Ken Hitchcock knows the routine well by now as he begins his tenure as new coach of the 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 the Blues 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 66-year-old 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.

Capitals D Brooks Orpik had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and is expected to miss four to six weeks. Orpik has missed the last nine games. AP