Eakins: Oilers fans don't want clichés from me

The Edmonton Journal examines Dallas Eakins' first season behind the bench for the Oilers; not only noting the mistakes of the rookie coach, but also the ease with which hockey fans can quickly assess blame to a coach when a team doesn't perform.

Eakins' handling of Lars Eller's 'junior team' comment was noted as a negative, but the coach offered this on what he's said to the media this season:

“I don’t take back anything I’ve said this year. I try to be as honest as I can,” he said.

“It’s extremely important to our market and to our fans that their coach just isn’t coming out and saying ‘hey, we need to work hard for 60 minutes.’ They want something to talk about. Sometimes, it’s been a negative slant, but I want to speak freely.”

“What I say is what I mean. The one thing about this year is I’ve said certain things, and certain outlets have shortened what I said, made it into 10 words instead of two minutes. It doesn’t come out looking very good.”

Source: Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal