Todd McLellan may be the most hydrated coach in the NHL behind the San Jose Sharks’ bench because he always has a water bottle in his hands, taking healthy swigs throughout the game but on Wednesday night in game seven, there wasn’t enough aqua to cool the raging fire in his gut as the Sharks gassed a 3-0 series lead to the Los Angeles Kings.
Now the question is whether one of the game’s best coaches and best guys will pay for the lowest of low Sharks’ results–only the fourth team in NHL history to win the first three games and lose the next four. McLellan, one of the NHL’s sharpest coaching minds, in his sixth year in San Jose, would be out of work about 10 minutes. About as long as it might take Brendan Shanahan, the new Toronto Maple Leafs’ president, who used to play for McLellan in Detroit when McLellan was Mike Babcock’s right-hand man, to pick up the phone if Shanahan doesn’t want Randy Carlyle back as coach.
McLellan, who was hired in San Jose after the Wings’ Cup ride in 2008, is a heckuva coach. You would be hard-pressed to find anybody better, but hockey’s a playoff results-driven business. We seldom hear from Sharks’ billionaire owner Hasso Plattner, but he is very competitive at heart in the computer software field (SAP). Plattner owns a hotel and golf course too as his play-things but while hockey has little to do with his self-worth, it’s never a good thing to be an owner of a sports team on the wrong side of history.
Maybe, Plattner also leans on the GM Doug Wilson, even if he’s done a very good job refreshing an older, slower roster the last couple of seasons. But, after the 5-1 loss Wednesday, McLellan fell on his own sword. He may just be worn out in San Jose, to be honest.
“I’m in charge. I’m responsible for the group that performs on the ice…I have to accept that responsibility,” McLellan said in his post-mortem address to the media. “I’m not going to throw any individuals or any group of individuals under the bus. We lose collectively and I’m responsible for the group.”
The Sharks have three 50-plus win seasons and another of 48 under McLellan and have made the playoffs in each of his six seasons but have only won six total playoff rounds. To watch him prowling the bench in game seven, to see the disappointment written all over his face, you had to feel for one of the game’s solid citizens. It was his job to get his team out of the funk, rebound from losses in games four and five and six so they’d win game seven at home. But, it didn’t work. The Kings had Jonathan Quick in goal and Drew Doughty running the defence and they had a team of guys who knew how to win after their Cup victory in 2012, but lots of the big boys on San Jose came up small as the series wore on.
Jumbo Joe Thornton, who has the C on his chest, tried but nothing worked, certainly in game seven. Patty Marleau, Logan Couture struggled as one loss turned into two and three and final four in a row. games. Little Joe Pavelski was all over the puck in game seven as their best big gun, and Dan Boyle skated miles on defence, but over the final three games only defenceman Matt Irwin and forward James Sheppard could score on Quick.
I don’t think you’ll find a better coach than McLellan, just as Barry Trotz was top drawer in Nashville.
But, the line of coaching vacancies is getting awfully long.
Vancouver, now that John Tortorella is out, after just 82 games into a five-year, $2 million contract.
Nashville, now that Trotz wasn’t renewed after he’d been the franchise’s only coach since their first game in 1998.
Washington, after GM George McPhee and coach Adam Oates, were dismissed–Oates two years into a three-year pact.
Florida, after interim coach Peter Horachek, didn’t get the interim tag removed.
In Toronto, Carlyle, who won a Cup in Anaheim in 2007, is waiting for the other shoe to drop.
In Carolina, Kirk Muller is waiting to see if new GM Ron Francis wants his own man behind the bench.
McLellan might be next, even if they would be hard-pressed to find another voice better behind the bench.
Wilson, who has rebuilt the roster with faster, young players, can’t feel too comfortable either. In his 10 years, the Sharks have routinely been one of the three or four best teams in the entire league in wins, but not when it counts most in the playoffs. They’ve lost in the conference final three times, but in the last three years have won one playoff round.
He signed Thornton and Marleau to new three year contracts starting next season. Pavelski and Couture are two world-class, younger players.They aren’t going anywhere. Boyle could sign somewhere else as a free-agent but it’s unlikely they would rip up a 100-point team.
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