Edmonton Oilers coach Todd McLellan had some strong words to share after the Oilers' 5-0 loss to Calgary on Saturday night:
Reporter: "After an embarrassing and humiliating result, and to what extent, given the circumstances, to what extent are you concerned that it might be replicated in a game on Wednesday that the fans are coming to celebrate?"
Todd McLellan: "Well, I'll answer the first part of your question: I don't know if there's a number big enough or how to describe how disappointing that result is. We've been together for 200 days, and, um, talked a lot about competing, and working hard, and holding your hand, and showing up, and we get that. And that's the exact kind of crap we're trying to eradicate from this group."So you work hard, you climb and you climb and you at least get some foundation and you give it all back in one night. And we were out-shot, we were out-hit, out-scored, we were out-faceoffed, out penalty-killed, our shift length was terrible, they played four games in six nights and we're going to go for 55-second shifts?"
"We turned a puck over 1:10 into a shift and cheated on a change...We had a change for a center that happened to be two zones away...I don't know how it could happen."
"I guess when you sum it all up like that, that's really disappointing, isn't it? And that's the exact attitude and bullshit that we're trying to eliminate here. And we see it after 200 days. Disappointing...But at least the good news is we know where to go and practice, because we've got to establish a work ethic this week."
Reporter: "And how important is it for this team to give--this town--a game to celebrate..."
McLellan: "Well It's damn important, after that crap? Damn, damn important that there's an effort. Forget about the win and the loss, but just the effort. That's frickin' embarrassing."
"That pretty much sums it up, eh, we can go now..."
Reporter: "What do you have planned for practice?"
McLellan: "Well, unfortunately we have another, uh, a, Players' Association day. They took it today, I guess they'll get back-to-back days, but we'll work on Monday. Goodnight."
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