The Free Press’s Helene St. James found that new Red Wings coach Todd McLellan had an odd metaphor with which to describe his affection for his first NHL employer:
“I hope it’s not going to be a degrading comment for younger players or coaches that come into the league, but I always say you come into the league in diapers,” McLellan said Thursday. “And you grow up in that family, that family means a lot to you.
“I got into the league in diapers and your first set of diapers is the one that you really latch on to. Players are very loyal to their first team. Once they get to teams two or three, now they’re willing to move around and move their families, but they’re very loyal to their first teams. Coaches are like that, too.”
His first time with the Wings, they were playing at Joe Louis Arena and the roster featured such luminaries as Nicklas Lidström, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall. That memory came up New Year’s Eve, when the Wings hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Everyone from the Wings’ 2008 Stanley Cup championship team is long retired, but the Penguins still boast Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. That night in 2008 when the Wings won was on McLellan’s mind as he shared a memory with new assistant coach Trent Yawney.
“I said to Trent Yawney, ‘I think it was after the game against Pittsburgh, the last time the Red Wings played the Pittsburgh Penguins and I was involved was in Pittsburgh in ’08. And we won in Game 6,'” McLellan said. “I got to the airport (Wednesday) and we go to generally the same hangar – I think we were one shy of where it was.
“But when we landed, I said, ‘Yawns, when we came back from Pittsburgh, we landed and we had our Stanley Cup part in that building.’ That’s how memories work. So it’s really unique.”
