{"id":56970,"date":"2025-06-01T16:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T16:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/56970\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T16:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T16:56:12","slug":"edmonton-oilers-have-more-resolve-in-cup-rematch-with-florida-ken-hitchcock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/56970\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Oilers have more resolve in Cup rematch with Florida: Ken Hitchcock"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the sixth winningest coach in NHL history, Ken Hitchcock has a pretty good feel for hockey teams and what he sees from the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> through this 16-game run to the Stanley Cup final against Florida is more resolve in their style of play.<\/p>\n

They took the Panthers<\/a> to Game 7 last June but Hitchcock sees a better Oilers today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have learned a very valuable lesson, one that takes a long time to learn,\u201d said the Hall of Famer Hitchcock, whose last coaching job was with his hometown team. \u201cYou can talk about it but what the Oilers have learned is there\u2019s a big difference between fighting for space and looking for space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Edmonton Oilers<\/a> now fight for that space as good as anybody in the National Hockey League. They\u2019re not looking for quick areas, they\u2019re not hoping pucks squirt free. They\u2019re fighting for that space and that\u2019s why they\u2019re going to be such a hard out in this final,\u201d said Hitchcock, who coached defenceman John Klingberg in Dallas and had fellow blueliner Jake Walman when both were in St. Louis, so he has an attachment to the Oilers apart from growing up here.<\/p>\n

Worm vs. the rat<\/p>\n

Hitchcock greatly admires both Corey (the Worm) Perry and Brad (the Rat) Marchand and is keen to see the two villains in the finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerry\u2019s got it (greasiness) naturally. He\u2019s just that type of player. Corey has a presence and he plays to that presence whereas Marchand can impact games in numerous areas. He seems to make the right play at the right time, get the big goal, make the right assist,\u201d said Hitchcock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both exceptional players getting on in years, guys who still make an impact on a game in a major way. Perry was never the quickest player but what\u2019s impressed me about him is he hasn\u2019t gotten slower, at all. Boy, he brings a lot to the table. He\u2019s an honest competitor. Marchand is a small guy who plays like a big player,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Corey Perry of the Edmonton Oilers celebrates his goal against the Vegas Golden Knights in the first period of Game 3 of the Second Round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs with his teammates at the bench at Rogers Place on May 10, 2025, in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

Marchand, 37, is chattier on the ice than the oftimes laconic Perry, 40.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an opposition coach, Marchand can really make you laugh. I know he got on me a few times. Yeah, it was pretty funny,\u201d said Hitchcock.<\/p>\n

Marchand\u2019s sense of humour has been on display in Florida as fans throw all the plastic rats on the ice at game\u2019s end \u2014 their tradition since Scott Mellanby killed a real rodent in the dressing room at Florida\u2019s home opener in 1995, and Mellanby went out and scored three goals which brought out the \u201crat-trick\u201d line.<\/p>\n

Now?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just see all my family out there on the ice and want us to be together,\u201d kidded Marchand in a recent nhl.com story.<\/p>\n

Another ex-Oiler in Hockey Hall of Fame<\/p>\n

Daryl Reaugh, once the Oilers second-round draft pick in 1984 and back-up in net to Grant Fuhr, was just voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the broadcast wing after his 30 years in the business in Dallas \u2014 as a colour commentator and a TV play-by-play man.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked when I got the call, incredible honour,\u201d said the rapier-witted Reaugh, 60, who was always the life of the party here, once being the master of ceremonies at the Oiler Christmas get-together and doing bang-on imitations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe humoured those (junior) bus rides like you couldn\u2019t believe\u2026 you should see the ones (imitations) he did of me, make you cry and laugh. He was hard on me, in a good way,\u201d said Hitchcock, who had Reaugh as his goalie in junior in Kamloops.<\/p>\n

Reaugh, who finished playing in the 1993-94 season, was the first ex NHLer doing play-by-play when he replaced Dave Strader on the Stars broadcast with the Hall of Famer Strader fighting bile-duct cancer.<\/p>\n

Reaugh says he greatly appreciated listening to Oilers\u2019 Hall of Fame radio voice Rod Phillips when he was part of the Oiler organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved Rod from my Oiler days. I loved the way he called a game. Rockin\u2019 Rod. He was very passionate,\u201d said Reaugh, who was working the Dallas-Edmonton playoff series as a colour commentator with play caller Josh Bogorad<\/p>\n

\u201cDaryl was at every pre-game skate, he would find new words in the dictionary or the thesaurus. He didn\u2019t just ask the question of what you were doing (as a coach) but why you were doing it,\u201d said Hitchcock, from his days behind the Dallas bench. \u201cHe had a tremendous work ethic from playing and competing and he transferred it into broadcasting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reaugh played 27 NHL games and would have played longer but the injury bug kept biting him. He last was in a hockey net in the East Coast Hockey League in Dayton when he was 28 and gave play-by-play a first-time whirl there.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a player Daryl ran into some significant injuries\u2026I remember we had him in Kalamazoo (Dallas farm team) at a training camp when he was a free-agent and he was the best goalie by a mile. We were looking to sign him but a day later he got injured and couldn\u2019t play forever. He made up for it as a broadcaster. I\u2019m so happy for him (Hall of Fame honour). He\u2019s worked his butt off,\u201d said the Hall of Fame builder Hitchcock.<\/p>\n

Handshakes after series ends<\/p>\n

Count Hitchcock in the same group as Florida\u2019s Paul Maurice who doesn\u2019t like coaches standing in a handshake line on the ice with players when the battles end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably changed (his view) five or six years ago. The ice surface is where the players bleed and sacrifice for each other. It\u2019s their surface,\u201d said Hitchcock.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at other sports and none of them line up with players. It\u2019s just coach on coach. I know I got hassled for it once (opposing hockey coach) but I didn\u2019t care. The other coach can do what he wants (handshake line or not) but my competition is the coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hitchcock hasn\u2019t liked what he\u2019s seen from coaches in the locker room, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat bothered me more than anything,\u201d said Hitchcock, who coached 1,598 NHL games, \u201cis I think the coaches were becoming too dominant. The locker room is for the players first and foremost. We can stick our head in there but when I see coaches handing out pucks (post-game) or awards or making speeches\u2026 the players don\u2019t get any time for themselves. You have to turn it over to the players at a certain stage. I feel pretty strongly about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

How icy is the goalie-coach relationship in heat of Dallas?<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger wasn\u2019t happy after coach Pete DeBoer gave him the hook following Oiler goals on the first two shots of Game 5. One was off a 10-footer by Perry on a powerplay when all alone in front of the net. The other was a partial breakaway by Mattias Janmark.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks, it\u2019s embarrassing. Anytime you get pulled, it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s the playoffs or regular season, you just want to go right off the ice and crawl in your bed and not talk to anyone,\u201d Oettinger told the Dallas media Saturday, with the veteran head coach and his star goalie not yet speaking of the Thursday yank.<\/p>\n

This \u2018n that<\/p>\n

That Darnell Nurse slash on Roope Hintz in Game 2 of the Stars\u2019 series broke a bone in the Dallas centre\u2019s foot. It wasn\u2019t much of a whack but it appeared to catch him on the laces. Hintz missed Game 3 but played the last two and was skating hard enough in Game 5 to almost chase down Connor McDavid<\/a> on his breakaway.<\/p>\n

Things to watch out for in the Florida-Oiler series: four of defenceman Nikko Mikkola\u2019s 21 career goals have come against the Oilers. The Panthers might not have fourth-line forward A.J. Greer when the series starts. He was hurt in Game 5 against Carolina. But valuable third-liner Eetu Luostarinen, also banged up when he crashed into the boards, should be ready.<\/p>\n

While the Bruins have interviewed ex-Oiler Jay Woodcroft and Los Angeles Kings\u2019 farm coach Marco Sturm for their vacant head coaching job, they\u2019ve been waiting to talk to Dallas assistant Misha Donskov. He worked with Don Sweeney on Canada\u2019s 4Nations team when Sweeney was team GM.<\/p>\n

The Oilers are aware that one of their best prospects, Russian winger Max Berezkin, may have re-upped on a one-year contract with KHL champion Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. They were hoping to sign the soon-to-be 24-year-old and bring him over.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

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