Red Wings’ Loss to Toronto Shows McLellan Where He Needs to Start

DETROIT — The first game of Todd McLellan’s tenure as the Detroit Red Wings head coach looked similar to the last game of the Derek Lalonde era in terms of the final result.

Lalonde’s final game before he was relieved of duties Thursday was a 4-0 home loss to the St. Louis Blues. McLellan’s first game was a 5-2 home setback against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Scores were different, but the Red Wings lost both games convincingly.

But it was clear during the game, and after it, that change is coming with regard to how this team will play going forward

McLellan was extremely active on the bench, engaging players, explaining, encouraging and seemingly laying down his laws. McLellan coached that game without having a practice with his new team.

“Quite a bit different,” Detroit defenseman Ben Chiarot said. “Obviously, a lot of communication from Todd telling us what he wants, what he wants to see. It’s good. It’ll only speed up the message that he’s trying to get across, speed up the way he wants us to play. “

McLellan is trying to expedite the process by showing them who he and how he coaches.

“That’s why I’m here,” McLellan said. “I’m supposed to be trying to help them. Sometimes I had to bark. Sometimes they needed a pat in the back. I had to explain what my language was. We started flipping lines around. I wanted to make sure that some individuals knew they weren’t getting punished because they were maybe moved down a line or something like that… We’re trying to find combinations. So it’s communication the whole time and it’ll be that way, or at least I hope it will be that way until we settle in and we learn how we want to play.”

Seider-Edvinsson Break-up

One of the most McLellan’s most notable moves was splitting up Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson.

“They’re no different than the forwards,” McLellan said. “We’re trying to figure them out. They were having a tough time. Both tremendous players, are going to be players, really good players for a long time. We are well aware of that. But they have a lot to work on and a lot to learn and we don’t want to let them off the hook. And they were having a tough time. Not just them, but that whole line was having a tough time against the (Mitch) Marner line. So we thought why not switch and see what we could get out of them. “

Revamping Starts on Defense

Marner had a hat trick in the game, and Edvinsson and Seider were on the ice for two of his goals.  Edvinsson scored a goal after ending up with Jeff Petry. Joe Veleno got moved up in the lineup. Jonathan Berggren got some time with Vladimire Tarasenko.

The Red Wings had given up 14 consecutive goals over three games before Lucas Raymond netted a power play goals. It ended a Red Wings goal drought of 161:38 minutes.

Detroit has now given up four or more goals in seven out of eight games. McLellan said he will start Saturday’s practice with work on the team’s defensive play.

“I actually thought offensively we created some opportunities,” McLellan said. “We didn’t create six goals worth, and that’s what we needed tonight to win a game. So we’ll focus on the defensive side. Starting tomorrow, we’ll go from there. “