Red Wings coach Todd McLellan reveals how to beat Oilers' combination of McDavid-Draisaitl
Former Oilers head coach Todd McLellan is facing his old team tonight, and he discusses how the Red Wings can neutralize Edmonton's top players.
He coached them for years, and he knows what they're capable of.
But now, as current Detroit Red Wings head coach prepares to lead his team against Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers in tonight's game, he spoke of the importance of neutralizing them..
I had the luxury of coaching them. The two of them are elite separately and super elite together. They play a completely different game. One is fast, one slows it down with passing and vision.
They're two of the best players today in the NHL, and the Red Wings have to have their "A" game if they're going to come out on top.
The Red Wings are coming off a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings, another former team of McLellan's. For tonight's game, McLellan wants to see the Red Wings not only create offense, but to play more of a "wide open game".
We still had some breakdowns, and they still got chances, but we committed to checking well. We didn't play a wide-open game. While we were doing that, we created some offense off that. We didn't just rely on our power play, which we had likely done earlier. It was a more complete offensive game from everybody getting involved.
McLellan helped lead the Oilers to the Western Conference Semi Finals in 2016, where they lost in 7 games to the Anaheim Ducks.
He also faced the Oilers in consecutive years in the postseason as coach of the Kings, who were beaten by Edmonton on both occasions.
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3 HOURS AGO | 19 ANSWERS Red Wings coach Todd McLellan reveals how to beat Oilers' combination of McDavid-Draisaitl Can the Red Wings slow down the combination of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl? |
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