DETROIT — The Detroit Red Wings are undergoing significant changes as general manager Steve Yzerman recognized the need for improvement within the team. This realization was shared by team captain Dylan Larkin. Yesterday, Yzerman addressed the media, following his decision to terminate head coach Derek Lalonde, and appoint Todd McLellan as his replacement.
Yzerman expressed his frustration with the team’s performance, stating, “Our team isn’t performing up to what my expectations are. Whether anybody agrees or not, I have expectations for the team, and they aren’t meeting them because our players aren’t playing to each of their individual expectations.” The Red Wings came close to breaking their playoff drought last spring, narrowly missing out in a tiebreak situation during the last moments of the regular season. However, their current record of 13-17-4 places them seventh in the Atlantic Division and 28th overall in the league, indicating a significant decline.
“It’s been a frustrating start to the season — we’re missing something,” Larkin said. “This is something you never want to happen — I really like Derek as a guy — but something needed to happen.” The change has come at a challenging time for McLellan and his top assistant, Trent Yawney, as they prepare to lead the team against the Maple Leafs without any prior practice due to the NHL’s holiday break.
During Friday’s morning skate, McLellan commented on the situation, saying, “Trent Yawney and I aren’t coming in here and waving a wand to change the forecheck, the neutral zone system, the D-zone coverage, and the power play. There just isn’t time. What we’ve asked the players is to play harder, play faster, and play a little bit smarter.” McLellan, who previously won a Stanley Cup as an assistant coach with the Red Wings in 2007-08, acknowledges that he faces an entirely different challenge with the current roster compared to the team he knew back then.
Besides Cam Talbot, whom he coached in Edmonton and Los Angeles, McLellan’s familiarity with other key players is limited, although he did coach Larkin at the 2016 World Cup with Team North America. He recalled, “Cam sent me a text after the announcement saying, in a nice way, ‘Again?’ Team North America was a great experience, coaching so many great talents at 20, 21, or 22 years old. Dylan was a very responsible part of that team.”
One advantage for McLellan is the potential availability of defensemen Simon Edvinsson and Ben Chiarot, who have been sidelined with upper-body injuries. Their expected return comes at a much-needed time as Detroit struggled without them before the break. McLellan will initially rely on Lalonde’s line combinations and defensive pairings in the game against Toronto, but Yzerman emphasized that McLellan must find ways to increase the playing time for younger forwards.
Yzerman highlighted the need for young players such as Michael Rasmussen and Joe Veleno to reclaim their previous roles, stating, “We had young guys take on a bigger role last season, and for whatever reason, those roles were reduced a little bit in the first part of this season. We need those players to play a bigger role again. Jonatan Berggren can also play a bigger role.”
Ultimately, McLellan faces a straightforward, yet daunting task. “It’s a very obvious answer,” Yzerman stated. “We need to score more and we need to be better defensively. We need to keep the puck out of our net, whether that’s through better defending or better goaltending. We just need to get better.”
