Former Oilers teammates converge to see Gregg, MacTavish inducted to Wall of Fame

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When Craig Simpson heard that Craig MacTavish and Randy Gregg were the newest members of the Edmonton Oilers Wall of Fame, he cheered.

“These honorees are the best examples of how you win championships. You have two key guys who are critical role players. Mac and Randy are the true examples up front and on the back end. I really like that connection, those two going in at the same time,” said Hockey Night in Canada’s lead commentator Simpson at a press conference Friday before their names go up on the Wall of Fame at the end of the Oilers-Penguins game.

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“We all knew it. You listen to Gretz, Mess talking about those sorts of guys that allowed those Oiler teams to be as good as they were and in Randy’s case, he’s one of the few (seven players) to have won all five Stanley Cups. That showed Randy’s resiliency,” said Simpson, who was part of a cavalcade of former Oilers Cup winners out Friday to salute Gregg and MacTavish.

The boosters included the other five members of the Oilers defence for a four-year run that included the first two Cup victories — Lee Fogolin and Kevin Lowe, Paul Coffey and Charlie Huddy and Gregg’s partner Don Jackson, who flew in from Germany where he coached for years until retiring from the bench. Fogolin and Huddy are already on the Wall of Fame.

Simpson and fellow Cup winner Dave Hunter were also at the press briefing.

MacTavish played in the large shadow of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier as Oilers centres, but his strength was bringing the temperature down.

“When there was chaos around us as players, Mac was the one who would have a great quote, something to make you laugh and make you relax. It allowed guys to calm down and play in the moment. Those guys are so important at pressure times,” said Simpson.

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“As a player, he took the big faceoffs, played a key defensive role for us, six-on-five against, he was out there. What was underrated about him was he had good hands. He scored 20 goals. I used to tease him, no helmet, lots of hair, he’d be in the corner with the puck, he’d do a quick spinaround and he would corkscrew a defenceman into the ice (in the offensive zone),” said Simpson.

“And maybe more importantly, he could do that defensively. He didn’t panic when he had the puck on the boards and throw the puck away.”

Especially killing penalties. He had 29 short-handed goals as an Oiler.

“That’s because I was always on the ice with Mess. We’d get a two-on-one and he would never shoot. I just put my big blade on the ice for tap-ins,” said MacTavish, who would usually have won the faceoff first.

“I think he’d be kicked out of the faceoff all the time now because he never put his stick down,” kidded Simpson, who got no argument from MacTavish.

“Yeah, I don’t know how many times my stick came up and hit (local linesman) Randy Mitton,” joked MacTavish.

Lowe, who thought so much of MacTavish’s game, he made him Oilers coach for nine years, felt MacTavish was the team’s security blanket up front.

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“I always knew if we had to protect a lead with Mac, I was pretty comfortable. If we were down a goal I was never worried because one of the offensive guys would get a goal for us and it wouldn’t be me. And conversely, the top guys all felt comfortable that the role players could finish the game off for them. It was harmonious. They knew if MacT was out there or Doc Gregg, we were safe.”

MacTavish’s smarts turned him into a very good coach.

“As a manager I never had to worry about what was going on in the dressing room. Whatever Craig was saying, I’d be saying and if there was a slight variance, it was just style,” said Lowe of MacTavish as a coach. “He was one of the few guys who could speak from experience, having won as a player and to be firm enough to call a spade a spade when needed, the right and wrong with how players act. He had the ability to coach all levels of guys to get the best out of them. Hemmer (Ales Hemsky) would say he’s one of the best coaches he’s ever played for, and Hemmer was an offensive guy with some warts defensively.”

Simpson had something in common with Gregg off the ice. Both were in university at 16, exceptional students — Simpson at Michigan State, Gregg at the University of Alberta, studying to become a doctor.

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“What you learn from intelligent people like that is you learn is the more active the brain is, the more active the body reacts,” said Simpson. “I found that in my early days as a student, trying to finish (high school) to get to Michigan State. That was probably the most interesting and most productive time in my life. Away from the game, it would have been easy for Randy to be distracted with all that was going on.”

He was a doctor on call, sometimes, for the Oilers.

“Doc was such a classy guy. He never wanted to flaunt (his medical expertise). He was subdued about all that stuff. But I had the utmost respect for doing what he did,” said Simpson.

Simpson was never worried when Gregg was on the ice because he played a simple, no-fuss game. “He was a great example of playing the game the right way and doing the intangible things that go unnoticed maybe by fans but not by the players on his team. He had great poise under pressure in the games. He would make a great block, kick the puck up to his stick and he made a good outlet pass. No icing of the puck,” he said.

“Randy wasn’t dynamic but he was a really cerebral player. He got overshadowed by some of the big stars but I think he was fine with that. He’d be in the background and was subtly super,” said MacTavish.

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The Oilers players marvelled at a doctor also being a wonderful hockey player. His time management was outstanding.

“Lots of times, players would have Randy stitch them up, maybe the best stitch guy we had. He’d do the odd job, it was quite handy,” said MacTavish, who also admired Gregg’s ability to jockey his responsibilities, at the hospital, at the rink, especially being married (speedskater Kathy Vogt), with a big family.

“Especially with four kids. If there was five minutes to go somewhere, he could fall asleep. He would shut down, because he never got any sleep. Medical school, all those young kids,” said MacTavish.

Well, he wasn’t in his room all the time.

“Every time we’d go to New York, Randy and I would go to a Broadway show. We must have seen 20 of them,” said longtime Oilers equipment manager Barrie Stafford, a teammate and fast friend of Gregg’s at the U of A.

Stafford marvelled at Gregg’s ability the minute he saw him for the first time trying to make the Golden Bears.

“Randy was just a great athlete. Before you know it, he’s our captain and the best player in the CIAU by a mile,” said Stafford, who scoffed at people who said Gregg benefited by playing with Jackson, one of the toughest guys in all of hockey.

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“Randy didn’t fight but he’d stand up to (Tim) Hunter and (Paul) Baxter,” said Stafford, recalling the mayhem and madcap of the Battle of Alberta days.

No argument from the NHL’s only M.D., who was 26 when he joined the young Oilers, same age as Jackson. They fit, right off the bat.

“Donnie was the fighter and I was the lover,” said Gregg.

This ‘n that: Sad news that winger Moe Lemay, who got his name engraved on the 1987 Oilers Cup team, passed away this week at 62, reportedly of a stroke. He came to the Oilers from Vancouver with Raimo Summanen going to the Canucks, and was traded to Boston for Alan May the next year.

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