Red Wings benefiting from lessons McLellan learned coaching young Oilers
Before he stepped behind the bench of a young and hungry Detroit Red Wings team, Todd McLellan was the coach who helped usher Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl into the NHL. He spoke to Mark Spector about lessons learned from that experience.
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EDMONTON — Todd McLellan has seen this band before.
A young team, some promising talent, seemingly ready to take that next step. Not into a playoff contender, but maybe get into the post-season and see what happens.
On a snowy Thursday night in the Great White North, McLellan’s new team beat his old one 3-2 in a shootout, as a coach and his Detroit Red Wings make the climb that McLellan made a decade ago behind the Edmonton Oilers‘ bench.
Similarities?
“There are some,” admitted McLellan, before his game Red Wings erased an early 2-0 deficit and won on the strength of a Herculean game from their captain, Dylan Larkin. “Detroit has outstanding players, really good young players, great veteran players. We’re trying to develop our McDavids and our Draisaitls. We’re not quite there yet, but we believe that we can get there.”
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It’s two good hockey towns though, Detroit and Edmonton, and their fans were treated to an 82-shot goaltending clinic at both ends Thursday. Fittingly, the Red Wings nabbed the extra point after showing they wouldn’t be pushed around by the more established Oilers.
“The want, the desire, the crave to get back into the playoffs is very similar (in Detroit) as to when we arrived here with Edmonton,” McLellan said. “Two new buildings that are full every night, and it’s passionate like you wouldn’t believe. They expect real good efforts, and if you don’t produce that good effort they’ll let you know, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
The life of an NHL coach is fairly predictable. Every job starts with promise and a “new coach bump” from the team they join, but they all feel the thud of the door hitting their rear end once they’ve been fired.
After a seven-season stint with San Jose, four years in Edmonton, and four-and-a-half more in L.A., McLellan still has a soft spot for his time here, despite how it ended. Or the fact that his Kings were beaten three times in the first round by Edmonton, which likely had some bearing on McLellan getting fired out of SoCal last season.
“A lot of things happened in those four years,” he said of Edmonton. “We went from the old building to the new building. We drafted and developed some superstar players that are having an impact, not only with the Oilers organization but in the hockey world. They’re power brokers, and they deserve to be.”
And he got to coach Connor McDavid into the NHL, with a young Leon Draisaitl riding shotgun.
“It was an honour,” he said. “Their willingness to learn and learn the whole game is what stood out. They came in as superstar offensive players, but they want to be more than that, and you can see it now in the way they play.
“How close their team is to a championship is because they were willing to do that.”
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Draisaitl had a goal and 10 shots on net against Detroit, while McDavid added an assist. Larkin stole the show, however, with a night for the ages.
The Red Wings captain took a whopping 39 faceoffs (winning 62 per cent of them), had the game-tying goal, scored in the shootout and added 10 shots on goal of his own. He played 25:03, second among forwards only to McDavid’s 25:55.
“That’s a captain’s night, a leadership night,” beamed McLellan post-game. “Think about how taxing that is to go against Leon and some of their other big centres, I think 36 or 37 times in the face-off circle. That alone can wear an individual out. And to check against those top-end guys as well as create offence? It’s a hell of a night.”
Down the hall, an Oilers team that is perhaps feeling some 50-game doldrums tipped their hats to McLellan and his new project.
It’s a familiar sight in these parts, McLellan standing behind the bench of a team with as much promise as it has work to do.
“He’s a great coach,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “We all liked him as a coach and as a guy. He can get you motivated and you’re seeing that right now from this (Detroit) team. They’ve got a lot of young skill and they play a fast game and he encourages that a lot.
“He doesn’t want anybody to feel like they’re not playing their game, their type of hockey. I’m sure they’re liking what they’re seeing so far.”
Aren’t we all, as the Red Wings take their run at a wild card out East.
