Todd McLellan’s tenure with the Red Wings begins with a 5-2 loss

DETROIT – Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman knew his team needed a change. The same was true for his captain, Dylan Larkin.

As a result, Yzerman and Larkin each spoke to reporters on Friday – a day after Yzerman fired head coach Derek Lalonde and replaced him with Todd McLellan.

“Our team does not meet my expectations,” said Yzerman. “Whether anyone agrees or not, I have expectations for the team and they are not going to meet them because our players are not meeting each of their individual expectations.”

The Red Wings nearly ended their playoff drought last spring, missing the tiebreaker in the final minutes of the regular season, but they have taken a significant step back. And if McLellan does patch things up, it’s clear it won’t happen overnight, especially after Detroit’s 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night.

Mitch Marner’s third career hat trick spoiled McClellan’s debut on a night when David Kampf scored his first goal of the season in his 500th career game and Nicholas Robertson also scored for the Maple Leafs. John Tavares had two assists and Joseph Woll made 23 saves for the away team.

Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson scored third-period goals for Detroit, which has lost four straight. Cam Talbot started and conceded five goals on 21 shots, and Alex Lyon started the third period and finished with two saves.

The Red Wings entered the evening at 13-17-4, in seventh place in the Atlantic Division and 28th in the league.

“It’s been a frustrating start to the season – we’re missing something,” said Larkin. “It’s something you never want to happen – I really like Derek as a man – but something had to happen.”

However, the timing couldn’t be worse for McLellan and his top assistant Trent Yawney. Due to the NHL holiday break, they had to support the Red Wings without a single training session.

“Trent Yawney and Todd McLellan don’t come in here and wave their magic wand to change the forecheck, the neutral zone, the D-zone coverage and the power play,” McLellan said after Friday’s morning skate. “There’s just no time. We asked the players to play harder, faster and a little smarter.”

McLellan does have ties to the Red Wings, with whom he won the Stanley Cup as an assistant coach in 2007-08, but that was a different squad in a different building – Joe Louis Arena. Aside from Talbot, whom he coached in Edmonton and Los Angeles, the only experience he has had with one of his key players was when he had Larkin on his Team North America squad at the 2016 World Cup.

“Cam sent me a text message after the announcement that kindly said, ‘Again?'” McLellan said. “Team North America was a great experience coaching so many great talents at 20, 21 and 22 years old. Dylan was a very responsible part of this team.”

On Friday, McLellan utilized Lalonde’s line combinations and defensive pairings against Toronto, but Yzerman made it clear on Friday that one of McLellan’s tasks will be to give his young forwards more playing time.

“We had young guys like Michael Rasmussen and Joe Veleno take on larger roles last season, and for some reason those roles were reduced a bit in the first part of this season,” Yzerman said. “We need these players to play a bigger role again. Jonatan Berggren can play a bigger role.”

Ultimately, McLellan’s job is simple, but that doesn’t make it easy.

“That’s a very obvious answer,” Yzerman said. “We have to score more goals and get better defensively. We have to stop the puck from getting into our net, whether it’s through better defense or a better goaltender.”

“We just have to get better.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.