McLellan pushes Marody to ‘take somebody’s job’

Normally when a player gets called up from the minors because of injuries on the big team, he knows full well he’s only there because they ran out of players.

So with a couple of Edmonton Oilers forwards out of the lineup, Cooper Marody is the warm body being asked to step in and fill an unexpected hole.

But head coach Todd McLellan wants him to know one more thing: There’s no reason why Marody can’t fill that hole for the rest of the season and beyond.

“He’s got a one-way ticket so far, so why not keep it that way?” said McLellan, when asked what is being expected of the 21-yearold forward.

“Get up here and stay here. It’s not about building currency for later on, take somebody’s job.”

The Oilers are one of the lowest scoring teams in the league and need players who put the puck in the net.

And if Ty Rattie taught them anything, it never hurts to give an unknown player a chance.

Marody, a sixth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2015, put up 51 points in 40 games in his final season with the University of Michigan and has nine points in eight career AHL games. So he knows his way around the offensive zone, which is exactly what the Oilers are looking for.

“It’s pretty exciting. You can’t really put it into words,” said the six-foot, 190-pound natural centre, who skated on the wing with Milan Lucic and Ryan Strome at practice on Monday.

“You dream about this as a kid. All the long days on the ice rink in the back yard and shooting pucks in the garage is starting to pay off here.

“I wanted to make the team from the start (of camp) but part of the plan for my life was to go down there and earn it and get called up. Coach told me on the bus heading back to Bakersfield. I’m very excited.”

As if making his NHL debut isn’t cool enough, there’s a very good chance it will be Tuesday against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“That will be something special, but you have to think of them as your peers now and you’re competing against them, you’re trying to win against them and get the better end of the stick,” said Marody, who was acquired by the Oilers last summer for a third-round pick in 2019.

“I’m trying to play the best I can and get a win, but it’s going to be a cool experience.”

Rattie is out for a couple of weeks while fellow winger Drake Caggiula skated Monday and is being listed as day-to-day.

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS

The Oilers are the 28th in the NHL in goals per game (2.17) and are dead last in five-on-five goals (six in six games). When you consider that teams like Toronto and Carolina are already at 21, it’s an obvious area of concern.

“We actually had chances last game,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said of their 3-0 shutout loss to the Nashville Predators. “We got shut out, but we had chances against a really tight-checking team, which I liked, and it came 5-on-5 because our power play did nothing.

“It’s funny because last year, we were scoring five-on-five and couldn’t score on the power play, and now we’ve got the power play at least a little figured out and the five-on-five has kind of dried up. We have to get it all rolling at the same time.”

Of Edmonton’s 13 goals in six games, five have come with the man advantage and two more have come during three-on-three overtime.

“We’ve set ourselves up to be good offensively, but we haven’t finished enough,” said McLellan. “We have some work to do. We need to find a few more offensive players. They need to find their confidence. It only takes one to go in and you begin to feel good about yourself.”