Todd McLellan couldn’t be off to a much better start as the new head coach of the Detroit Red Wings.
Detroit rallied from a 2-0 first period deficit to earn a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, capturing its fourth game in a row.
Dylan Larkin scored the insurance marker in the shootout and had a goal in regulation. Lucas Raymond also scored in the shootout and Michael Rasmussen scored in regulation for the Red Wings (25-21-5) who’ve gone 12-4-1 since McLellan became head coach Dec. 26.
McLellan said he asked his team for more and received it after a tough first.
“We didn’t have enough players going (in first) and that was the conversation we had in between periods,” he said. “We had 10 or 12 players that were giving us what we needed and we had passengers.
“The challenge was to find three or four more in the second period. We didn’t know who was going to step up and where it was going to come from, but we found two or three more in the second and two or three more in the third.”
Raymond and Larkin have both thrived under the new coach. Since McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde, Raymond has recorded 23 points in 17 games. Larkin now has points in 14 of the 17 games since McLellan arrived — 10 goals and 22 points — and was particularly effective against Edmonton, taking the lion’s share of his team’s key faceoffs in the contest.
“That’s a captain’s night, that’s a leadership night,” McLellan said of Larkin. “Think about how taxing that is to go against Leon (Draisaitl) and some of their other big centres, I think 36 or 37 times in the faceoff circle, that alone can wear an individual out.
“And to check against those top-end guys as well as create offence, it’s a hell of a night.”
Larkin agreed the Red Wings found their footing as the game wore on.
“From the second and third on, we played a pretty solid road hockey game and Al (Lyon) was pretty unbelievable for us, he faced a lot of pressure, a lot of shots a lot of zone time and we did a pretty good job,” he said.
Alex Lyon made 44 saves to secure the win for the Wings.
“I thought Alex was obviously a key to the victory, he faced a lot of shots, not all dangerous, but there were some succession-type shots that he had to be alert and get us some whistles when we broke down,” McLellan said. “That’s why the goalie wears the same colour jersey as everybody else, he’s there to provide us that security and he did that.”
Edmonton forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins knows firsthand what McLellan can do for a young team, having had him as coach of the Oilers from the start of the 2015-2016 season until partway through the 2018-2019 campaign.
“He’s a great coach, we all liked him as a coach and as a guy,” said Nugent-Hopkins, whose Oilers (32-15-4) saw a three-game winning streak halted, but have nonetheless won 11 of their last 15 games.
“He can get you motivated and you’re seeing that right now from this team. They’ve got a lot of young skill and they play a fast game and he encourages that a lot. He doesn’t want anybody to feel like they’re not playing their game, their type of hockey. I’m sure they’re liking what they’re seeing so far.”
The Red Wings were playing the first game of a four-game western trip that sees them make further stops in Calgary, Vancouver and Seattle.
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