The first day of Edmonton Oilers camp had one significant change to it. Craig MacTavish was nowhere to be found and instead his position was taken by the new head coach Pat Quinn.
"Mac did a lot of great things" said Quinn "but even Mac felt it was time for a change and that's in the past." Under MacTavish the Oilers nearly won the Cup in 2006 but since then they hadn't made the playoffs.
"I think it became pretty clear that a change was necessary," said defenceman Sheldon Souray. For some of the Oilers, like Shawn Horcoff, they've never had another NHL coach. "MacT has nothing to be ashamed of with what he did while he was here but it's exciting to have someone new," said Horcoff.
New to Edmonton, but not to the NHL, is Quinn who was fired by Toronto after the 2005-06 season. Since then he helped Canada win a gold medal at the World Juniors and now is back in the league. But don't let his age fool you. "I'm not an old style coach," said the 66-year old. "I'm [also] not ready to go down to Palm Springs like some other guys."
One player Quinn will love to have in his lineup is Lubomir Visnovsky. The blueliner was on the ice for Sunday's opening session of camp. Visnovsky missed 32 games last year because of a dislocated right shoulder. "It feels good my shoulder but I'm still not perfect. I will have to miss a few pre-season games and I probably won't play for 7-10 days," said Visnovsky/
Visnovsky had 31 points in his first season with Edmonton after he was acquired from the Los Angeles Kings.
