MacTavish enjoying being back in the game

For Craig MacTavish, adjusting to life behind an NHL bench again feels eerily similar to the first time he started working behind one.
"I remember my first game many years ago, and I couldn't believe how fast (everything) was happening," MacTavish said Friday at Rogers Place in Edmonton. "When you first get back there, you try to think 'what's the difference between sitting (on the bench as a player) and standing (behind it as a coach)?' You think it would be similar, but it's completely different. I was just worried about getting my (line) changes out there, and I'm getting hit in the head by a puck. Things slow down over time, but it's happening fast out there."

"And the game has definitely changed since I coached it last," he added. "…It's a fast, fast game. It's more attacking driven."
If there's anyone in the game that has seen it all, done it all and is capable of adjusting to it all - it's MacTavish.
The 64-year-old London, Ontario native put together a 17-season playing career in the NHL. His name can be found on the Stanley Cup four times - he won three championships with the Edmonton Oilers (1987, 1988 and 1990) and one with the New York Rangers (1994).
His playing career that spanned 1,093 regular-season games and 480 points (213 goals, 267 assists) would wrap up with the St. Louis Blues, where he retired in 1997. MacTavish then turned his sights on coaching, joining the Rangers as an assistant that same year. He took over as the head coach of the Oilers from 2000-09, helping Edmonton to the postseason three times in that span, including in 2006, when the club reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 16 years.
After his head coaching tenure was done with Edmonton, he also was brought back to serve as the general manager of the Oilers from 2013-15.
"Obviously you look at the number of games 'MacT' has coached... there's really nothing we're gonna see moving forward that he hasn't dealt with," Blues General Manager Doug Armstrong said after hiring MacTavish as a Blues' assistant coach in the offseason. "He reminds me a lot of (Hockey Hall of Famer) Larry Robinson in that way, in the sense that just when he walks into a room, the room gets brighter. The knowledge of his four Stanley Cups and coaching, managing, being in every aspect of the game - he's gonna be someone that I think everyone's really gonna enjoy working with from the coaches to the players and trainers, and everyone around our group. I think this could be a really good marriage."

MacTavish has brought his experience and wisdom to the Blues' penalty kill - a job current Boston Bruins Head Coach Jim Montgomery was responsible for last season. While it's important to note the Blues have played only two games and taken only three penalties this season, the club remains one of four that has yet to surrender a power-play goal this season.
"The most effective part of our penalty kill so far has been the discipline the team has taken in their approach to not (taking penalties)," MacTavish said. "…I don't even want to talk about it because once you talk about taking penalties, you generally take seven or eight (in a game)… but we've been pretty disciplined so far, I'll say that, and stayed out of the penalty box."
MacTavish has never coached at Rogers Place, the Oilers' new home. As he walked into the building Friday for a Blues team practice, the locker room wasn't overly familiar but the people - Oilers' coaches and staff and even the local media - still were.
That comfort makes Saturday's matchup between the Blues and Oilers one that MacTavish is very much looking forward to.
"It'll be like a lot of other games - it's going to be dependent on the result," he said. "As (long-time Oilers equipment manager) Barrie Stafford used to say, there's winning and then there's misery. The level of enjoyment (Saturday) will definitely be contingent on the score, for sure."
But two games in, MacTavish is loving being back in the game.
"It's been fun, I've enjoyed it," he said. "It's all I could have hoped for."