The Los Angeles Kings were humiliated by Seattle Kraken. The Kings fell 6-1 with goals by Ryan Donato, two by Jordan Eberle, Victor Rask, and Jared McCann for Seattle, and Arthur Kaliyev for the Kings.
The game was also head coach Todd McLellan’s 1,000 game as a coach. He started his coaching career in 1993 in the Saskatchewan Junior League, the Western Hockey League in 1994, the International Hockey League, and the National Hockey League in 2005 as an assistant coach.
McLellan was an assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings and helped them win their eleventh Stanley Cup championship. It was McLellan’s first Stanley Cup in his career as well.
On June 11, 2008, McLellan was hired to be the head coach of the San Jose Sharks until 2015. He coached the Sharks for seven seasons, helping them win three straight Pacific Division titles and one Presidents Trophy but had very few successes.
In the 2015-16 season, McLellan was hired to be the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers. His time in Edmonton was almost the same story in San Jose but he had less success with the Oilers, having only one playoff appearance and losing to the Anaheim Ducks in the second round in 2017.
He spent only four seasons in Edmonton and was fired in the 2018-19 season. McLellan was then hired the next season to be the head coach of the Los Angeles Kings.
In the 2019-20 season, the Kings were seventh in the Pacific and sixth in the 2020-21 season.
This season however is looking completely different compared to the last two. Los Angeles currently sits in second place in the Pacific. They are just behind the Calgary Flames under ex-coach, Darryl Sutter and above the Edmonton Oilers.
This season started slow for the Kings and many thought it would be another long disappointing season. The team would then pick themselves right up and have been playing some of their best hockey in years.
Coach McLellan has helped rebuild the team to who they are now. The playoffs are coming very soon and we will see how well coach McLellan built his team. The last time the Kings were in the playoffs was in 2018 after being swept by the Vegas Golden Knights.
We will see if Todd McLellan can coach the Kings to another Stanley Cup championship.
