Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Oates and assistants depart AHL Hershey, return to Washington

Adam Oates

New Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates pauses during a news conference in Washington, Wednesday, June 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

AP

Things were crowded behind the Hersey Bears’ bench to start the AHL campaign -- maybe a little too crowded -- so moves have been made to free up some space.

On Wednesday, Washington GM George McPhee announced that Caps head coach Adam Oates and assistants Calle Johansson and Tim Hunter -- who had been working with Hershey coaches Mark French and Troy Mann -- were on their way back to the nation’s capital.

“The time is right for Adam and his coaching staff to return to Washington,” McPhee told the Caps’ website. “We feel like the coaching staff has developed some good chemistry. The goal all along was for our coaching staff to go to Hershey work closely with our prospects and implement our system.

“They spent ample time doing just that and we feel both organizations will benefit in the long run because of it.”

While it might’ve been a good learning experience for some, Hershey’s on-ice production suffered with so many cooks in the kitchen. The Bears are last in the AHL’s East Division with a 6-9-1 record -- not great numbers from a team with Washington regulars Braden Holtby and Dmitry Orlov in the lineup alongside veteran AHLers in Garrett Stafford and Jeff Taffe.

Oates seemed to recognize it was a unique and potentially uncomfortable situation in Hershey, but appreciated what the Bears’ coaches allowed him and Johansson and Hunter to do during the lockout.

“With Frenchy and Troy, we all got to work together and talk hockey every day,” he explained. “We would see the same stuff and interpret it differently, and then come to a conclusion as to what it is. I think that was healthy for all of us, I really do. It’s healthy to talk hockey every day.

“They were gracious in the sense that it is their team and they allowed us to come down due to a unique situation and work together.”