Wayne Gretzky is quite content to hand over Canada's Olympic team to Steve Yzerman.

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Steve Yzerman (file photo)

Photograph by : Leah Hennel for Calgary Herald

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If Yzerman wants him to lend an ear or offer some advice, that's fine with Gretzky, who served as executive director of the Olympic squad in both 2002 and 2006. If Yzerman wants him to keep his distance, that's fine with Gretzky, too.

"I don't think it's a big secret that Stevie is going to take over the team," Gretzky said Thursday. "It's his team. As I've told him, I'm a shoulder to lean on. I've been through a couple (Olympics). I'm always going to be connected some way, some how to Hockey Canada, but quite frankly, I will have a limited role and it's really Stevie's team.

"Whatever he asks of me, I will be available. It's Stevie's team. It's going to be his staff, his coaches, his players. This is definitely handing the reins over. It's not my team."

Gretzky says Yzerman has all the necessary credentials for the position.

"He'll do a fantastic job. For me to be involved, in a sense, there would sort of be that mystique that maybe it's not Stevie's team, so the less I'm involved, the less I'm not around, the more people will understand that it is Stevie's team. But on the other side of it, I've been through it and there's a lot of pressure and there's a lot at stake and any kind of questions he has . . . if he calls me, great, if he doesn't, good luck."

Hired to be fired

The firing of Chicago Blackhawks head coach Denis Savard came as a surprise to people in the Montreal Canadiens' organization who played with or for the Hall of Famer.

But Montreal head coach Guy Carbonneau, who was Savard's teammate on the Canadiens' last Stanley Cup team in 1993, said getting fired is part of the job.

"I think everybody understands that it's part of the job, that when we sign a contract at one point we're gonna get fired. I haven't seen too many coaches who have been able to get through a career without being fired," said Carbonneau.

"Sometimes, the situation is unfair," he added. "I thought he did an unbelievable job without anyone in the lineup. Finally, last year he had a few good kids he was able to bring to a pretty high standard and they made some moves this summer. It's always fun when you start something to be able to finish it. You might not win the Stanley Cup all the time but to see that you improve and go higher, I'm sure Denis is disappointed he won't have that chance."

Centre Robert Lang, who played in Chicago last season, said he thought Savard was a good coach.

"Savvy asked guys to work hard and nobody had any problems with that," said Lang.

He went on to say that Savard was placed in a difficult situation because Chicago had two top goaltenders in Huet and holdover Nikolai Khabibulin.

"I was in Detroit when they had (Dominik) Hasek and Cujo (Curtis Joseph) and it was a difficult situation," said Lang.

Old friends

During the 1977-78 Ontario Hockey League season, teenagers Craig Hartsburg and Wayne Gretzky played together on the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Gretzky, now the coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, was 16 when the season started. He turned 17 in January.

In 64 games that year, Gretzky had 70 goals and 112 assists - and only 14 penalty minutes.

Even at 16, according to Hartsburg, he was the best junior player in the world, period.

"He played in the world junior at 16 and was amazing," said Hartsburg, the Ottawa_Senators' head coach. "Nobody quite knew when he came there as a 16-year-old. This scrawny little guy comes on the ice with us.

"But all of a sudden he's setting up people left and right for open nets. It didn't take us long to know that this guy was pretty special."

They also played together in 1987 in the Canada Cup. Hartsburg said Gretzky and Mario Lemieux lifted each other to special performances.

"I don't know what you can say about Wayne Gretzky that hasn't already been said, but he always seemed to rise to the occasion, when you needed a big goal, or a big play," said Hartsburg, whose Senators host the Coyotes on Friday at Scotiabank Place. "He and Lemieux in 1987 just seemed to challenge themselves to play at a level that maybe neither one had played at."

McGrattan willing to drop the mitts against former team

Brian McGrattan was planning to have dinner with former Ottawa Senators teammates Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley on Thursday night.

Come Friday night, he'll be ready, willing and able to drop the gloves against his old club.

"I definitely know we'll be a tougher team if I'm in the lineup," said McGrattan, the former Senators enforcer who is expected to play his first regular-season game with the Phoenix Coyotes.

McGrattan, who served as the Senators' enforcer for the previous three seasons, was traded to the Coyotes in June for a fifth-round draft selection in 2009. He played sparingly last season, appearing in only 38 games, registering no goals and three assists, while averaging four shifts and less than three minutes of ice time per game, one of the lowest totals in the NHL.

When McGrattan was traded away, Senators general manager Bryan Murray said that move - coupled with the decision to buy out former goaltender Ray Emery - was aimed at improving the character of the team for the 2008-09 season.

Publicly, anyway, McGrattan says he has moved on from his Senators days. It doesn't take much reading between the lines, however, to realize that the tough guy wants to make a point Friday night.

"I don't hold any grudges," he said following Thursday afternoon's practice. "But just maybe for the fans and stuff, who probably didn't get to see me play for three years, (to) probably show them that I can play, yeah (it's exciting).

"I'm pretty eager. I've been working pretty hard since training camp. It comes with the role, you're not going to be in the lineup every night. Just come to the room and come to the rink, and have the right attitude. We have a lot of young guys on this team, so to see a guy like me, who doesn't play all the time, and having the right attitude every night is important."

The most likely opponent for McGrattan on Friday night would be Chris Neil, who is three inches shorter and 20 to 25 pounds lighter than McGrattan.

"I'm not worried one bit," McGrattan said. "I probably already have the advantage. There's no need to worry."

Malik still without contract

Marek Malik skated with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, but has yet to sign a contract with the team.

He's expected to ink a one-year pact with the Lightning once he's in game shape.

"Tampa Bay seemed like the best choice for me," the defenceman told the St. Petersburg Times. "I really liked what they did with the team in the summer, signing free agents. I always liked how they play. They try to play offensive hockey, and with the signings in the summer, the team looks really, really good; really, really positive. There's a good mix of players."

Malik, 33, has been a plus-20 or better in four of his past five seasons. He scored two goals and eight assists in 42 games with the New York_Rangers last season, but was only a plus-7.

"Marek Malik has been around a long time," Lightning coach Barry Melrose told the paper. "You know what he gives you. He's a big body, good defensively, takes up a lot of room, takes away time and space and is a good penalty killer."

MacIntyre stumbles into first NHL game

When Steve MacIntyre had played the scenario out in his head, he hadn't included the part where he'd stumble to the ice on his first shift in his first National Hockey League game.

Or that he'd drop his stick on another.

No matter. He still managed to get in five shifts and even though he played just three minutes and seven seconds in the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night, he got his job done.

Ducks heavyweight George Parros wasn't prepared to throw punches with the Oilers' six-foot-six, 265-pound tenderfoot, but he also didn't take any liberties with anyone else.

"He had a decent shift there in the second where he made a pass and crashed the net," head coach Craig MacTavish said. "I was excited for him. He was just pumped and he did what he needed to do.

"He's a great neutralizer. Even though the mitts didn't fall there was the threat of it. He did his job."

MacIntyre could be back in the lineup Friday night when the Oilers take on the Calgary Flames.

"I called home and my dad and I were talking about it (Thursday) morning," said the 28-year-old, referring to his NHL_debut against Anaheim. "He said, 'So you had to get that first fall on your face out of the way.'

"Just first game jitters."

He said it:

"He's going to be a really good player in this league. He's a young player right now and he's probably learning lots, but he has got all the physical talents and he's a very intelligent player, too. So he's got a chance to be a top player, for sure." - Ottawa Senators head coach Craig Hartsburg on Phoenix Coyotes rookie Kyle Turris, who was coached by Hartsburg at the world junior hockey championships last year.

Ice chips:

The Montreal Canadiens have assigned forward Kyle Chipchura to the American Hockey League's Hamilton Bulldogs. Chipchura has not played a regular-season game this season. He participated in four pre-season games, and scored a goal. . . . Winger Marian Gaborik is out of the Minnesota Wild's lineup with what the team is calling a lower-body injury. . . . The Detroit Red Wings recalled Darren_Helm from_Grand Rapids (AHL) to replace the injured Henrik Zetterberg (groin). The Wings made room on the roster by sending goaltender Jimmie Howard to Grand Rapids. . . . The Phoenix Coyotes recalled defenceman Ryan Lannon under emergency conditions from the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL. Lannon, 25, has appeared in each of San Antonio's first two games this season. He also played in three pre-season contests for the Coyotes this year.