Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the Red Wings’ hiring of Todd McLellan as their head coach from a unique perspective:
I’ve been lucky enough to know Todd McLellan for more than 40 years. Back when we first met in 1984, he was a 17-year-old center with the WHL Saskatoon Blades and I was a rookie beat writer on my first daily newspaper job.
What was true about him back then remains true today. McLellan is someone who approaches life with a positive outlook. He sees possibilities and is open to new ways of looking at things, alternative methods to problem solving. He’ll greet every day with a smile on his face and an excitement to stare down the challenges that lay ahead for him.
This is what he’ll be bringing to the Detroit Red Wings.
In other words, his day-to-day approach figures to be significantly different to that of Derek Lalonde’s paint by numbers formula. And that might be just what the doctor ordered for a confused Red Wings club that doesn’t seem to know what their identity as a team is supposed to be.
Another factor to like about McLellan – he’s won at every of his NHL stops and has done so while running his own show and not only as a staff member who is part of another coach’s success story.
