EDMONTON — Paul Coffey couldn’t have replied more bluntly the first time Edmonton Oilers CEO of hockey operations Jeff Jackson asked him if he’d coach the defence.
“No f—ing way,” Coffey responded.
That should have been the end of that idea based on those three words.
Coffey had a cushy job as a special adviser to Oilers owner Daryl Katz. He calls Toronto home and has businesses such as a car dealership in the area. Perhaps most importantly, he had no desire to coach.
But Jackson persisted, and Coffey, with some calmer and cooler reflection, relented.
“My wife is happy because she gets time to herself,” Coffey said with a laugh.
Coffey’s spouse, Stephanie, isn’t the only person who’s pleased he’s become an NHL coach.
Jackson thinking of Coffey and the Hockey Hall of Famer eventually accepting the job to replace Dave Manson as an assistant have turned out to be a pair of great decisions.
The Oilers are 10-4 since Coffey and Kris Knoblauch replaced Manson and Jay Woodcroft on Nov. 12, and the work of the defencemen — Coffey’s purview — is a big reason why.
The Oilers have allowed 2.93 goals per game since the coaching change from 3.92 before it. They allowed just 13 goals during an eight-game winning streak, which came to an end Thursday in a defeat to Tampa Bay. The Lightning scored seven times, but two were into an empty net. Goaltender Stuart Skinner took the fall for the loss.
Coverage in the Oilers zone has been better and the defending off the rush has improved by leaps and bounds — an emphasis Knoblauch had for the entire team.
Coffey’s impact on the defencemen has been drastic.
The oft-maligned Darnell Nurse has played his best hockey since the coaching change. Evan Bouchard has gone from being on the highlight reels for mistakes leading to opponents’ goals to looking like one of the best blueliners in the league.
It’s all about instilling confidence, as far as Coffey is concerned.
“As long as the good far outweighs the bad, I’m a happy guy,” Coffey said.
There are a few things Coffey has emphasized, a mixture of practical and motivational aspects.
Veteran Mattias Ekholm noted early in the recent winning streak that Coffey wants the six blueliners to be engaged in the play. That means closing gaps quickly in the defensive zone. Offensively, he’s pushing them to join the rush and make good, crisp passes — even at the end of shifts.
“That’s the way to go,” Ekholm said.
Another thing Ekholm appreciates is Coffey’s penchant for positivity.
“He seems to be a guy that looks at the pumping-tires situation where he likes to encourage more than maybe look at the bad side,” Ekholm said. “That’s been a part where I’ve really enjoyed having him as a coach.”
Coffey sums up his approach like this.
“I’m a positive guy,” he said. “I’m a fan. I’m a fan of the game. I also know that the game’s not perfect.
“I told our D from Day 1, the only thing I expect is plays. If you can’t make them, we’ll get somebody else. It’s plain and simple. I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to make them better. If you can’t make the plays, just put your hand up and tell me. We’ll get somebody else who can. That’s nice, right?”
Vincent Desharnais has come to enjoy Coffey’s methods.
As a bottom-pairing defenceman, Desharnais always felt his priority was clearing the zone when he got the puck above all else. Now, he’s taking an extra half-second to make a play.
It doesn’t always go perfectly, of course. Desharnais recalled a turnover he made in the defensive zone that caused the Oilers to get hemmed in for the better part of a shift. He figured he was going to get an earful from Coffey when he got to the bench.
Instead, Coffey just gave him a tap on the shoulder and told him to move along. That gave Desharnais a shot in the arm.
“The last thing a player wants when he makes a mistake is the coaching telling him,” Coffey said. “He already knows he made it.
“Maybe it comes from coaching 9-year-olds all the way up, and trying to explain to them, ‘That was a good play, but next time let’s do it this way.’ I use the same approach with these guys. It doesn’t matter the age, coaching is the same.
“If you can get the player to play as well as they can, if not better, then that’s your job.”
Coffey mentions his minor hockey days behind the bench. He coached his son, Blake, notably with the Toronto Marlboros AAA in under-15 and 16. Oilers centre Ryan McLeod was a call-up as his older brother, Michael, now a New Jersey Devil, was a regular.
Coffey is 62, and the only other coaching experience he has is a season with the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Pickering Panthers and with Team Canada at one Spengler Cup.
So, he’s the first to admit he doesn’t have all the answers and leans on assistant coach and longtime NHL blueliner Mark Stuart for help. Stuart, a holdover from the Woodcroft-Manson staff, was entrusted with the penalty kill duties by Knoblauch.
“Stuey’s incredible,” Coffey said. “Stuey probably sees the game, I wouldn’t say different than me, because he was a defensive guy, but offers stuff that I don’t see. We work great together.
“I’m open to anything. There’s no agenda here. My agenda is the team. Period. That’s what we have to have. The NHL, in general, can become very insular — worrying about your game and worrying about your piece of the rock. If your only agenda is the team, you’re going to do great.”
Coffey has his tenets — puck movement and pats on the pads — but no one is going to confuse him for a tactician. He aims to show the defencemen respect for the talent they possess. The last thing he said he wants to do is “overcoach” them.
“There’s a trick to that. I’m not saying I’ve nailed it down. I haven’t been here long enough,” Coffey said. “These guys got to this level from a reason. They’re great f—ing players.
“Your job as a coach is not to put them in a box. You start putting them in a box, and that’s all they can do, you’re missing out.”
No one is missing out right now. Not the defencemen. Not Jackson. Not Coffey. Not his wife. Most importantly, not the Oilers.
There were a ton of eyebrows raised when Coffey was announced as an assistant coach as part of the changes a little over a month ago. Coffey didn’t exactly change anyone’s view when he said at the news conference that he didn’t want to coach.
It wasn’t hard to be a skeptic. Did Coffey even have any interest in this? Did he have any hope of doing a good job when he’d never done this before — at least not in the NHL?
“I talk to Wayne (Gretzky) every other day even prior to this,” Coffey said. “He was a little bit worried when I took this job. He said, ‘You’re setting yourself up to fail.’
“It didn’t bother me. I didn’t really care about that.”
It turns out, all Coffey had to do was decide he was up for the gig.
“All I wanted to do was make our guys better. Period,” he said. “If another organization had asked me, the answer would have been no. It’s just Edmonton. I started out here. It’s special.”
(Photo of Mark Stuart, left, and Paul Coffey on the Oilers’ bench: Jonathan Kozub / NHLI via Getty Images)