Sportsnet’s Mark Spector sat down with Edmonton Oilers coach Todd McLellan for a one-on-one chat. In Part 1 of the interview here, McLellan talks about how he got to where he is today. In Part 2 below, McLellan talks about his new challenge with the Oilers.
Todd McLellan had more success in seven years coaching the San Jose Sharks than most of his National Hockey League peers during the same period. He won a Presidents Trophy, had three 50-plus win seasons and went to two Western Conference Finals.
Yet ultimately, the Sharks failed even to get to a Stanley Cup during his tenure.
On Friday he opens training camp in Edmonton, where the Oilers haven’t made the playoffs for nine straight seasons. Where a second-round exit was cause for much introspection in San Jose, here in Edmonton they might hold a parade if McLellan could get these Oilers that far next spring.
We sat down with McLellan recently in Penticton and asked him how he’s going to turn the ship around in Northern Alberta. In Part 2 of our series, he made it clear that he has a firm grasp on the path that must be travelled, but also that he’ll need to convince 20-some players to walk it with him.
“The only guarantee in the game that I know is this,” he began. “If you commit yourselves and do things the right way it does not guarantee a win, because there are still a lot of variables. But if you don’t commit yourself? If you don’t do things the right way? It basically ensures that you will lose.”
And so the Todd McLellan Era begins in Edmonton, where there have been so many new coaches come through town that the foundation has never quite set. Bad habits have formed, and losing has become a habit.
As the former coach of a Sharks team that owned these Oilers over the past seven seasons, we asked McLellan what he used to say to his players before they left the dressing room to play (and usually beat) Edmonton.
“It was the mental aspect of the game,” he said, easily pinpointing the Oilers collective weakness. “They scared you because they could punish you offensively if you were sloppy and made mistakes. But, our approach was to get into the game quickly against them. Don’t let them build and get any type of momentum. Make them get to the point where they’d fold their hand, as quickly as you could.
“Teams that win a lot have a big belief system, that they can overcome adversity. Teams that don’t have a lot of success, that’s a lot smaller.”
Here, we’ve stumbled upon perhaps McLellan’s greatest challenge in Edmonton, with a team that hasn’t had anything tangible to believe in for a long, long time. Give them something structural, and get them to believe in it.
“A huge task for our players and staff is to know that’s it’s not going to go good all the time,” he said. “But, if you’re at the card table and you don’t get dealt a good hand, sometimes you can stay in the game for a while. In the end, you might win with that bad hand because you’re persistent, and you have a belief you can get yourself through.”
You won’t win every time you stick with a bad hand, of course. But you will lose every time you fold that hand in the first period.
On Taking Over the Oilers Amid the Hype
“I’ll tell this to our players at our first meeting: The excitement level around the team is a good thing for our players, the organization and for the city. But it can’t mask what has to happen here. We need to sense the excitement, try to capture it, but we have to understand the work that needs to be done to do that.
“The effort has to be there. If we give (fans) that, and there’s a sense of growth, we’ll be OK. If we’re delinquent when it comes to a commitment level, to growth, it will be a tough community to be involved in.”
On coaching McDavid
McLellan has been charged with teaching the NHL game to a generational player in Connor McDavid, no small responsibility. He’ll establish a relationship first, then he’ll remind himself that he’d better do the same thing with every other player on the roster.
“He’s going to give us, I believe, a tremendous talent. I know he’s a tremendous person. He’s very humble, his upbringing is strong … and he’s going to provide for us in Edmonton some memorable moments. And he’s going to have a great career,” said McLellan. “But, he’s one. And you don’t win with one. You win with a group.
“That is a balance that we have to create because he’s become such a focal point, never mind in Edmonton, but in the league. We’re not winning with just Connor. We’re winning with the group. Matty Hendricks is important, and Mark Letestu is important. Oscar Klefbom has to be important, and they all have to feel that way, because it’s the only way we’ll have success.”
On what the Oilers identity will be
Asked what the theme of his training camp address will be, he said: “I will talk to them about our identity. I will talk to them about what first impressions mean, and a clean slate. And it’s not a one-way street. It’s our staff doing the same thing with them. We have to come across with a clear identity about how we need to play. We have to lay a foundation down that doesn’t have any cracks in it, that we have the ability to build on top of.
“We’ll start simply: ‘These are some things — they’re not optional — that we need to do as a team. As we grow, we’ll tweak it. But there are some beliefs where we all have to buy in.’”
On what he thinks he has in Edmonton
McLellan isn’t overselling this roster. Not a bit.
“We have a pretty good collection of individual talents, especially up front. And that’s the strength right now,” McLellan said. “We have a collection of individual talents that have to become a team; commit to group things rather than individual things.”
From here, interestingly, McLellan breaks into a story about Chicago winger Marian Hossa. Early in his career Hossa was all about points and individual success, but somewhere along the way he gave himself up to the team. Today, he is one of the game’s true winners, has played in five Stanley Cup finals and has three rings with Chicago.
“Marian would rather get his trophy in his uniform on the ice, than in his suit in June in Las Vegas. That’s what Marian is about. That trophy means a lot more, and we’ve got to get guys all thinking that way.”
McLellan’s job? Teach this roster how to play so it has a chance to win. Engage the players, so they understand why he is asking them to do certain things.
“In old school hockey, you never asked your coach, ‘Why?’ That was a sign of disrespect. The game is changing now, and they want to know why certain things happen on the ice,” he said. “Our players all know that we have to play better defensively, that we gave up too many goals. But how are we going to do it? And why are we going to do it that way?
“If we understand that and buy into it, it gives a chance to have success. If we don’t buy in to it, we will guarantee failure.”
