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SAN JOSE Nic Dowd Jersey Womens , Calif. (AP) — Ken Hitchcock knows the routine well by now as he begins his tenure as new coach of the Edmonton Oilers. For the fourth time in his long coaching career, Hitchcock has been tasked with taking over a struggling team in the middle of the season.Hitchcock was hired Tuesday as coach of his hometown Oilers after the team fired Todd McLellan with the team languishing in sixth place in the Pacific Division.“It’s not going to change overnight, but we can start taking some steps,” said Hitchcock, who led St. Louis to a first-place finish in 2011-12 after taking over as coach one month into the season. “I told the players today I can take them to a place personally that they can’t get to themselves, but they’ve got to buy into that, and it’s not going to be comfortable at times.”The Oilers have lost six of seven games, getting outscored 27-11 in those losses, in a rough start to McLellan’s fourth season behind the bench. The team missed the playoffs in two of his previous three seasons despite having superstar Connor McDavid on its roster and the Oilers were just 9-10-1 entering their game Tuesday night at San Jose.“It’s tough to pinpoint what we need, but we’re all to blame here,” McDavid said. “This obviously isn’t on Todd at all. It’s on us as players. That’s just how the business works sometimes. We got to wake up here.”McLellan is the fourth coach to be fired already this season, following John Stevens in Los Angeles www.officialducks.com , Joel Quenneville in Chicago and Mike Yeo in St. Louis. The Oilers are ahead of only the Blues and the Kings in the Western Conference standings.“Obviously we’re in a rough patch here,” general manager Peter Chiarelli said. “We’re leading into American Thanksgiving. It’s a bit of a template for making the playoffs. I felt I was seeing some things that I had seen last year after not seeing them for quite a fair bit this year, and these recurring themes, I wanted to nip them in the bud.”The 66-year-old Hitchcock announced his retirement in April after a 22-year coaching career, which included a Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999. He had two stints in Dallas as well as head coaching stops in Philadelphia (2002-2006), Columbus (2006-2010) and St. Louis (2011-2017).Hitchcock is the third-winningest coach in NHL history with an overall record of 823-506-88-119 (.603 winning percentage). He has guided teams to eight division titles and twice to the best record in the NHL and has an 86-82 playoff record.“It’s definitely going to be tough,” said forward Kyle Brodziak, who played for Hitchcock in St. Louis. “It’s always an adjustment. Guys will have to get used to different styles. Hitch is a hard coach, He’s going to be tough on guys and demand a lot. We have to be ready to produce and face the music for sure.”St. Louis made the playoffs in each of Hitchcock’s five full seasons, reaching the Western Conference finals in 2016. The Blues abruptly fired Hitchcock in February 2017, cutting short what was already going to be his last season in St. Louis. He returned to Dallas with the hope of getting the Stars back to the playoffs but a late-season slump kept them out for the second straight year and the eighth time in 10 seasons.In April, Hitchcock said he was retiring for good but changed his mind when the chance to coach the Oilers came up.He pointed to the chance to coach in his native Edmonton in an organization with many people he has worked with in the past Anaheim Ducks T-Shirts Authentic , including with Chiarelli on Team Canada in 2014 as a reason to come back. Hitchcock said he also looks forward to coaching the 21-year-old McDavid, who has won the past two scoring titles.“He’s an awesome player. But he has an awesome responsibility,” Hitchcock said. “It’s not just scoring goals and getting points and stuff like that. He sets the competitive tone of the hockey club. I can really help him. I’ve been through some really good players who learned to adapt and do those things. I can help him along there and get him to understand what his responsibility is because he’s carrying too much of the burden and he needs to lighten the load a little bit.”There is plenty of blame to go around for the lackluster start in Edmonton by a top-heavy roster led by McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Chiarelli traded winger Taylor Hall to New Jersey for defenseman Adam Larsson in June 2016, and then signed forward Milan Lucic to a seven-year, $42 million contract a few days later. Hall won the Hart Trophy as league MVP last season, while Lucic has two goals in his last 66 games.Hitchcock becomes the seventh coach for the Oilers since the team fired Craig McTavish at the end of the 2008-09 season, following Pat Quinn, Tom Renney, Ralph Krueger, Dallas Eakins, Todd Nelson and McLellan.“He’s always had very good defensive teams,” Lucic said of Hitchcock. “We need to come together as a group no matter who the coach is.” VANCOUVER Anaheim Ducks Hoodies Authentic , British Columbia (AP) — Thatcher Demko was nervous before stepping on the ice.It sure didn’t show.The 23-year-old goalie made 36 saves in his second NHL game, leading the Vancouver Canucks to a 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night.“An opportunity for me,” Demko said. “I’m just really excited and wanted to make the most of it.”Alex Edler, Sven Baertschi, Brock Boeser and Loui Eriksson scored for Vancouver. Bo Horvat had two assists.Buffalo got goals from Evan Rodrigues, Kyle Okposo and Sam Reinhart. Linus Ullmark stopped 19 shots.“For a large majority of the game we played the way we wanted to, but those mistakes we’re making are just a little too big,” Reinhart said. “I’m sure we can correct and we are going to.”Demko, who made one appearance for the Canucks last season, was called up Jan. 4 from the Utica Comets of the American Hockey League after Vancouver traded backup goalie Anders Nilsson to Ottawa.“I’ve been working hard and just patiently waiting for that first chance,” Demko said.He was tested early and often Friday, and his performance had the crowd chanting “Dem-Ko! Dem-Ko!” in appreciation of some highlight-reel saves.“He was great. Good to see. He was one of our best players tonight Anaheim Ducks Hats Authentic ,” Vancouver coach Travis Green said.Rodrigues beat the young goaltender 8:48 in after Rasmus Ristolainen got a pass to the left wing down low and Rodrigues chipped it up over Demko’s pad.Vancouver had yet to register a single shot.Edler got the Canucks on the board 3½ minutes later with a massive slap shot from the blue line. The speeding puck squeezed through traffic and past Ullmark down low.Vancouver went up by one at 15:31 of the first after defenseman Derrick Pouliot sliced a pass through the Buffalo crease to Baertschi, who collected it on his tape and popped the puck into a wide-open net.The Swiss left wing sustained a concussion in October that kept him out of the lineup for 30 games. He has six points since he returned late last month.Early in the second, Pouliot and fellow defenseman Erik Gudbranson got caught behind the Vancouver net, leaving Okposo wide open at the hash marks. The right wing got the puck and flipped a backhand past Demko to even the score.Vancouver pulled ahead once again eight minutes into the period.Horvat stripped Buffalo’s Lawrence Pilut of the puck and made a beautiful pass to Boeser in front of the Sabres net. The right wing tipped it in for his 16th goal of the season.“Me shooting the puck hasn’t been working so I thought I’d give it to somebody who’s going to put it in the net,” Horvat said.Horvat doesn’t have a goal since Dec. 20, but his assist was his 200th career point.“Never when you’re playing in the NHL do you think you’ll be able to hit these kind of milestones,” he said. “It’s really exciting and it feels even better to get that win.”The lead didn’t last long. Almost three minutes later, Conor Sheary made a quick pass to Reinhart in front of the Vancouver crease and he put in a no-look backhand up high.“Probably half our team didn’t play their best hockey game. And when you can not play your best and win, that’s a real bonus in the NHL,” Green said.“Our goalie gave us a good period in the third period. And we found a way to win a hockey game.”Nearly six minutes into the third, Canucks left wing Josh Leivo dug out the puck from behind the Buffalo net and dished it to Eriksson. He put a one-timer past Ullmark for his fourth point in three games.The Sabres had opportunities to tie it again on a power play late in the third. Ullmark was pulled with 87 seconds left, but Demko held strong.“Responsibility without the puck Custom Anaheim Ducks Jerseys , that was the difference. But I can’t complain, we had a heck of a game,” Buffalo coach Phil Housley said.The Canucks registered just four shots in the opening period. Demko kept them in a game that got off to an “ugly” start, according to Horvat.“That’s unbelievable. Especially at a young age, coming in. These are meaningful games and he stepped up like great players do and he played phenomenal tonight,” Horvat said. “We owe him a lot of credit.”NOTES: Vancouver’s Nikolay Goldobin was a healthy scratch for the second game in a row. … The defeat ended a three-game swing through Canada for the Sabres, who lost 7-2 in Edmonton on Monday and beat Calgary 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday.UP NEXTSabres: Off until after the All-Star break.Canucks: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.