Randy Carlyle wasn't going to let a Game 7 victory go by without calling attention to media coverage he believes wasn't fair.
The Anaheim Ducks head coach gave full credit to the Edmonton Oilers following Wednesday's decisive contest - a 2-1 victory by the Ducks that propelled Anaheim into the Western Conference Final against the Nashville Predators - but said his own club should have received the same attention.
"They've done a lot of good things over there and they've got a lot of talent," Carlyle said of the Oilers postgame. "They've got the most dynamic young player in the league right now. But I think that we ... maybe I (should) point the finger at you guys (media) for disrespecting our hockey club for the youth that we have."
That was the only the beginning of Carlyle's claim that his young players have been underappreciated.
"Nobody ever seems to take a look and say, 'Well, (the Ducks have) five or six young players in the league who are just cutting their teeth and making positive impacts into games,'" the coach said.
"Whereas, on the other side of the fence, there's a plethora of media that comes from the Canadian side and we understand that, but the bottom line is, you have two hockey clubs that competed very hard and there's no way that you can discount the effort (of the Oilers') young players and the growth that they had, but I'd like to correct some people and say, 'Hey, we have some young players that played pretty good, too.'"
Much was made of the Oilers' young core, led by Hart Trophy finalist and impending Art Ross Trophy recipient Connor McDavid, as well as Leon Draisaitl, plus Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, and rookie Drake Caggiula.
The Ducks have their own group of talented, (relatively) young players, though, including Jakob Silfverberg (five goals in the series), Rickard Rakell (four), Shea Theodore (seven points in 11 playoff games), Cam Fowler (five points in seven second-round contests), and Nick Ritchie, who scored the eventual Game 7 winner.
Surely, more attention will be paid to Carlyle's club now that it's among the final four.
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