{"id":437085,"date":"2024-02-02T13:18:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T18:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=437085"},"modified":"2024-02-02T13:18:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T18:18:58","slug":"los-angeles-kings-fire-todd-mclellan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/02\/02\/los-angeles-kings-fire-todd-mclellan\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Kings Fire Todd McLellan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Kings have seen enough. They <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/nhl\/article\/slumping-kings-fire-head-coach-todd-mclellan\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fired<\/a> head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mclelto01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-02_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Todd McLellan<\/a> today, naming assistant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hilleji01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-02_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jim Hiller<\/a> as interim.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Statement from the LA Kings:<\/p>\n<p>? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7YV6qQsM2M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/7YV6qQsM2M<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wqd2VElIoS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/wqd2VElIoS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LA Kings (@LAKings) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LAKings\/status\/1753458485361070259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mclelto01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-02_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Todd McLellan<\/a> Fired<\/h2>\n<p>And it was going so well, too. The Kings won an NHL record 11 road games to start the season before losing in overtime to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/islanders\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Islanders<\/a>. By Christmas, the team was 19-7-4 and looking good to challenge for top spot in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, however, they&#8217;ve gone 4-8-6, highlighted by an eight-game losing streak wrapped around the new year. Their last game was a 4-2 win against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/predators\/\" target=\"_self\">Nashville Predators<\/a>, a flattering score that was only accomplished by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/rittida01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-02_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Rittich<\/a>&#8216;s 40-save night and an empty-net goal.<\/p>\n<p>That wasn&#8217;t enough to keep McLellan&#8217;s job safe, and the move was announced today. &#8220;This was not an easy decision, but we felt the change was necessary at this time,&#8221; Kings GM <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/blakero01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-02_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rob Blake<\/a> said in a statement.<\/p>\n<h3>The Record<\/h3>\n<p>Blake hired McLellan after a disastrous season by the Kings, bringing in the new coach to instill discipline. He wasn&#8217;t expected to turn the team around immediately and agreed to a five-year deal. This is the final season of that contract.<\/p>\n<p>McLellan had previously been head coach for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/sharks\/\" target=\"_self\">San Jose Sharks<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/oilers\/\" target=\"_self\">Edmonton Oilers<\/a>. His record with San Jose &#8211; where he coached Blake &#8211; was 311-163-66. He took the Sharks to three 50+ win seasons, three Pacific Division titles, and two Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n<p>He was less successful in Edmonton, going 123-119-24 and making the playoffs just once. Edmonton fired McLellan early in his fourth season there, with the Oilers returning to the playoffs each season after his dismissal.<\/p>\n<h3>The Result<\/h3>\n<p>Todd McLellan is being replaced by new head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hilleji01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-02_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jim Hiller<\/a>. Hiller has been an NHL assistant coach with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/leafs\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/islanders\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Islanders<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/redwings\/\" target=\"_self\">Detroit Red Wings<\/a>. This will be his first time as a head coach at this level. There will be more if he can stop the Kings slide, and have a good showing in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>He started his coaching career in the WHL as an assistant with the Tri-City Americans when he retired as a player in 2002. He went on to be a head coach in the BCHL and WHL, returning to Tri-City to win Coach of the Year in 2011-12.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Russell LaBounty-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Kings have seen enough. They fired head coach Todd McLellan today, naming assistant Jim Hiller as interim. Statement from the LA Kings: ? https:\/\/t.co\/7YV6qQsM2M pic.twitter.com\/wqd2VElIoS \u2014 LA Kings (@LAKings) February 2, 2024 Todd McLellan Fired And it was going so well, too. The Kings won an NHL record 11 road games to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3171,"featured_media":437088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,2,4547,24,4548],"tags":[7888,1142],"class_list":["post-437085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-hockey","category-kings","category-nhl","tag-jim-hiller","tag-todd-mclellan"],"modified_by":"Alec Roberson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}