Edmonton Journal

Mact rolls with the punches despite setbacks.

Making the most of every situation is Craig Mactavish’s game plan for life — and cancer is just the latest bodycheck for the former Oilers coach to fight through

- Cam Tait

ABBOTSFORD, B.C.

– If you’re close to Craig Mactavish, you’ll have a nickname; it’s an honour he bestows out of affection and a dry, spontaneou­s sense of humour.

So when the former Edmonton Oilers player and coach was told he had a cancer that starts in the lymphocyte­s, white blood cells that form part of the body’s immune system, he used an acronym to nickname that, too.

Known as Mact to fans and Mac to his friends, he repeats the name non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, then slowly pronounces the first letter of each word.

“I am back in the NHL,” Mactavish, 53, says before breaking into that familiar belly laugh.

He isn’t back in the National Hockey League, but he’s only a skate blade away.

It’s early afternoon, and MacTavish has just put the Chicago Wolves through a brisk morning skate before an American Hockey League game against the Abbotsford Heat.

In a grey golf shirt and black dress pants, he sits crosslegge­d in a room at the Ramada Hotel as he patiently, thoughtful­ly reflects on his past and future.

“I feel terrific,” he says, still symptom- and treatmentf­ree nearly 2-1/2 years after his diagnosis.

As the name suggests, nonHodgkin’s lymphomas are a group of blood cancers that include every lymphoma except Hodgkin’s. They can lie dormant for years or be very aggressive. Treatments range from chemothera­py, monoclonal antibodies, immunother­apy and radiation to stem cell transplant­ation.

For now, Mactavish’s is lying still — like a loose puck in the corner. But he’s ready to pounce on it in a second’s notice, turning a challenge into a positive.

And he has no intention of letting it slow him down.

“I don’t like to dwell on that stuff,” he says, clearly showing his discomfort with the subject.

“I am living like everyone else with the disease, right?”

Still, there was a level of acceptance to come to terms with before he could formulate a game plan.

“The way I describe cancer is there are ultimately four phases, but I am just going to talk about three,” he says methodical­ly.

“The first is ‘holy s---’ You’re in shock and blindsided, and wonder how you are going to deal with it.

“Then, there’s the resolve phase, where you decide to fight it and do whatever to defeat it. Get a second opinion and do all that due diligence.

“The third is getting back to a normal life.”

Though he rarely thinks about it these days, Mactavish concedes it’s tough not being able to predict when he might have to deal with it.

“At times we get fixated on our problems and forget to appreciate what’s really important to us. A little humility makes you reflect on the things you have taken for granted and the things you are thankful for.

“In spite of the profession­al challenges I have had in the past couple of years, I have really had a lot of fun.”

The diagnosis came in December 2009, eight months after he was relieved as Oilers head coach, a position he’d held since 2000. He found a small lump on the left side of his neck, but made a conscious decision to keep tight-lipped about it as a way of coping.

Whispers began coming out within weeks of his diagnosis. Yet locally, it was never reported to any extent.

“I think it was a mutual respect I had with the media in Edmonton,” Mactavish says. “I always tried to do the right thing by them, and a relationsh­ip like that requires significan­t balance. … (They decided) the right thing to do was to respect my privacy and I really appreciate that.”

A few weeks after he learned he had cancer, Mactavish flew to Saskatoon with a group of friends for the gold-medal game of the World Junior Hockey Championsh­ip. His condition never entered the conversati­on. Typical Mactavish. “I have always valued friendship­s in a high degree,” he says. “I don’t have a big circle of friends, but I know I can draw a lot of support from them.”

Former Oiler Mark Lamb remembers when Mactavish’s 73-year-old father, Al, died following coronary problems in January 2001. It was a game day.

“He didn’t tell us until after the game because he didn’t want any distractio­ns,” says Lamb, now coach and GM of the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League.

Oilers president of operations Kevin Lowe says he’s not at all surprised by the low-key approach of his longtime pal.

“I would never expect anything less,” says Lowe. “… He’s a very matter-of-fact person and would never want sympathy from anyone.”

The two became teammates in 1985 when Mactavish came to the Oilers from the Boston Bruins.

The next season, the Oilers were playing in Boston when the Super Bowl was on. MacTavish took it upon himself to organize the food and refreshmen­ts for a party — all on his tab.

That trend continued throughout his playing days in Edmonton. There were always sports pools around the Oilers — NFL, The Masters and others — that Mactavish organized.

When Lowe met the rest of the Mactavish clan from London, Ont., he got that same sense of a family that truly enjoys people: “The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”

Craig Standen, who co-owns Physique Fitness in Edmonton, is one of Mactavish’s closest friends.

“He’s very likely to say, ‘Yeah, I’ve got cancer, but how is your back?’ ” Standen says. “His attitude of, ‘There’s people way sicker than me’ is … amazing.”

Standen and Mactavish spend a lot of time together each summer near Kelowna, continuing a friendship that began when Mactavish was in Edmonton.

Standen says he’s in awe of how his friend, renowned for his sharp wit and robust vocabulary, can recall names, no matter how long it has been since he’s seen someone. And as for friends, Mactavish has kept some school buddies in his circle for at least 40 years.

Those sentiments are shared by yet another Craig, in this case Simpson, a broadcaste­r who was Mactavish’s former teammate and assistant coach.

“Mac can do whatever he sets his mind to do; he’s got that capability,” Simpson told the Journal’s David Staples in 2007. “… He’s got a winner’s attitude. He was a guy who would pretty selflessly do whatever it would take for the team to have success.”

But above all, Simpson values their friendship. “Of all the guys we played with, Mac was always the organizer … and if you had a problem or needed anything, that’s the guy you could trust with your life.”

Though he was less a goal scorer and more an avid student of the game as a young player, Mactavish worked hard to net a scholarshi­p at a Division II American hockey program, the University of Massachuse­tts at Lowell.

He was a ninth-round draft pick of the Bruins in 1978 and a rookie in the NHL the next year, notching an assist his very first game. For the first few seasons, he bounced back and forth between the Bruins and the AHL’S Binghamton Dusters and Springfiel­d Indians.

Mactavish hit bottom in a very public way in January 1984, drinking at a bar before driving to his home in Tewksbury, Mass. His Datsun rearended a Ford Pinto driven by 26-year-old Kim Radley, who suffered severe head injuries and died days later.

After pleading guilty to vehicular homicide, he spent a year in jail, the first few months in a small cell with a bucket for a toilet. A $10-million suit filed by Radley’s husband was settled out of court.

Mactavish relied on the strength of his character to carry him through, eventually forging a bond with Radley’s parents, Hazel and Ron Foote, who visited him in jail and forgave him. Hazel Foote still sends a card to Mactavish on his birthday, Aug. 15.

“I have a great deal of respect for Craig Mactavish,” she said in a 2007 interview. “He was a young man who made a tragic mistake and was extremely sorry for it. I regard him very highly.”

A criminal conviction coupled with a cancer diagnosis might drive some people to despair. But not Mactavish, who’s thankful for second chances and wants to make the most of them.

“I guess I don’t like to waste time,” he says simply.

After serving his jail term, Mactavish was let go by the Bruins so he could get a fresh start in a new city.

He came to the Oilers in 1985, became part of the community and met his wife, Debbie, the daughter of Edmonton businessma­n Denny Andrews.

He served as honorary chair of Edmonton’s Checkstop, an anti-drunk-driving program, and shared with schoolchil­dren the dangers of drunk driving. In his later years in Edmonton, he was the honorary chair for the Father’s Day walk supporting prostate cancer.

Mactavish carved a niche as a gritty, hard-working forward who often led the team’s forecheck. His last two years with the Oilers, he served as team captain.

He was traded late in 1994 to the New York Rangers. On June 14 that year, he won a faceoff with 1.6 seconds left in the third period to give New York a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. He played for the Philadelph­ia Flyers and St. Louis Blues before retiring in 1997 after 1,093 regular season games and made 193 playoff appearance­s.

“Mac was always the organizer needed anything, that’s –

He has already gone down in history as the last player in the NHL to take to the ice without a helmet. His rationale? “It was just a comfort thing for me,” Mactavish was quoted in the New York Times. In his entire career, he reportedly never suffered a concussion.

Mactavish went right into coaching for the Rangers for the start of the 1997-98 season and was an assistant there for two seasons before returning to Edmonton in 1999.

After one year as an assistant, Mactavish took over as head coach in 2000.

“Craig has always possessed the will to survive and be successful at whatever he chooses,” says Glen Sather, who brought Mactavish to the Oilers in 1985 and continued coaching him until the 1988-89 season. “His illness has not stopped him from doing what he wants to accomplish with his life. It has made him even stronger.”

Sather, now president and GM of the Rangers, thinks that

Craig Simpson, about

strength will help Mactavish secure another head coaching job in the NHL.

Before the 2011-12 hockey season began, Mactavish was interviewe­d for coaching positions with the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild, but got neither.

“I naively thought it might take a little more time to get back to the NHL level,” he says of his two years out of coaching. “The game can be very humbling, and guys who think they are bulletproo­f today aren’t that way tomorrow. And, for me, it was time to get back to work.”

Vancouver Canuck GM Mike Gillis, Mactavish’s agent when he played in the mid-1990s, talked to him about coaching for the Wolves, Vancouver’s AHL affiliate team. Last August, Mactavish took the job and moved to Chicago with Debbie and their 12-year-old daughter Brianna. (Son Nate, 20, is studying at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., while 17-year-old

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Alas, the Wolves were eliminated by the San Antonio Rampage in a five-game series on April 27, losing 3-2 in double overtime.

“The game is very similar to the NHL, but the lifestyle is vastly different — and I view that as a positive. Travel is minimal and the media scrutiny is next to nothing,” Mactavish says of the AHL 76-game regular season schedule.

“There’s a perception that coaching at this level is developmen­tal, but coaching is always about teaching. Players at this level may need to have more coaching than in the NHL. And, hopefully, with my experience I can help them.

“But everyone wants to be at the highest level — the NHL. You want the drama. You want to win Stanley Cups.”

But with four Stanley Cup rings — three with the Oilers and one with the Rangers — Mactavish is hungry for another one. As coach, he guided the Oilers to Game 7 of the 2006 cup final, but they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes.

When he coached his last Oilers game on April 11, 2009, in Calgary, the team fell 4-1 to the Flames.

Two days later, on a Monday morning, Mactavish met with the Edmonton media at Rexall Place for the last time.

In his opening comments, he said he wasn’t going to discuss his future with the Oilers. He did say, however, he felt the Oilers work culture took a hit — which fuelled fires lit by many anti-mactavish fans that his voice was no longer being heard by his players.

The next day, it was announced he wouldn’t be returning as coach, although he still had one year left on his contract.

“It seems like it was just yesterday when we were all working together with the Oilers,” Mactavish says.

“I love the organizati­on, I love the city and I love the people. I played there for 10 years, and coached for 10 years,” he says.

So would he consider coming back to the Oilers in some capacity?

“Sometimes it’s valuable to get a perspectiv­e on one organizati­on by working with another. I still have a great degree of allegiance to the Oilers. There’s no question about that.”

In the fall of 2009, for the first time since he was a rookie 30 years earlier, an NHL club didn’t employ him.

Two weeks later, TSN hired him for their hockey panel, and for two seasons he made weekly flights to Toronto to TSN’S studio.

James Duthie, the panel’s host, says Mactavish matterof-factly told him about the cancer.

“He never takes himself seriously,” Duthie says. “He’s one of the boys, … no matter what boys he is with.”

Duthie calls Mactavish fearless; Mactavish says he has learned a great deal from Duthie, who he calls “absolutely brilliant. If you’re stammering and looking for things to say, James will throw you a lifeline.”

He didn’t return to the panel after the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs. In between his TSN duties, Mactavish finished his master’s degree in business administra­tion at Queen’s.

“I did it for general knowledge and it was a great mental exercise. I met some great people and have employed some of the things they teach you about dealing with people with coaching the Wolves.”

Typical Mactavish. Making the most of every situation, be it crisis or opportunit­y.

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 ??  ?? Craig Mactavish takes the puck to the net against the Montreal Canadiens in the 1980s. He earned a reputation as a hard-working, forechecki­ng forward and served as captain his last two years as a player with the Oilers.
Craig Mactavish takes the puck to the net against the Montreal Canadiens in the 1980s. He earned a reputation as a hard-working, forechecki­ng forward and served as captain his last two years as a player with the Oilers.
 ?? John Lucas, Edmonton Journal ?? Craig and Debbie Mactavish jog in Hawrelak Park with their dog Murphy in 2010. Though he moved to Chicago last August to take the AHL coaching job, Mactavish has maintained a home in Edmonton.
John Lucas, Edmonton Journal Craig and Debbie Mactavish jog in Hawrelak Park with their dog Murphy in 2010. Though he moved to Chicago last August to take the AHL coaching job, Mactavish has maintained a home in Edmonton.
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Craig Mactavish he coached organizati­on,
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In 1997 Mctavish, Rangers, shares
 ?? Denis Brodeur, NHL via Getty Images ?? player with the Oilers.
Denis Brodeur, NHL via Getty Images player with the Oilers.
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Edmonton.
Journal Edmonton.
 ?? Mark Avery, Reuters ?? Craig Mactavish yells instructio­ns to his players in 2008. Though he coached his last game for the Oilers in April 2009, “I love the organizati­on, I love the city and I love the people,” he says.
Mark Avery, Reuters Craig Mactavish yells instructio­ns to his players in 2008. Though he coached his last game for the Oilers in April 2009, “I love the organizati­on, I love the city and I love the people,” he says.
 ??  ?? In 1997 Mctavish, then an assistant coach with the New York Rangers, shares a laugh with Wayne Gretzky.
In 1997 Mctavish, then an assistant coach with the New York Rangers, shares a laugh with Wayne Gretzky.

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