Sportsnet and TSN are both reporting that the Craig MacTavish era is over.
From the Sportsnet article:
“We’re making a change a far as our head coach,” Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini told a press conference in Edmonton on Wednesday, the opening day of a National Hockey League playoff tournament that the Oilers are once again not part of.
“We need a new voice, a new start, new expectations, a new discipline. It’s time to look forward here,” he continued. “This is the right thing for Craig. There was a mutual agreement … from Craig, myself and Kevin [Lowe, the president of hockey operations]. We need to move forward.”
Thus ends a period of time where the Oilers were content with the status quo of mediocrity, despite their very brief taste of success. Craig MacTavish was and is a good man and a good coach, but his time with the Oilers was over. A new direction was needed, and that starts today. I wish Craig MacTavish all the best.
As luck would have it, I was just writing a post about how MacTavish and the Oilers were like that couple that everyone knows. You know, they met in 1st year university orientation, dated through college and into the start of their careers. While their friends and relatives got married and had babies, they just kept dating despite the fact that everyone, including themselves, knew the relationship was just a comfort and convenience thing. Finally, one of them got wasted and made out with the other one’s best friend, did some questionable things illegal in some states, and finally blew up at each other and called it off. I swear its the exact same thing.
