EDMONTON – If you knew Craig MacTavish, you didn’t put any stock into his endorsement of head coach Ralph Krueger at the press conference in which MacTavish was named general manager of the Edmonton Oilers.
It simply wasn’t the time to neuter Krueger as the Oilers head coach, with seven games left to play on April 15, at your own introductory press conference. Sometimes you just can’t tell all of the truth, and that was one of those times.
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To these ears, the statement that day really meant something was this one:
“I’m an impatient guy, and I bring that impatience to this situation,” promised MacTavish, who turns 55 this summer, when he took the job. “We’re at the stage, in terms of the cycle of our hockey club right now, that we have to do some bold things. We have to expose ourselves to some semblance of risk, to try and move the team forward in a rapid fashion.”
That translated to firing head coach Ralph Krueger on Saturday afternoon, after one 48-game season at the helm. Without a training camp, in a lockout-shortened season.
“I don’t think it was in any way fair to Ralph. This wasn’t about being fair to Ralph,” MacTavish said Saturday, during a solo press conference that was all business. “This was about me making … the best decision for the betterment of the club.”
The Oilers are either very close to signing, or have already signed Toronto Marlies head coach Dallas Eakins to be their fifth head coach in six seasons in 2013-14, depending on who your sources are.
“We’re very close with a coaching candidate,” MacTavish admitted. “At this point we haven’t formalized a deal.”
In the end, MacTavish’s idea of what a head coach should be, and the type of personality Krueger presented, simply did not mesh. We believe that whomever gets the job in Edmonton will be more about defensive accountability, something that lacked with Krueger – particularly among the young stars whose ice time did not dwindle despite giveaways and poor defensive play.
“Ralph and I … spent the better part of a week discussing whether we’d add a veteran assistant coach … or an associate coach who had some head coaching experience to our staff,” MacTavish said.
“During this process … I recognized I was trying to add a coach who was more closely aligned with how I wanted to run the team, and less about supporting Ralph as the head coach of our team.
“It was at that point where I contemplated making the change.”
If you’re happy with your coach, you’re not looking for an associate. If you’re looking for an associate, perhaps it’s time to start looking at the head coach you’ve got – regardless of whether you’d given that coach a vote of confidence nearly two months ago.
“The circumstances changed, in my mind,” MacTavish said. “This is solely my decision to make. It wasn’t an easy (or) obvious decision. But in my mind it was the right decision. I stand by this decision and I’ll be judged on that decision.”
It is the first of many tough decisions that MacTavish has promised, as the rebuild in Edmonton shifts from drafting , developing and coddling the youngsters, to molding a winning culture with higher expectations.
MacTavish is actively trying to trade captain Shawn Horcoff and winger Ales Hemsky as we speak. Hemsky has one year left on his contract at $5 million, and does not have a no-trade clause.
Horcoff has two years left with a cap hit of $5.5 million, but annual salaries of $4 million and $3 million. He has a no-movement deal through July 1, after which he must give a list of 10 teams he could be dealt to.
“There’s going to be a lot of disruption this summer,” MacTavish promised again. “It’s going to be a bit of a tumultuous summer ahead of us for the Edmonton Oilers. There are going to be many more difficult decision to be made.
“At the end of the day it is my mandate to turn the keys on Sept. 15 over to the coaching staff, and over to the players to perform on the ice.”
This is the Oilers fifth coach in six seasons. It will be however, Craig MacTavish’s first hire as the Oilers GM.
It’s time someone gets a hire right around this organization.
“The job that I do will be critiqued over decisions like this,” MacTavish knows. “We’ll see if this is the right decision over time, but I stand by it.”
It says here this is the right decision.
There has been nothing but poor decisions made around this team for years.
It says here that, under MacTavish, those days are gone.