I don’t exactly know what the Senior VP of Hockey Operations does for the Edmonton Oilers but I know exactly who will be doing it. Recognize the name Craig MacTavish?
I know him and chances are so do you. It’s hard to forget the last player to play in the NHL without a helmet. No, he didn’t take too many pucks off his head and that’s what made him decide to come back to Edmonton and join the Oilers in an upper management post.
He’s back because while he left the organization his heart never did. It’s always been with the Oilers.
When we last saw MacTavish with Edmonton he was walking away from the team. Done as coach, seemingly burnt out over his nearly decade long stay on the Oilers bench.
Finally after a 38-35-9 record to push his all time mark with Edmonton to 301-352-103 he stepped away. Whether he was pushed seems irrelevant because the man needed a change. Everyone could see it including MacTavish.
Out of the game and off the bench MacT re-energized.
He went to school and at the same time had to deal with a personal health scare. It was time to look at life and hockey in a different way until he was sucked back behind the bench with Vancouver’s farm team.
Coaching in the AHL with Chicago isn’t a bad gig but it’s not the NHL. Any whispers that Alain Vigneault was gone after the Canucks had an early exit from the post season were laid to rest after he signed on to stay on. Other opportunities existed in places like Washington, Calgary, Montreal and of course Edmonton. Not all the spots have been filled but if MacTavish had a chance I don’t think he would be moving to a management posting instead of one behind the bench.
MacTavish’s work behind the bench was appreciated when he took them to within a victory of the 2006 Stanley Cup.
His work was also respected more after he left. With two 30th place finishes and a 29th place result with other bench bosses, maybe MacTavish wasn’t as bad as everyone thought.
But that’s now the past as MacT’s return is for a different posting and a different direction as he’ll, among other things, oversee the coach and not be the coach.
Those who bash “The Boys on the Bus” syndrome may have wanted a move away from the 80’s. That doesn’t make this a bad move…instead just an interesting one.
“Once an Oiler, Always an Oiler” is a motto that Edmonton lives by.
And apparently so does Craig MacTavish.