Player Discussion Todd McLellan

[t0nedeff]

People giving him way too much leeway here. Is he not responsible for overseeing the coaching staff of the special teams? He's let the pp and pk get to this point without addressing it or forcing his assistants to change things up probably because he is incapable of reading a game of changing lines 5 on 5. From all of that with his ridiculous love of guys like Pakman and playing slow players in OT if this team misses the playoffs he should absolutely be canned.

 

[FlameChampion]

Thing that bothers me with him is that hes not willing to make changes when things aren’t working.

The bottom 6 has been suffering all year. The last while the top lines not clicking. The special teams haven’t been working. Virtually no changes.

Why is so hard to run McDavid, Drai, and RNH down the middle and see what happens? Or try Drai with RNH or McD with RNH? I just don’t understand.

He loves certain players way too much.

He is completely stubborn to try anything else when things aren’t working. But to make matters even more confusing, when a young player makes a mistake which results in nothing, they get demoted. Seen it numerous times with JP and Yama.

Can you imagine a situation in game 65 when they are out of the playoffs and TM decides to play McD and Strome for the first time and finds out they have chemistry and all of a sudden they have depth.

If he kept McD and Drai together because nothing was working it would be one thing but he doesn’t even try anything else.

We can blame Chiarelli. Some of this is on him. But I don’t see how a coach with McD, Drai and RNH (especially with how he’s playing) down the middle isn’t in a playoff spot. Its still earlyish but things get more bleak with how inconsistent this team is.

Its pretty apparent that TM cant adjust in game. I used to think he was pretty good between games but I am starting to wonder about that as well.

 

[FanOfSadTeam]

If he got fired, he'd join another team and probably succeed. Then we'll find someone else to blame. This place loves running people out of town.

 

[KarmaPolice]

He's the perfect mix of being too stubborn in the wrong areas, and willing to mix things too much in areas that actually start to work (or isn't willing to give them a chance, unlike how McD and Drai can do no wrong). Not a good recipe for success.

I do hope things turn around, but maybe teams just have Todd and his 'systems' figured out.

 

[Kagomeboy]

If he got fired, he'd join another team and probably succeed. Then we'll find someone else to blame. This place loves running people out of town.

so true

 

[Soundwave]

He's not doing well with this group, but I see no point of firing him while keeping the GM. Chia should go first, then the new hire should be able to bring in their own coach.

 

[KarmaPolice]

He's not doing well with this group, but I see no point of firing him while keeping the GM. Chia should go first, then the new hire should be able to bring in their own coach.

I don't trust him with Nuge. We simply can't afford to trade Nuge without getting full value. What ever proven depth we have (like Nuge or not) will be gutted. Chia is fine with small trades, but man, I get a bad feeling with Nuge and our coming cap crunch. Again, we simply can't take a hit in our skill and depth, and if we sell Nuge for a few quarters to the dollar, then that puts us back, and then Todd has no choice but to break up the unbreakable duo in McDavid and Drai. Our options for 3rd and 4th centers would then suck. At least now we could play McD-Drai-Nuge down the middle, and that would be one of the best 1-2-3 punch down the middle in the league. Not that Todd would try it, but whatever.

 

[oobga]

He's not doing well with this group, but I see no point of firing him while keeping the GM. Chia should go first, then the new hire should be able to bring in their own coach.

Hockey failure etiquette is that the GM gets 2 coaches to fail with before he is canned. Let's get this show on the road!

 

[McBaevid]

He needs to go if he keep up this charade of not changing anything. He's got to be one of the most stubborn coaches in the league. Heard alot of this from Sharks fans before we got him too.



Is this Kris/Ulysses guy a troll account? All his posts are about his undying devotion to Chiarelli and TMac, never posts anything relevant and gets pissy when anyone criticizes anything to do with the team. Maybe its Bob Stauffer.

 

[belair]

My question to him would be why Kris Russell is fourth on TOI/g for D on the PK this season. He was number one with an exclamation point last season. His game is all about preventing quality shots and with Klefbom shitting the bed on the cross-seam all season, I figured we would've seen that adjustment by now.

 

[Soundwave]

That is a good point, actually. We're not that far behind the 2nd place team in our division -- only 4 points, I believe. But we need to get going soon, as we have a lot of teams to pass, and that's not always (or usually) easy. Can't keep tossing away points.

They're 7 points out of 2nd in the division right now and that team has a game in hand to boot.

 

[Chet Manley]

City of the Dead sounds awesome.

 

[Aerchon]

I am torn on the whole coaching McLellan thing.

To me it's very obvious McLellan is a good to great coach. Last year he got the most out of most his players. This year we have a crazy low shooting percentage and I don't believe that has anything to do with coaching.

He has a very good/functional top 6 and a very poor/disfunctional bottom 6.

How do you fix one without destroying the other?

And remember it's not like the Oilers are actually playing that poorly. The numbers suggest success should happen if they continue to play the way they are.

I'd like to see him drop Draisaitl to the third line since McDavid is both talented and paid enough to be his own line. However injuries and lack of RW depth makes that not great either.

We really should not be sweating having one poor forward position RW and the rest good to great. But we have some guys having a terrible year so far.

Caguillia, Paka, JJ traded, Letestu, and Kassian.

 

[walktheboulavard]

I am torn on the whole coaching McLellan thing.

To me it's very obvious McLellan is a good to great coach. Last year he got the most out of most his players. This year we have a crazy low shooting percentage and I don't believe that has anything to do with coaching.

He has a very good/functional top 6 and a very poor/disfunctional bottom 6.

How do you fix one without destroying the other?

And remember it's not like the Oilers are actually playing that poorly. The numbers suggest success should happen if they continue to play the way they are.

I'd like to see him drop Draisaitl to the third line since McDavid is both talented and paid enough to be his own line. However injuries and lack of RW depth makes that not great either.

We really should not be sweating having one poor forward position RW and the rest good to great. But we have some guys having a terrible year so far.

Caguillia, Paka, JJ traded, Letestu, and Kassian.

It appears to me that last year he had assortment of line combinations, he wasn't afraid to bring out the blender if things got stale. While production was provided by the bottom 6 early, Drai was driving his own line to start and cycling Lucic, Maroon, Eberle, Drai, Puljujarvi, and multiple other players on the top line inadvertently left other teams guessing. Now it's so predictable, teams load up to stop the top line and dare the rest of the line up to beat them. This is still a super talented team, it's up to coaching to utilize them appropriately and change up that top line, if even for a single period.

 

[CupofOil]

He's a bigger problem than Chia, been saying it for a while. Good to know that others are seeing what I'm seeing with this coach. Not that Chia should be absolved of blame either.

I'll add that I don't think he should be fired now because firing the coach is rarely a solution but I just don't see him as a coach who puts his players in the best position to succeed and his stubbornness in sticking with "favorites" and particular systems as has been discussed already in this thread and refusal to adapt are his worst qualities. Very old school in that sense in a league that is constantly evolving, not a good thing.

 

[ZJuice]

I think I would make a great assistant coach.

Walking around the bench and massaging them even if they aren’t sore.

I would sneak prune juice into the water bottles so they had healthy poops.

Most of all I would use the line “that’s the f***ing way she goes” all the time

 

[CycloneSweep]

He's a bigger problem than Chia, been saying it for a while. Good to know that others are seeing what I'm seeing with this coach. Not that Chia should be absolved of blame either.

I'll add that I don't think he should be fired now because firing the coach is rarely a solution but I just don't see him as a coach who puts his players in the best position to succeed and his stubbornness in sticking with "favorites" and particular systems as has been discussed already in this thread and refusal to adapt are his worst qualities. Very old school in that sense in a league that is constantly evolving, not a good thing.

Pittsburgh won the 1st of their recent cups after firing their coach.

Sometimes the core group and the coaches just don't work together.

 

[Canovin]

I don't see the point of putting Drai and McDavid together if they're just going to play too cute. This team is made to play 3 scoring lines with McDavid, Drai and RNH centering each lines. It should have always been this way.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I don't see the point of putting Drai and McDavid together if they're just going to play too cute. This team is made to play 3 scoring lines with McDavid, Drai and RNH centering each lines. It should have always been this way.

Cause this is how Todd coaches. You need to give him an elite lineup top to bottom. He puts all his best players on the top 2 lines no matter what and then if the team isn't deep there is nothing left and he just rotates the bottom 6 around and shrugs. He did this in San Jose too.

He had 3 very good centers, put the together and their third line center in San Jose wasn't good. Same thing happening here.

You roll the 3 lines if you can and then tighten the bench and stack lines when necessary.

Maroon - McDavid - Cammaleri
Cagguila - RNH - Puljujärvi
Lucic - Draisaitl - Slepyshev

All 3 of those lines imo have a similar overall skill level. You roll whoever is playing beat.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Pittsburgh won the 1st of their recent cups after firing their coach.

Sometimes the core group and the coaches just don't work together.

Most teams who can their coach get a 10 game lift and then fall back to earth. Last year he coached them to a 33 point improvement so I don’t think the problem is the coach (or the GM).

That said I do agree he is stubborn to a fault on situations and players he likes. Letestu and Pakarainen are his obvious favourites and he defaults to his favourite combination of 97 and 29 and his special teams combos. Last year they worked (other than Pakarainen) this year not so much.

But at some point the finger has to be pointed to the players. McDavid and Draisatl are not the same players they were last year and every player save RNH and Nurse have taken backwards steps. We miss Sekera a lot more than anticipated and injuries have hit the team when last year we were relatively injury free outside of Nurse.

That is not coaching, but with the team struggling at home, the stubbornness of TMac is showing a bit.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Cause this is how Todd coaches. You need to give him an elite lineup top to bottom. He puts all his best players on the top 2 lines no matter what and then if the team isn't deep there is nothing left and he just rotates the bottom 6 around and shrugs. He did this in San Jose too.

He had 3 very good centers, put the together and their third line center in San Jose wasn't good. Same thing happening here.

You roll the 3 lines if you can and then tighten the bench and stack lines when necessary.

Maroon - McDavid - Cammaleri
Cagguila - RNH - Puljujärvi
Lucic - Draisaitl - Slepyshev

All 3 of those lines imo have a similar overall skill level. You roll whoever is playing beat.

Not a fan of those lines and rationale. Hockey is now a 4 line 35 second shift game.

First Slepyshev has a nagging groin injury and won’t be back for weeks. Cagguila has been playing like garbage. Strome is nowhere to be seen. Maroon has been a boat anchor with McDavid.

Mclelland didn’t forget how to coach between this year and last year.

 

[Canovin]

Cause this is how Todd coaches. You need to give him an elite lineup top to bottom. He puts all his best players on the top 2 lines no matter what and then if the team isn't deep there is nothing left and he just rotates the bottom 6 around and shrugs. He did this in San Jose too.

He had 3 very good centers, put the together and their third line center in San Jose wasn't good. Same thing happening here.

You roll the 3 lines if you can and then tighten the bench and stack lines when necessary.

Maroon - McDavid - Cammaleri
Cagguila - RNH - Puljujärvi
Lucic - Draisaitl - Slepyshev

All 3 of those lines imo have a similar overall skill level. You roll whoever is playing beat.

There are firepower in each of those lines that could be our best line on different nights. It doesn't always have to be Maroon-McDavid-Drai doing all the work and when they're not on their game that night, we lose. Mclellan definitely isn't using all his available options.

 

[Weitz]

McLellan is what he is. A highly overrated coach who can't get good teams over the hump. Last year McDavid and Talbot carried the team to the playoffs. I don't give McL really much or any credit to be honest.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Not a fan of those lines and rationale. Hockey is now a 4 line 35 second shift game.

First Slepyshev has a nagging groin injury and won’t be back for weeks. Cagguila has been playing like garbage. Strome is nowhere to be seen. Maroon has been a boat anchor with McDavid.

Mclelland didn’t forget how to coach between this year and last year.

He didn't forget how to coach. He was never good to begin with. Last year we won games almost 100% due to McDavid being the best player in the league and Talbot having a phenomenal season. Now that both have had their struggles this team shows their true colors.

 

[CycloneSweep]

There are firepower in each of those lines that could be our best line on different nights. It doesn't always have to be Maroon-McDavid-Drai doing all the work and when they're not on their game that night, we lose. Mclellan definitely isn't using all his available options.

Yep. And then if we are down a goal or 2 you can always go back and stack the lines as thats always an option.