Everything starts from the back end, said Paul Coffey.
Ask Coffey what he’s trying to achieve with an Oilers defence that doesn’t have a single player ranked among the top 60 in scoring and he instead turns the conversation over to Rod Langway.
“Even though he was a defensive player — it all started with him,” said Coffey. “Rod Langway led the Washington Capitals up the ice.”
It’s Coffey’s way of saying that you don’t have to skate or handle the puck like he did to become a better puck-moving defenceman.
That was the thing that got that confused when the Oilers hired Coffey two weeks ago to help fix their defence. He isn’t trying to turn Adam Larsson into Erik Karlsson or Darnell Nurse into Brent Burns. He’s just trying to get them thinking like those players.
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Anyone can make plays. But you’ve got to want to. You’ve got to be hard on yourself to make plays. “The key is not just getting Leon Draisaitl or Connor McDavid the puck, but getting it to them when they want it. Don’t just pass it to them to give it to them. If they’re not ready for it, or if they’re not in stride, then they’re going to get checked as soon as they get it. That’s not getting them the puck.”
Can that be taught? Maybe not, said Coffey. But you can certainly encourage it.
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“You can’t make mistakes unless you’re trying to make plays,” he said. “Do you want a defenceman who wraps the puck around the boards every time he gets it and doesn’t make mistakes, but then comes off the ice and (exhales) says I didn’t get scored on that shift?
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Even Larsson, who has been pigeonholed as a stay-at-home defenceman during his time in the NHL, showed far more offensive potential when representing Sweden at the world juniors. Not every player is able to translate his junior game to the NHL. But Coffey is a firm believer that if the skills were there in the past, then there’s no reason they can’t show up again. “Every team wants that guy, but here’s what happens a lot of times,” said Coffey. “A guy will be a goal scorer in junior, a point-producing defencemen with good skills, a good passer, good instincts, can jump up in plays. And as soon as he gets to the big leagues, it gets taken away from him. You have to play within your talents. Whatever your talents allow you to do.
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Coffey wouldn’t go into detail about what he worked on with the Oilers during his visit last week. But after the disappointing season that Edmonton has had so far, it’s safe to say confidence building was a big part of it. After all, he believes in this group. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have taken a job that requires him flying from Toronto to Edmonton on a weekly basis.
It’s just a matter of getting them to believe in themselves.
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“I think the Oilers got off to a tough start and had a few key injuries. It’s a pretty tough league right now. It’s hard to get it back. But they have everything there.”