New Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan discloses 1st major request and game plan for his players

We're in a situation...this is never a good thing when a coach is released and a new one is brought in. The timing is a little bit awkward too because of Christmas and other stuff, we don't get a practice.

We are gonna play hockey tonight. We aren't....Trent Yawney and Todd McLellan aren't coming in here and waiving the wand and changing forechecks and neutral zones and D-zone coverage and the power play, we just don't have time.

But what we've asked the players to do is play harder, faster, and a little bit smarter. Those are three simple things that I think we can control without any type of tactic or systematic structured play, and the last thing is the spirit of the team has to improve.

When something like this happens, obviously the spirit of the team is low. We're going to work hard to build that back up, and focus a lot more on what's happening from minute 1 to minute 60. I know all of you have a job to do, and there's a history of being in the playoffs, not being in the playoffs, winning streaks, losing streaks.

The players have to answer those questions after, and that' their duty and they have to do it after. But I'm asking them to worry about what happen when they put the equipment on, and focus on that and not carry any baggage or luggage on where we are in the standings. Let's play and figure each other out.