According to the Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan had to answer a question about the team’s annual March collapse on the first day of training camp, and coach McLellan suggested that Detroit’s locker room predicted its own demise:
“As far as the March part of our schedule, I can tell you exactly how I felt,” he said. “I felt that everybody in this building – most importantly in that locker room – was waiting for it to happen. Just waiting for it to happen, and it trickles in. We have to answer the questions you present, and you can feel it, and it becomes a burden, and eventually the mind goes, ‘Aw, here we are, we’re doing this again.’ And that’s exactly how it felt.
Red Wings interim general manager Shawn Horcoff, who spoke the day before, explained that his focus is on the immediate runway ahead for the club.
McLellan echoed Horcoff’s sentiments, saying that while the team will eventually have to deal with March approaching on the calendar this season, its immediate task is to win each day as it comes.
“You heard (Shawn Horcoff) talk about how we’re moving forward; we are moving forward,” McLellan said. “We are not talking about March yet… but we’re talking about winning the day. We have to win today, and that was on the ice, that was in the locker room, preparing, and then tomorrow, win tomorrow. And then we’ll start the season.” We know there’s a March in the season, and I know what’s going to come when we get to it, and we’ll deal with it as we go. But waiting for it to happen and expecting it to happen usually means it’s going to happen.”
For the Red Wings to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2016, they need to take care of what’s in front of them before worrying about several months from now.
“Now we have to hit it head-on,” McLellan said. “We have a lot of work to do before we start talking about March.”
I do believe in the power of positive thinking, as well as the power of negative thinking, and you can indeed plow your way into a lousy outcome by thinking that the shit will hit the fan at some point–because it always does.
Detroit’s players will have to battle through and overcome a ton of adversity this season, and coach McLellan is right in suggesting that the players will first have to worry about today before they worry about tomorrow, but you can be certain that they’ve addressed this particular issue, too.
