from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal,

Todd McLellan may be the most hydrated coach in the NHL behind the San Jose Sharks’ bench because he always has a water bottle in his hands, taking healthy swigs throughout the game but on Wednesday night in game seven, there wasn’t enough aqua to cool the raging fire in his gut as the Sharks gassed a 3-0 series lead to the Los Angeles Kings.

Now the question is whether one of the game’s best coaches and best guys will pay for the lowest of low Sharks’ results–only the fourth team in NHL history to win the first three games and lose the next four. McLellan, one of the NHL’s sharpest coaching minds, in his sixth year in San Jose, would be out of work about 10 minutes. About as long as it might take Brendan Shanahan, the new Toronto Maple Leafs’ president, who used to play for McLellan in Detroit when McLellan was Mike Babcock’s right-hand man, to pick up the phone if Shanahan doesn’t want Randy Carlyle back as coach.

McLellan, who was hired in San Jose after the Wings’ Cup ride in 2008, is a heckuva coach. You would be hard-pressed to find anybody better, but hockey’s a playoff results-driven business.

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