Player Discussion Todd McLellan

[Del Preston]

Let's discuss the head coach of this hockey club. Post your criticism/praise in here.

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[Kagomeboy]

He is the best Choach we have go Oilers go.

 

[StevenF1919]

My only criticism of him is that he needs to split Connor and Drai up. It's not his fault he's been saddled with a garbage forward corps and mediocre defense.

 

[nabob]

He's a better coach than 99.9% of the posters here would be.

 

[oobga]

He is the best Choach we have go Oilers go.

Yeah, he's the best hockey coach named Todd McLellan there is IMO.

 

[McDNicks17]

He's a better coach than 99.9% of the posters here would be.

Now I'm curious who that 0.01% is.

 

[hjghkabsdkc]

I think the Oilers will improve, but say they don't. Then I would hate seeing McLellan wear that and get fired. IMO he has a few faults like 97/29, over-reliance on players like Pakarinen and Letestu, but this start isn't on him. It's on Chiarelli.

 

[Del Preston]

Now I'm curious who that 0.01% is.

99.91%

You're slowly getting to 100.

 

[oobga]

He's a better coach than 99.9% of the posters here would be.

I agree. he's probably better suited to coach an NHL team than 99.9999% of the worlds population. Of course NHL head coaches are ~0.00000004% of the world population.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I think the Oilers will improve, but say they don't. Then I would hate seeing McLellan wear that and get fired. IMO he has a few faults like 97/29, over-reliance on players like Pakarinen and Letestu, but this start isn't on him. It's on Chiarelli.

It's on both.
Todd can't seem to figure out how to get enough from his lineup. He had money rosters in San Jose, but they were bad playoff teams. The MOMENT he leaves, they make the finals. Give him a good roster top to bottom he can get you good regular season results, as honestly most coaches can.

Give him a top heavy lineup? He literally can't seem to make it work. Last year a lot of players over acheived imo.

Bad roster decisions, his interviews make it seem like he thinks this team will just suddenly get better without any work.

 

[McDrai]

Refuses to split up McDavid and Draisaitl, demotes Puljujarvi for every little mistake he makes and yanks him off the PP, subs in Gryba for Auvitu who had a solid game against Vegas. He deserves some heat and if this team misses the playoffs he will be the first to go along with his joke of an assistant.

 

[StevenF1919]

He's a better coach than 99.9% of the posters here would be.

I'd like to point out that I've done very well in my Eastside Hockey Manager save

 

[Del Preston]

I think the Oilers will improve, but say they don't. Then I would hate seeing McLellan wear that and get fired. IMO he has a few faults like 97/29, over-reliance on players like Pakarinen and Letestu, but this start isn't on him. It's on Chiarelli.

I agree with most of that. But this roster, while not great, should be better than it is a 25% into the season. They've lost some games because of atrocious special teams. Jay Woodcroft should not be running an NHL power play. There doesn't seem to be much accountability for his staff.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I agree with most of that. But this roster, while not great, should be better than it is a 25% into the season. They've lost some games because of atrocious special teams. Jay Woodcroft should not be running an NHL power play. There doesn't seem to be much accountability for his staff.

Letestu has been a nothing player all year and still gets money PP time.

 

[oobga]

I agree with most of that. But this roster, while not great, should be better than it is a 25% into the season. They've lost some games because of atrocious special teams. Jay Woodcroft should not be running an NHL power play.

Yeah, at the least we need a changeup with the PP coaching. It has been a struggle since day one when McLellan and his BFF took over. Little spurts of McDavid genius and Letestu being prime-OV helped hide endless struggles of a team that can barely get into the zone or get decent puck movement on a PP. There has never been consistency with the PP under Steelcroft. Just individual spurts that any coach would get with McDavid on the roster.

Only catch is, McLellan and Woodcroft are basically conjoined twins.

 

[hjghkabsdkc]

It's on both.
Todd can't seem to figure out how to get enough from his lineup. He had money rosters in San Jose, but they were bad playoff teams. The MOMENT he leaves, they make the finals. Give him a good roster top to bottom he can get you good regular season results, as honestly most coaches can.

Give him a top heavy lineup? He literally can't seem to make it work. Last year a lot of players over acheived imo.

Bad roster decisions, his interviews make it seem like he thinks this team will just suddenly get better without any work.

Yeah, that's fair actually. That's basically McLellan's MO. IIRC he had a better team with Pavelski as the third C instead of loading up the top lines but just chose to load up the lines. I think at this point we can say that's his thing as coach. Sacrifice depth for a top-heavy team.

I agree with most of that. But this roster, while not great, should be better than it is a 25% into the season. They've lost some games because of atrocious special teams. Jay Woodcroft should not be running an NHL power play. There doesn't seem to be much accountability for his staff.

I think the power play stuff is overblown. I liked when they switched Eberle for Letestu last year and I'm fine with 29/97/77 on the PP. Lucic is fine in front of the net because other than Maroon I don't see who plays net front. They need another RH shooter other than Letestu, which is why I come back to Chiarelli.

They should be better, no doubt but the natural wingers McLellan has: Maroon, Lucic, Strome (kinda), Khaira, Caggiula, Puljujarvi, Cammalleri. That's not a contending teams' wingers, which I bet is he reasoning for Drai at RW.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Yeah, that's fair actually. That's basically McLellan's MO. IIRC he had a better team with Pavelski as the third C instead of loading up the top lines but just chose to load up the lines. I think at this point we can say that's his thing as coach. Sacrifice depth for a top-heavy team.



I think the power play stuff is overblown. I liked when they switched Eberle for Letestu last year and I'm fine with 29/97/77 on the PP. Lucic is fine in front of the net because other than Maroon I don't see who plays net front. They need another RH shooter other than Letestu, which is why I come back to Chiarelli.

They should be better, no doubt but the natural wingers McLellan has: Maroon, Lucic, Strome (kinda), Khaira, Caggiula, Puljujarvi, Cammalleri. That's not a contending teams' wingers, which I bet is he reasoning for Drai at RW.

Having a good top unit is actually extremely easy right now. Actually, a balanced PP would be easy to achieve.

Lucic - McDavid - Cammalleri
Puljujarvi - Klefbom

Maroon - RNH - Strome
Benning - Draisaitl

Boom. Problem f***ing solved.

 

[McAsuno]

For the love of God, split 97 and 29. Give the damn Finnish kid a chance to prove himself, before you ruin his confidence and demote him to the bottom 6.
Please no more bottom 6 players like Pak on the top 6 lines, tyvm.

 

[CycloneSweep]

For the love of God, split 97 and 29. Give the damn Finnish kid a chance to prove himself, before you ruin his confidence and demote him to the bottom 6.
Please no more bottom 6 players like Pak on the top 6 lines, tyvm.

Iiro Pakarinen hockey statistics and profile at hockeydb.com
Todd has already picked his favorite Finn. Demotes one and gets the other traded away.

 

[Del Preston]

I think the power play stuff is overblown. I liked when they switched Eberle for Letestu last year and I'm fine with 29/97/77 on the PP. Lucic is fine in front of the net because other than Maroon I don't see who plays net front. They need another RH shooter other than Letestu, which is why I come back to Chiarelli.

They should be better, no doubt but the natural wingers McLellan has: Maroon, Lucic, Strome (kinda), Khaira, Caggiula, Puljujarvi, Cammalleri. That's not a contending teams' wingers, which I bet is he reasoning for Drai at RW.

Until recently Woodcroft had Lucic on the half-boards. That's just dumb. Letestu has been pretty awful all season and there are better options to put on the left side for one-timers (Strome or JP).

The winger depth isn't good but they could at least try separating McDavid and Draisaitl. Those two have only been apart for two periods this season (the game in PIT). This is my biggest issue with the coaching staff. They are very stubborn and refuse to change despite not getting results. The Oilers are already one of the lowest scoring teams in the league; how much worse could it get by trying something else?

 

[hjghkabsdkc]

Until recently Woodcroft had Lucic on the half-boards. That's just dumb. Letestu has been pretty awful all season and there are better options to put on the left side for one-timers (Strome or JP).

The winger depth isn't good but they could at least try separating McDavid and Draisaitl. Those two have only been apart for two periods this season (the game in PIT). This is my biggest issue with the coaching staff. They are very stubborn and refuse to change despite not getting results. The Oilers are already one of the lowest scoring teams in the league; how much worse could it get by trying something else?

I think I read something on The Athletic that said McLellan is one of the more conservative coaches when it comes to changing lines and I think we can all agree on that.

The 97-29 stuff is maddening, for sure. That's the big one and it's honestly ridiculous that Draisaitl is being paid $8.5M to play on the wing with a generational player. I love Drai and all, but he should be running his own line.

RE: the PP, I don't know why they haven't tried Strome or Puljujarvi there. Strome isn't very effective 5-on-5 imo, but he seems capable on the PP. Letestu was magic last year but they're really stubborn on it again this season.

Todd is very stubborn for sure. That's his big fault.

 

[Cloned]

Bear with me here, as I don't mean to turn this into a discussion about his weight, but... he's starting to lose some weight pretty quickly I think, which means he's feeling the stress of the losses. He knows he'll be the first shoe to drop.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Bear with me here, as I don't mean to turn this into a discussion about his weight, but... he's starting to lose some weight pretty quickly I think, which means he's feeling the stress of the losses. He knows he'll be the first shoe to drop.

Or he is trying to Chop Wood and Carry Water and become a fitness freak like our boy Eakins. He even has his own Yakupov.

 

[McDNicks17]

99.91%

You're slowly getting to 100.

I don't care about that other 0.09%.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

He’s really confusing me with his decisions and reasons for those decisions.

“Second line wasn’t going so we moved jp to the third”

.... okay sure, but the first line hasn’t been “going” for 1/2 the season, yet we haven’t seen a single change. Apparently 1/2 game is enough to risk crushing a rookies confidence but 1/2 season isn’t enough to separate McDavid, Drai and maroon because... why?

And what about gryba being in after our most successful game of the season?

Don’t get me started on the special teams... he changed up the pp units for 2 games... and doesn’t even seem to acknowledge there’s an issue with the pk.

I’m just tired of coaches coming in and playing favorites with these grinders while the young skilled guys come in and get their confidence crushed by every little mistake becoming a demotion.