McLellan has support of former Sharks players after being let go
SAN JOSE >> In a rare moment of agreement between a pair of Pacific Division rivals, the Sharks (11-7-3) and Edmonton Oilers (910-1) reached a consensus Tuesday morning: it isn’t Todd McLellan’s fault.
Less than 12 hours before puck drop at SAP Center, the Oilers fired the Sharks’ former coach, replacing him with Ken Hitchcock, the third-winningest bench boss in NHL history. McLellan’s firing came after the Oilers lost six of seven games by a 27-19 margin and just three-and-ahalf years after he agreed to mutually part ways with the Sharks in April 2015.
The Oilers came out on top in Hitchcock’s first game behind the bench, beating the Sharks 4-3 in overtime. Leon Draisaitl scored the winner just 51 seconds into the extra session, batting in a pass from Connor McDavid, who earned three points on the night. For a full game recap, visit mercurynews.com.
The reaction to McLellan’s firing in Sharks dressing room sounded eerily similar to the response in the wake of his departure from San Jose, which came after the team missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade in 2014-15.
“I feel for him. It’s not all his fault,” Logan Couture said. “He’s
not the one who goes out and gets those roster players. He had to work with what he had, and it’s disappointing to see someone like him lose his job.”
Oilers captain Connor McDavid echoed Couture’s thoughts, adding that he and his Oilers teammates need to shoulder the blame for their coach’s ouster.
“Todd was a guy that everyone liked, but ultimately, we’re a team that’s underachieving,” McDavid said. “We’re all to blame here. This obviously isn’t on Todd at all. It’s on us as players. That’s just how the business works sometimes.”
McLellan’s firing might be disappointing for both the Sharks and Oilers. It certainly isn’t surprising.
After the Oilers reached the playoffs for the first time in 11 years in 2016-17, the team took a hard nose
dive last season, finishing 12th in the Western Conference, accumulating only 78 points after racking up 103 the year before. The feeling in Edmonton last season was that McLellan deserved the opportunity to right the ship this winter after leading the Oilers to the second round of the playoffs a year earlier.
After shuffling through six head coaches in a sevenyear span, the last thing the Oilers wanted was to start over from scratch with a new system, new identity and new voice behind the bench.
But after an 8-4-1 start, the Oilers started to backslide again in early November. The losing skid was punctuated by a pair of division losses to the Calgary Flames and Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday and Sunday in which the Oilers coughed up 2-0 and 2-1 leads.
“It’s got to be tough to go through that again and get let go,” Sharks defenseman
Justin Braun said. “It’s a tough situation up there with all the scrutiny they’re under. When you have the best player in the world, you’re supposed to get to the promised land every year. That’s a high order in this league where there’s so much parity.”
The consensus around the hockey world is that McLellan will get another chance. His departure in San Jose was inevitable after seven years behind the bench, which is almost an eternity in the lifespan of a hockey coach. McLellan himself admitted that the class needed a new teacher, and the teacher needed a new class. In Edmonton, he didn’t get much of a chance to succeed, making due with a plethora of head-scratching moves by the front office.
“He’s a great coach,” Couture said. “As a young player coming into this league, he taught me how to play the game at a pro level. He’d had (Pavel) Datsyuk and
(Henrik) Zetterberg for a lot of years (in Detroit) and he showed me what I could pick up from guys like that. I became a much-better player because of him.”
Couture nailed it when he referenced the roster decisions that McLellan was forced to absorb in Edmonton.
The reality of the matter is that the Oilers have three quality centers in McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and not much else.
General manager Peter Chiarelli set the stage for McLellan’s firing during the summer of 2016. First, he traded Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils for defenseman Adam Larsson. The Oilers desperately needed help on the back end, but considering that the Sharks and the Nashville Predators gave up less to acquire Erik Karlsson and P.K. Subban, it’s fair to suggest that Chiarelli should have fetched more for the 2017-18 Hart
Trophy winner. Then, he signed Milan Lucic to a seven-year, $42 million contract at a time when the league was moving away from brute physicality toward more high-end speed and skill.
Last year, he traded Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome, who recorded just 34 points in 82 games. Then, he flipped Strome for Ryan Spooner last week, meaning that the Oilers have now downgraded their top pick from 2008 into a middle line player.
After three-plus years under Chiarelli, the Oilers still need help on defense, lack scoring on the wing and need more consistency in the goal crease. That said, the Oilers had been struggling to put together 60 minutes of consistent hockey this season. The team also seemed to crumble whenever it faced adversity.
• Coach Peter DeBoer’s squad will be bolstered by Tomas Hertl’s return to the
lineup after a two-game absence to recover from a lower-body injury. Hertl is expected to rejoin Couture’s line skating opposite of Timo Meier.
• The Sharks recalled Lukas Radil to serve as the team’s 13th forward in the press box, reassigning Dylan Gambrell to the AHL Barracuda, where he’ll receive the opportunity to play top-line minutes.