek insists on identifying Smyth as an Islander in this instance. Technically, that’s true but come on… He knows very well that even he played for the Islanders, the Avs, and the Kings, that Ryan Smyth was really an Oiler his whole career. And Kevin Lowe could’ve very easily kept Smyth if HE were willing to pay him a little bit more at that time.**
Millard: Here’s how deep it went. Elliotte Friedman was MC-ing a charity dinner in Winnipeg last night and Scott Oake was being honored, Darcy Oake was there as well. And Elliotte looks at his phone and he’s starting to get troll tweets,
“You’ve never played the game. Why are you chirping Ryan Smyth?”
Elliotte said what the hell happened, so we brought him up to date. So…
Stellick: You kid Eddie Olczyk about his speech right? Like he knows… (inaudible)… When the emotion of when the Jets left, “We’re gonna bring it back”, and we said, “Eddie, what were you going to bring back exactly? Were you gonna win it in Arizona and bring it back or?” anyway, people get caught up in the emotion.
**Jesus… They’re comparing Olczyk’s speech to what happened to Smyth? Reaching much?**
Marek: I understand the nerves are close to the skin in certain markets. We all do. I think we all know where those markets are.
“We built this Smytty on greasy goals!” Click the image and pick up a 16-bit Smytty right now!
Millar: The idea of crying after a trade, that’s a long gone, uh, habit. This year, Curtis Lazar was skipping out of Ottawa.
Marek: Oh I know. But that was a new lease on life and he was going back out west.
Millar: But your first trade is always supposed to be this shocker.
Marek: Well Colby mentioned up in strategy room on trade deadline day that when his mom called him to tell him that he was traded from Pittsburgh to Atlanta, that he cried.
Millard: Colby cries when the weather changes more than three degrees.
Marek: I know… When the waitress messes up his order at the restaurant for breakfast, “I asked for the hash browns, what has the world come to? What kind of god would allow this to happen?”
Stellick: Devante Smith-Pelly, he cried. Got caught up in the emotion right? It’s part of realizing he was going. You know other guys… Whatever.
**So this is how they justify it? Armstrong cried… Is that right? So why weren’t we hearing THAT story? Can they honestly compare Colby Armstrong and Devante Smith-Pelly to Ryan Smyth in any way, shape, or form apart from they all played NHL hockey?**
Millard: So, do you apologize?
Marek: For what?
Millard: For taking up Twitter’s valuable space and time last night.
**I’m pretty certain this isn’t what Millard wanted to say. There was a little pause before he forced this out and that’s too bad. I would’ve like to have heard Marek’s response to the real question that wasn’t asked here.**
Marek: I didn’t send out any tweets about it. I responded to a couple. Man did we hear it. Just when you think, like, your summing up; no, you’re still adding up. I got a note from Colby this morning, he’s flying home to Pittsburgh; he’s in the air and he’s sending me the tweets. He goes,
“Still coming in.”
Millard: When did you realize last night was becoming something?
Marek: Right away. As soon as the intermission was over, we went back upstairs to the next period and BOOM! Timeline explosion. Timeline bomb. Boom!
Millard: My first inclination is, because I’m panicky worry wort, all that kinda stuff, was ‘oh no, oh no’. Then there’s other kind of people, Doug MacLean would be that, where were you guys?
Marek: Uhhh Colby was a little surprised at the reaction because he’s loveable, nice guy Colb. Right? He’s everyone’s buddy. I think he was surprised at the nature of the negativity.
Millard: That’s a little worried to me.
Marek: A little bit worried, yeah. Ryan (Whitney) just kinda ‘unh’. Boston boy, shrug it off. Big deal, hit by a pitch, you know, no autopsy-no foul.
Millard: And were you waiting for the phone to ring from the boss?
Marek: Ummm, no! No.
Millard: Bosses call?
Marek: One, yes. He said he had our back.
**One called. I wonder how the other bosses communicated their opinion on the matter?**
Millard: GOOD!
Marek: It’s what you want from a boss.
Millard: So, did you pile on after that?
Marek: No, we left it. I said,
“Guys, back up, phones down. We gotta watch the game anyway.”
Millard: Hey guys, have you ever had an entire city mad at you? Well yeah, actually you did. Sorry Gord (Gord Stellick was the GM of the Maple Leafs for a short time from April of ’88 to August of ’89).
Some of the interesting comments from Smyth re: Whitney/Armstrong:
You know obviously I’m not going to stoop to that level. Not appropriate. They do what they want on the panel and I let them be.
There is a time and a place for it (chirping) in my opinion and in this situation, that’s how they obviously felt and let ’em be.
THAT is how you respond to clowns like Whitney and Armstrong.
Ryan Smyth is a class act and has always been a class act. Not only for the Edmonton Oilers but for every hockey team he’s every played for, including Team Canada.
Click the image and head over to our Teepublic shot to grab some sweet BLH merch.
I’ve always liked Ryan Whitney. Being a Penguins fan, I got to see him at his best, before the ankle injuries took their toll on him. Earlier today, this was posted to twitter
It’s really too bad that his career had to get derailed by injuries. I’ve always thought that Whitney was among the better of the many defensemen to pass through Edmonton in the post-Pronger era. The start of his career showed a ton of promise for the 5th overall pick from the 2002 Entry Draft. This was a time when the Pittsburgh Penguins were god awful, and had an embarrassment of riches resulting from low finishes and high picks. After spending a few season in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Whitney made his NHL debut in 2005-06, playing 68 games and posting 38 points. Whitney would spend parts of the next three seasons in Pittsburgh, and developed instant chemistry with Sidney Crosby on the power play, having the best season of his career in 2006-07, putting up 14-45-59 in 81 games that year. The next season, he would help the Penguins to their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance since 1992, falling to the Detroit Red Wings in 6 games.
Unfortunaley, Whitney would not be returning to the Finals with the Penguins the following year, as he was part of the three player deal that brought Chris Kunitz and Eric Tangradi over from the Anaheim Ducks. It’s too bad that the Pens felt they had to move Whitney to bring in a winger to play with Crosby. I would have loved to see Whitney win the Cup with the Penguins.
His time in Anaheim would be short lived, as just over a year later, Whitney would be moved to the Edmonton Oilers with a conditional pick for high priced blue liner Lubomir Vishnovsky. Honestly, it didn’t seem like Whitney meshed very well with a tight knit team in Anaheim, and wasn’t able to produce the way he did with Pittsburgh. But coming into Edmonton, at the end of a lost season, he was joining a team that was finally willing to embrace the rebuild process. Jordan Eberle was already waiting in the wings, and that spring, the Oilers would use their first ever Number One pick to select Taylor Hall, and begin the culture change in the City of Champions.
Whitney would be relied upon as a veteran leader in the dressing room, a role he seemed to relish. Unfortunatley, he 2010-11 season was also the year that injuries began to take on impact. He was limited to only 35 games, but still put up 27 points. The following season saw an even steeper decline in his production, as his 54 appearances resulted in just 20 points. The fans soured on Whitney, which I always felt was unjustified. If not for the ankle issues, Whitney could have been a very effect blue liner for the Oilers, and could have stabilized a position that found itself in turmoil until just recently when Peter Chiarelli took over the team.
Whitney would last one more mediocre season with the Oilers, and signed with the Florida Panthers in 2013-14. He played just seven games in Florida, spending a majority of that season with their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage. The next season, Whitney signed with Sochi HC of the KHL, and posted totals of 6-13-19 in his 42 games with the club. In 2015, he signed with MODO of the Swedish league, although he would only appear in 2 games, before deciding to call it a career.
Ryan Whitney was a very polarizing player during his time with the Oilers. While my personal opinion is that he got the short end of the stick from the fans in this city, many people would say it was justified. He by no means had an all-star type of career, but its a career Whitney can be very proud of. He finishes with 50-209-259 in 481 NHL games, and was able to represent his country in the Olympics, playing for Team USA. While Ryan Whitney will never be remembered with the fondness and admiration of say, Ryan Smyth, he was a class act during his time in Edmonton, and represented the Oilers as well as any has during his shirt time here. All the best Ryan Whitney. Enjoy your retirement.
