TORONTO – Cam Talbot threw his full support behind Todd McLellan here Thursday night at NHL All-Star Media Day. But that didn’t help save the coach’s job when McLellan was fired by the Los Angeles Kings on Friday.
Talbot, who played under McLellan for four seasons with the Edmonton Oilers from 2015-19, reunited with the coach in Los Angeles this season.
“I’ve loved Todd ever since I was back in Edmonton,” Talbot said. “He’s extremely detailed, knows when to push, knows when to pull back. … He’s a good communicator. … He lets the players kind of run the locker room because at the end of the day it’s our team and he’s there to help us out.
“I think he’s a great coach.”
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Los Angeles Kings fire Todd McLellan, name Jim Hiller interim coach
Jim Hiller was named interim head coach for the rest of the season. McLellan was 164-130-44 with the Kings and is 598-412-134 in 16 NHL seasons with the San Jose Sharks, Oilers and Kings. LA reached the playoffs the past two seasons, losing in the first round each time.
The Kings are 2-8-6 in their past 16 games and have fallen to fourth in the Pacific Division, though they are the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference with 56 points. They won their final game before the All-Star break, 4-2 at the Nashville Predators on Wednesday, but that wasn’t enough to save McLellan’s job.
Los Angeles stormed out of the gate this season with a 16-4-3 record through Dec. 7. McLellan recently took blame for the Kings struggles the past six weeks or so.
“I’m responsible for this,” McLellan said last week. “And when you looked at the team that played the first … 25, 30 games … it doesn’t look like the team that’s playing right now.”
In a statement, Kings general manager Rob Blake said, “[McLellan] has done a tremendous job moving us forward and making a positive impact on our group and in our community. This was not an easy decision, but we felt the change was necessary at this time.”
Talbot has done his job, earning his second career All-Star nod. The 36-year-old goalie is 14-13-5 with a 2.59 goals-against average and .911 save percentage in 32 games (31 starts) this season. Among goalies who’ve played at least 25 games, Talbot is eighth in GAA.