Ex-Oilers coach knows McDavid, Draisaitl will ‘get their chances’ against visiting Red Wings

Detroit Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan gestures to a player during NHL action hockey game against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 27, 2024. (Duane Burleson/Associated Press) (Duane Burleson/AP)

Their former head coach is wary of them.

And Todd McLellan should be, having lost to the dynamic Edmonton Oilers duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in the playoffs two of the last three seasons.

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McLellan’s team, the Detroit Red Wings, are the next opponent on the Oilers' slate Thursday (7 p.m.) at Rogers Place.

The Red Wings (24-21-5) have thrived under McLellan, going 11-4-1 since he was hired Dec. 26 to replace Derek Lalonde.

The 57-year-old was once head coach of the Oilers, hired a month before they drafted McDavid with the top pick in the 2015 NHL Draft. McLellan was 20 games into his fourth season behind the Edmonton bench with a 9-10-1 record when he was fired and replaced by Ken Hitchcock. The Oilers took Draisaitl with the third overall pick in 2014.

“They remind me of the Sedins, but they’re not twins. They kind of share the same thought process,” McLellan said Wednesday in Detroit, referencing retired Vancouver Canucks stars Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

“Thirty-one other teams have tried to figure out a way to slow them down for the past 10 years. Maybe the only team that solved it was Florida, and it took them seven (games in June’s Stanley Cup final.)”

Teams also have to consider whether McDavid and Draisaitl are playing together on a line or apart, said McLellan, who coached the Oilers' Pacific Division rival Los Angeles Kings in both the 2022 and 2023 NHL playoffs, series both won by Edmonton.

“The two of them are elite separately, and they’re super-elite together,” he said. “They play a completely different game. One fast, one slows it down with passing and vision ...

“They’re going to get their chances. Goaltending is going to have to be important. We’re going to have to stay out of the penalty box ... but to think we’re going in there to absolutely stop them and not give them anything, we’d be dreaming.”

The Kings fired McLellan on Feb. 2 last year after four-and-a-half seasons and was replaced by Jim Hiller.

His first head-coaching job was with the San Jose Sharks, whom he directed for seven seasons before joining the Oilers.

Detroit, 10th in the Eastern Conference but just two points out of a wild-card playoff spot in a fierce post-season race, comes into Edmonton on a three-game winning streak and is 6-3-1 over its last 10 games.

‘Tighten things up’

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said Wednesday after practice he would like to see his team give up fewer scoring chances and generate more of their own given their performances the last two games, both at home, against non-playoff teams.

“We want to tighten things up,” said Knoblauch, adding he thought the Oilers “gave up too many chances” in a 4-2 Monday win over the Seattle Kraken and “definitely too many chances and too many shots against” in Saturday’s 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

“A lot of that is some defensive play, but I think a lot of it is also puck play,” he said.

“I don’t think we’re moving the puck as well, whether that’s the defencemen making a breakout pass, whether it’s the forwards on the attack turning pucks over, and then being in a position of defence. There are things that we can be better at in our zone.

“For me, I think a lot of it has to be with the puck player.”

Draisaitl said Wednesday he and his teammates need to “clean a couple of things up” while working through the grind ahead of the league’s 4 Nations Faceoff break that starts in two weeks.

“You get tired this time of year a little bit, and fatigue starts to kick in,” Draisaitl told reporters after practice.

“Good teams still find ways to win hockey games, and we’re looking to continue that.”