Craig MacTavish
Craig MacTavish
Craig MacTavishis a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He is the current Vice President of Hockey Operations for the Edmonton Oilers, and has also served as the team's head coach and general manager. He played center for 17 seasons in the National Hockey League with the Boston Bruins, Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and St. Louis Blues, winning the Stanley Cup four times. MacTavish later coached the Oilers from 2000 to 2009 and also served...
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth15 August 1958
criticism maybe moved
I thought we moved it around well, but when we did get the five-star opportunities, we didn't put it in the back of the net. That's maybe the only criticism I have of the game.
four lines maybe roll stretch
Maybe (only) one stretch we were able to roll four lines in succession. That's not the way we wanted to play.
games group maybe player starts three year
There's probably going to be a player or two from this group that starts the year and maybe two or three more that play some games as we go on. That will all be dependant on them as we go by.
factors handle maybe number pressure stretch success
It's maybe the most important stretch we've had in a number of years. It can be a little overwhelming, but how we handle the pressure is going to be one of the big factors in the success that we're going to have.
due four games lost overtime row
We had lost four overtime games in a row and we were due for a win.
al crucial ends everybody excuse game guest perfect pick ready retire wondered
The perfect guest again. I wondered why they're going to pick us to retire Al MacInnis' jersey. There's no excuse for not having everybody ready to play and we end up being the perfect guest for what ends up being a crucial game for us.
close move number
He's been close on that move a number of times.
area bit camps certain couple degree fell good heck improve improving intention last penalty people personnel power team training whether year
I don't know whether it's a weakness, but one area that we want to improve is our power play. Our penalty killing has to improve, too. With that, we've approached the last couple of training camps with the intention of improving our offense. Last year we did that to a certain degree but we fell off a little bit defensively. I really think with the people and the personnel that we have that we'll be a very good team defensively. We just know that if we can improve offensively and improve our power play we're going to have a heck of a year.
confidence fall penalty people shoot shot
You have to have the confidence to do it with 17,000 people watching. I had one penalty shot once and all I could think of was don't fall and don't shoot it into the corner. Get a shot on net.
close team
You get to know how close they are. You get to see what your team is going to look like down the road.
change coming goal net puck
There has got to be a change in that rule. The puck is going into the net anyway, the net coming off the mooring had nothing to do with the goal itself. That was a big goal, too.
constantly couple gives improve irons trying
On a day-to-day basis, we're constantly communicating on what our shortcomings are. We're trying to improve ourselves. This gives us a couple of other irons in the fire.
certainly deal equitable guys happy hockey integral member playing purely reaching ryan settled team tenure time type value versatile
Ryan has been an integral member of our team for a long time around here. We don't have a lot of guys with the type of tenure that Ryan has on our hockey club. That's not withstanding the value that he has purely from a playing standpoint. He's a versatile guy and he really does a lot of things well for us. We are certainly happy to have him back, and happy they settled and made an equitable deal and arrangement before reaching arbitration.
forward fourth lines mind regular scenarios starting three top
We haven't made our mind up yet on a lot of players. We're starting to see some combinations on how our top three lines will look going into the regular season. But there are still a lot of different scenarios that could play out with the fourth line and who the 13th forward will be.