‘We have some guys that are just jerseys’: Todd McLellan on Red Wings’ performance
Overall, this has to be considered a successful season so far for the Detroit Red Wings. With 74 points through 60 games, they occupy the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, and sit just six points back of the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division.
Over their last handful of games, however, Detroit has been scuffling. The Red Wings lost five of their last seven games prior to the NHL’s Olympic break. After edging out the Ottawa Senators in overtime by a score of 2-1 in their first game back from the break, they lost 5-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.
According to Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan, the team’s issues of late are due to a lack of contribution throughout Detroit’s lineup.
“Right now, for us, I think we have some players that are playing well and playing hard, and then we have some guys that are just jerseys,” McLellan told the media after Saturday’s loss. “What I mean by that is they’re wearing jerseys. They’re skating around, they’re eating up some minutes, but we need more. We just flat out need more. We talk about scoring five-on-five, we talk about forecheck. If you’re not forechecking and being physical, shooting, backchecking, winning faceoffs, blocking shots, then what are you doing? We need more from some guys. You can’t just be on the team at this time of year, you’ve got to be effective at this time of year.”
When asked what the team needs to fix going forward, Todd Mcllelan changes the subject to call out his players... "We have some guys right now that are just jerseys. Eating up minutes and not doing much else." Love this guy
Kudos to McLellan for coining the hilarious phrase “just jerseys” as a new way to call out a team’s lack of effort, but what’s really interesting is that he levied this criticism against his team without prompting. These seem to be pointed, intentional comments meant to wake his team out of its recent doldrums.
The Red Wings will finish up a three-game road trip with a matinee game against the Nashville Predators on Monday.