SAN JOSE – Todd McLellan is leaving the key decision before his NHL coaching debut in the capable hands of his 9-year-old son.
With Cale McLellan in charge of choosing his dad's suit-and-tie ensemble for opening night, the Sharks' new coach is free to concentrate on tasks that will require more than a trip to the closet to complete.
The Sharks are the defending Pacific Division champions, but they haven't won more than one playoff round in a season since 2004. San Jose had the NHL's second-best regular-season record last year with 49 wins and 108 points, but many key parts of that team have been replaced or repurposed.
After three consecutive losses in the playoffs' second round, the Sharks no longer are a trendy preseason pick to win the Stanley Cup. There's too much uncertainty around a club that has been very good for quite a while, yet never became great under Ron Wilson.
Just how does a rookie coach expect to succeed where the most successful coach in franchise history repeatedly fell just short?
"Give me a few more months to figure that out," McLellan said. "We're putting everything in place. This is a process, and (October) is just one part of it but a very important part."
McLellan is striving to change the Sharks' culture, on the ice and in the locker room, without discarding everything that has been so successful for long stretches of the past four seasons. His coaching staff has installed a system that emphasizes puck control, fluid movement and general aggression, but the Sharks still need time to absorb the nuances of that new approach.
"The first couple of exhibition games, it was tough to get used to it, but we're hockey players," said Joe Thornton, a former league MVP. "We're going to get a lot of shots on net, and we'll try to be a quick transition team that can take advantage of new things. It's stuff that I already like to do, but I just love playing hockey, so I'll play any way the coach asks me."
Even on Tuesday in the next-to-last practice before the regular season begins tonight against Anaheim, McLellan was hard at work teaching proper positioning and passing angles in several drills.
Although Thornton has been among the NHL's most dominant scorers in recent years as a fluid passer most comfortable near the side boards, McLellan is asking Thornton to be more aggressive in driving to the net and taking shots. If McLellan succeeds in injecting an element of physical play from a center who has never been a prototypical power forward, it could change the Sharks' entire approach.
"I just don't want our hockey club to be mechanical," McLellan said. "I want them to use the skill and talent that they have, and the system will take care of itself."
McLellan is among several new Sharks with experience in winning. McLellan was an assistant coach on Detroit's NHL championship club last season, and his three new veteran defensemen – Dan Boyle, Rob Blake and Brad Lukowich – have Stanley Cup rings.
