DETROIT >> It’s been a hectic 48 hours for Todd McLellan, who arrived Thursday in Detroit around 8 p.m. and was coaching the Red Wings the following morning.
McLellan, who was an assistant coach in the Wings organization back in 2005- 08, looked over the assembled media Friday at his introductory press conference and caught his breath.
“It’s been hectic, to say the least,” said McLellan, who was in western Canada for the holidays. “Not a lot of sleep and I’ve been trying to figure out names and faces. I probably know more people in this (media) room and I’m not sure that’s a good thing for me.”
General manager Steve Yzerman replaced Derek Lalonde with McLellan Thursday, on the last day of the NHL’s three-day holiday break, after a sluggish and disappointing start to the Wings’ season.
Monday’s 4-0 loss to St. Lous, which extended the Wings’ losing streak to three games and had fans at Little Caesars Arena booing loudly, was the last straw.
McLellan said he and assistant coach Trent Yawney, who replaced Bob Boughner (who was also fired), will gradually implement their changes and ideas into the Wings’ situation.
“This is a never good thing when a coach is released and a new one is brought in,” Mc- Lellan said. “The timing is a little awkward too because of Christmas and that type of stuff. We don’t get to practice.
We’ll play hockey tonight and we aren’t going to wave wands and change forechecks and neutral zones and defensive-zone coverage and power play — we just don’t have time.”
But there is something Mc- Lellan is stressing.
“What we’ve asked the players to do is play harder, faster and a little bit smarter,”
McLellan said. “Those are three simple things that we can control without any type of tactics or systematic structure play.
“Then the last thing is, the spirit of the team has to improve.
When something like this happens, the spirit of the team is at a low. We’re going to work hard to build that back up.”
McLellan and Yzerman talk regularly, having had a history together. But talk about coaching the Wings didn’t begin, said McLellan, until about 10 days ago.
“Steve began to think about where the team is at and what might happen,” McLellan said. “He believed that things would go the right way and, unfortunately, they didn’t. I got a quick call and it was a fairly easy decision from my behalf.
“The market is Hockeytown and I know what that means. I saw it in real good times, and the goal is to get back there. But it’s Hockeytown for a reason.”
Watching Wings games this season, that’s the one thing that stood out to Mc- Lellan.
“The team can play harder,” McLellan said. “It just can. I saw them play down the stretch last year and it’s different players, but the majority of them can play smarter and faster, and until we can help them with structure and systems (they need to play faster, harder).”
McLellan was fired by the Los Angeles Kings in February, after previous stops in San Jose and Edmonton.
McLellan is 598-412-134 in 1,144 regular-season games and 42-46 in 88 Stanley Cup playoff games.
He ranks sixth among active coaches in wins, behind Paul Maurice (891), Lindy Ruff (876), Peter Laviolette (823), John Tortorella (757) and Pete DeBoer (632).
“I don’t want time off; I like coaching and love the game of hockey,” McLellan said. “I love being around players and trying to help them. I was bored as hell watching games on TV. You can only watch so many hockey games.
“This is great. The task ahead of us is immense but it’s doable. The last two stops (Edmonton and Los Angeles) were very similar to where teams were out of the playoffs and looking to rebuild and retool and introduce youth into the lineup and it worked out fairly well, we left those organizations in a better place.”