From Matthew Sekeres at the Globe & Mail:

The Vancouver Canucks pride themselves on physical fitness.

It’s an organizational staple of general manager Mike Gillis, who introduced nutrition plans and player-specific conditioning programs upon his hiring three years ago. In that time, players who have been imported from other NHL organizations have consistently failed to match existing Canucks in the battery of fitness tests conducted at training camp.

Some, like current San Jose Sharks forward Kyle Wellwood, fell woefully short of the mark, while others are close but not quite up to the snuff.

Forward Manny Malhotra and defenceman Christian Ehrhoff were exceptions. Both came from the Sharks, and both fared well against their new teammates at first blush.

For that reason, it’s easy to believe Sharks head coach Todd McLellan when he says his team’s conditioning is “very good” and doesn’t have “any doubts that we can play deep into games, and well into overtime if we have to.”

continued…

More from McLellan in this interview transcript from today’s media session.