EDMONTON — The whiteboard hanging on a wall in Paul Coffey’s office at Rogers Place has a beaming message on it.
“How do we get Better Today!!!” it reads.
It’s a message for him, and it’s a message for his Edmonton Oilers defense corps.
And truth be told, all they’ve done since Coffey went behind the Oilers bench to coach the D in mid-November is indeed get better.
A move that raised eyebrows around the league has turned out to look rather clever. It raised eyebrows, of course, because the Hockey Hall of Famer had zero NHL coaching experience. But similar to how Hockey Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis has clearly connected to his players in Montreal despite no previous coaching experience, Coffey has formed a bond with his defensemen here in Oil country that’s manifested on the ice with an improved all-around game.
“They’ve been a great group to work with. We’ve challenged each other,” Coffey told The Athletic during a sitdown interview in his office Monday.
It begins with an honest line of communication. No B.S.
Coffey points to a 5-0 loss in Dallas earlier this month to illustrate that.
“I saw Eky (Mattias Ekholm) and Nursey (Darnell Nurse) in the morning before we got on the bus. I said, ‘You guys got a sec?’ I said, ‘What would you do if you were me? If you were the coach right now?’”
Nurse, according to Coffey, responded: “I’d be pissed off.”
“I said, ‘No, no. That was last night. I’m past that,’” Coffey recalled. “I said, ‘What would you do right now? Because here’s where I’m at: I don’t know if you guys are good enough.’ And they said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘We just got beat by a good hockey club, and we were nowhere to be found. I know you guys got better than that.’”
Coffey didn’t mean those two players in particular. He meant all six defensemen as a group. But Nurse and Ekholm being the veterans, Coffey felt it important to talk to them. Both players texted Coffey later the same day, “saying that they would be better.” Coffey said.
“Those are my two leaders back there — my veteran guys,” he said. “The most important thing is, any time you can put it on the players and challenge them and they tell you what they’re going to do? That’s what you want.”
Coffey coached both his sons in hockey (they’re 25 and 21 now) and points to the experience as helping him relate and communicate with the Oilers defensemen. Especially as far as being patient.
“I’m an elderly statesman at 62,” he said with a smile. “These guys are still kids. I told them from Day 1, ‘If you guys are willing to listen and learn and go through this journey together, we’re going to have a real good time. If you’re not, I’m not afraid to butt heads with anybody.’
“And I have with a couple of them, but it’s always over quickly and done with and the next day is another day. It’s been fun.”
Good thing he changed his mind after initially turning down Jeff Jackson’s offer to step behind the bench and join new head coach Kris Knoblauch when the changes were made on Nov. 12.
The Oilers’ CEO of hockey operations was convinced Coffey would be a big addition. Since Coffey already knew the defensemen in his existing role in the front office, it seemed like a logical extension.
“He would talk to them on a fairly regular basis the last few years, share pointers,” Jackson said Tuesday. “And while he didn’t have NHL coaching experience, I just felt he had such a wealth of knowledge, it was a natural fit. I honestly didn’t view it as risky at all. It just made sense to me.”
Obviously for the players, it took a minute to get used to looking over your shoulder during a game and having one of the greatest defensemen in NHL history standing there coaching you.
“You look up in the rafters and his name is up there, and next thing he’s coaching you behind the bench,” Nurse said with a smile Monday. “It’s pretty cool. His eye for the game,…
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