TODD MCLELLAN: ONE YEAR IN
7 years ago
Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the hiring of Todd McLellan as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers last May 19. It was a day that sparked a lot of optimism in the wake of a coaching carousel that had included Pat Quinn, Tom Renney, Ralph Krueger, Dallas Eakins and Todd Nelson.
With a proven winner like McLellan and his former San Jose group of assistants in the fold, not to mention an experienced GM in Peter Chiarelli and a golden ticket that gave the Oilers the right to draft Connor McDavid, most fans and media types thought that 2015-16 would be the year the Oilers finally showed a significant improvement in their points total.
Granted, not enough improvement to snag a playoff spot for the first time in a decade, given all the holes on the roster, questions about the blue line and goaltending, but surely enough to wash away the taste of a 2014-15 season that would see Eakins flushed after a 7-19-5 start and replaced by Nelson (with a transitional stint by GM Craig MacTavish thrown in).
By the numbers, that significant improvement wasn’t to be. What we got instead was marginal improvements in some areas, negligible gains in others and even some slippage here and there in the first 82 games under McLellan.
2015-16
RECORD: 31-43-8 for 70 points (.427) 29th overall
GF 203 GA 245 minus-42
PP 18.14 PK 80.71
EVGF 151 (26th)
2014-15
RECORD 24-44-16 for 62 points (.378) 28th overall
GF 198 GA 283 minus-85
PP 17.67 PK 81.34
EVGF 148 (26th)
You can go far deeper into the numbers than I have, but the bottom line is the big bang and ripple effect from the hiring of McLellan (and arrival of McDavid) people expected – writers here had the Oilers finishing 20-30 points higher than they did and a wildly optimistic Terry Jones at The Edmonton Sun had the Oilers pegged for 99 points — never materialized.
WHAT HE SAID
It goes without saying, or should, that what we saw through 82 games — the good, the bad and the indifferent — doesn’t fall on solely on the shoulders of McLellan. He doesn’t play the game, the players do. He doesn’t put together the roster, Chiarelli does. McLellan didn’t snap McDavid’s clavicle, a couple of Philadelphia Flyers did. Injuries to key players? More than a few.
It’s part of the gig that coaches get too much credit and often too much blame for how a team performs. That’s how it is. Results have to be the bottom line and, on that front, I don’t imagine McLellan or anybody on his staff, like long-suffering fans, will hit the anniversary mark Thursday satisfied. That’s a good thing.
I’ve got to say, even though I understand most people don’t want to hear it – it’s a visually better thing – that I liked a lot of what my eyeballs told me this past season as it pertains to something McLellan said the day he was hired and unveiled as the new coach.
One of the many questions McLellan was asked upon his hiring is how he’d perceived the Oilers as an opposing coach. Here’s what he said, as part of an item Jason Gregor wrote May 20 of last year.
“One, they scared you because they (Oilers) could beat you 7-2 on any given night, and there were other nights where we had our way. And that’s the consistency that we will try and fix here. I think there were games where if you could get off to a good start and push them out of games, and the mental aspect of them not being in it for the whole night, you thought you had a chance to succeed. That is something we will have to change.
“There are going to be games where it is not going your way, but you are not out of it, you have to fight through it. You have to keep going. They haven’t had a lot of success, as far as wins go, so we will have to find other ways to build that mental strength. That comes before the games are even played. That comes in practice, in meetings, being good teammates. We have some things to work on.”
HERE WE ARE
Simply put, and to borrow a term favoured by St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, McLellan’s book on the Oilers was that if you could jump on them early or apply big-time pressure at different points, they’d “spit the bit,” and get rattled or discouraged. They’d check out, fold their cards when things didn’t go their way. They weren’t resilient. You could take the fight out of them. As McLellan said, that’s a lot to work on.
All things taken into account, I saw some improvement in those areas this season. I didn’t see whatever healthy line-up McLellan was able to dress pushed out of as many games. I saw more willingness to fight on, even when a goaltender whiffed on a shot, when the power play went cold, when people playing out of their depth made glaring errors.
There were lousy stretches to be sure – four straight losses to open the season and just one win in the final six games to end it, not to mention getting waxed 8-1 by the New York Islanders as an example of a truly hideous effort – and displays of face-palming ineptitude, but I also saw more resolve, more push-back. Not enough, but more.
It’ll take more of all the above, of course, and for Chiarelli to address his top defensive pairing and blue line as a whole with a couple more right-handers who can play, before we see the significant improvement that didn’t come last season. Half-a-break on the injury front wouldn’t hurt, either.
The way I see it, McLellan has set the bar higher – I know, you couldn’t possibly set it lower. While McLellan has the backs of his players when the effort is right but the result is wrong, he isn’t the shy about reminding them what’s expected when he doesn’t get it. That can’t and won’t change. The next step, how we’ll measure year two, is clearing that bar. Call me hopeful.
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260.
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