Saturday night’s Oilers game marks a milestone for Head Coach Todd McLellan but, if you ask him, it’s not that significant.
The match against Anaheim will be McLellan’s 700th game as a head coach in the NHL.
“It feels old,” he said with a smile Saturday morning. “It’s not that significant of a milestone really when you look at some of the long, long-term coaches that are up in the thousands or 1,200s and there’s a number of them in the league.
“I’ve got a long way to go but I’ve been lucky enough to be in a great league, around a lot of really great people and I’m appreciative of that.”
McLellan was asked which coaches served as role models or helped guide his career.
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“There were a lot of — this sounds like a eulogy, jeez,” he laughed. “There were people that took a chance on a young coach in my situation, all the way back to North Battleford and Swift Current. I was a young coach, inexperienced, and there were people that stepped up: Bob Sheppard in North Battleford, Doug Moser in Swift Current, Doug Risebrough putting me in the Wild organization, Doug Wilson taking a chance on me, on a young coach in San Jose.
“They were people that, for some reason, believed in me as a young coach and those were the breaks that I needed. I think you’ve got to take advantage of them, you’ve got to surround yourself with good people.”
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It was obvious McLellan didn’t want to spent too much time talking about his 700th game and how he got there, though.
“We play Anaheim tonight, so what do you want to know about them?”
McLellan has a record of 385-231-83 and 74-68-17 with the Oilers.
The team sits a point behind Anaheim for first in the Pacific Division. The Oilers have won eight of their last nine games. The only loss in that span was to the Ducks.