SAN JOSE -- It's not supposed to be this easy for a rookie NHL head coach.
A first-timer behind the big league benches is supposed to struggle. He has to go through horrible growing pains. Instead, Todd McLellan has the NHL's top team in the San Jose Sharks.
"Oh, it's work," he said. "Talk to me in a month. We'll see where we're at then."
The way things are going for the Sharks, likely the same spot in the standings. At least really, really close to the top.
McLellan only celebrated his 41st birthday just before the season began, but the product of Melville, Sask., seemingly has been a career coach for an eternity.
He worked his way up the ladder before being given the keys to the Sharks team that has threatened to win a Stanley Cup for the last decade but not been able to accomplish that feat.
He can tell you all about the six seasons riding the buses with the Swift Current Broncos through the 1990s. There were five seasons in the minors, including a championship season with the AHL's Houston Aeros in 2002-03.
For three seasons, he served as an assistant in Detroit -- finally earning a NHL head coaching gig after helping guide the Red Wings to their Cup title.
"The tougher transition for me was coming from Houston to Detroit," McLellan said yesterday.
"I'd never been an assistant coach, and to get used to that role and not have the ability to take charge -- the lead role -- was an adjustment.
"Here, it's been quite comfortable. The players have been quite receptive to what we want to do, they've been holding themselves accountable as much as we've been holding them accountable, which is a powerful thing and the staff we've put together makes my job a little easier than it could have been."
Winning helps, which the Sharks have done plenty of already this season.
Still, a first-year head coach has to prove to the players he knows his stuff.
"When he brings that Stanley Cup ring in the locker room, it shows he's knowledgeable and everybody understands that," said Sharks forward Joe Thornton. "He's so technically sound. He knows how he wants us to play, and if we don't play that way, he'll tell us."
San Jose gameplan isn't much different from what the Red Wings did to climb back to the top of the NHL. The Sharks rely on a puck-possession game except when they shoot it, which they've done a lot.
Heading into last night's clash with the Flames, San Jose led the league averaging nearly 40 shots on goal.
McLellan, whose NHL aspirations as a player consisted of five games with the New York Islanders in 1987-88 before a shoulder injury ended his career while he was in the minors, is a believer in attacking once you reach the opposition's blueline.
"We work hard in the defensive zone to get the puck back," Thornton said.
"That's our thing, and when you do that, you get rewarded.
"Getting 40 or 50 shots in a night, that's fun hockey. It means the majority of time you've go the puck on your stick and that's a blast."
On the surface, McLellan seems the anti-Ron Wilson. He's definitely not as acerbic as Wilson can be at times, but don't think he's Mr. Laid Back.
"He's pretty fiery," said goalie Brian Boucher. "He's fair and calls it like it is. There was a time we were winning and he had a pretty stern meeting with us. Even though we were winning, he was honest. He's a good guy, but he's intense."
