from David Pollak of Working the Corners,

... one-third of the way through the season, San Jose continues to be on a downhill slide after elevating expectations by going 7-0-0 out of the chute. Now at 8-5-3, that’s the kind of bad sequence of events that can lead to everything from major trades to coaching changes to dismissals in the front office if things continue to go badly.

With Lindy Ruff’s firing this week, it’s a pretty safe bet that Todd McLellan’s name is close to the top of most lists of other NHL coaches on the hot seat.

However, that may have been true before this lockout-shortened season began, considering how things finished up in San Jose last spring. And it didn’t help that GM Doug Wilson, while apparently reassuring McLellan privately that his job was safe, refused to do so publicly until eight weeks after the Sharks were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the St. Louis Blues.

When he finally did tell the media McLellan would be back, Wilson did nothing to dispel the notion that both he and his coach would be on the hot seat based on the disappointing finish to 2011-12.

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