Todd McLellan Practice Media | Dec. 19, 2025

Todd McLellan Practice Media | Dec. 19, 2025

Kainer, I think he skated before practice today, which is a good sign, but he won’t play tomorrow. >> Is he going on the trip still? Yeah, >> Patrick. Okay, >> we’re having uh I’m sure you know our our mom’s trip, so we’re taking everybody um which we should. >> So, was Moritz just a a maintenance day? It was unusual. Yeah, maintenance day out there in sweats skating. >> No, maintenance day for him. >> Just uh elaborate a little more on this mom’s trip. uh whose decision was it to make in mom’s and and >> um well it was uh it was a I I’m not exactly sure obviously being new here uh what the rotation is or how it’s worked but um it was the mom’s turn and I think that’s great. Um been in the league for 20 20ome years now and I’ve never had a mom’s trip. I’ve had a lot of father’s trips and my dad’s been lucky enough to go on them, but I I think back and and even my mom, I tried to get her to come on this one, but it’s just too hard at her age. But, um, I think back to everything that the that my mom has done for me and hockey until the last decade’s been primarily a maledriven sport. Uh, now it’s broadening. Um, and that’s a good thing, but maledriven. And usually when you think about family and hockey, you talk about the father. And yes, that is a big thing. But the backbone of, at least in my house, the backbone of keeping it all together and keeping us healthy and fed and everything else was was my mom. And I’m sure that’s happened in a lot of these uh Redwing families. And we couldn’t be happier to have them uh here. Sharp practice today. Told them they should have their moms move in all the time. And um I’m not sure it was always that way with the father. So I like having them around. >> I think it was when you were here that it kind of started under Mike Babcock, right? >> Yeah. There was a few teams in the league that were doing it. Um but I think 0506 were was one of the first trips that we um that we went on and and uh the fathers, the players, the staff, we it seemed to bring everybody together. It was a lot of fun. Had a real good hockey club that year. So, I think we won a lot of the games. Um, you know, it was interesting to see Chel was on that team to see Mr. Chalios and hear his stories about how Chris ended up in Moojaw and, you know, just different uh the Swedes, the Swedish dads, um, Hank’s dad, Nick’s dad. I They were singing the anthem for a long time. I remember that. Um, you know, so it was uh it was a lot of fun. It was rewarding and it seems to be a tradition now around the league. >> Quick trip obviously, but do you get any chance to kind of get to know any of the the families a little bit better through something like this? >> Um, I’m going to try. Uh, I think we owe that to we we spend more time with their sons now than than they do. And there’s times where um, you know, maybe we behave like parents. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but um we do feel responsible or have some responsibility for their development and um you know, they get all the support they can from from a long distance, but when they’re around, we’d like to get to know them. Uh but it is quick. We took some time this morning to uh to have each of the players introduce their moms and tell us a quick little maybe a funny story about their sons that didn’t have to necessarily do with do anything with hockey and we got a lot of ammo now so it’s good. >> On the Capitals they’ve kind of managed to do what I think a lot of teams want want to when they go into a retool. They’ve come out of it pretty quick. Didn’t have a prolong How do you think they’ve been able to do that and kind of thread that needle? Well, their their veterans have um maintained a fair high level of play. Um OV, look at what Obie’s doing. You look at John Carlson. Um you know, those types of players have Tom Wilson’s been around a while. Um that established Stanley Cup winning core is still there. Reminds me a little bit of our team in LA. And then they’ve they’ve developed some players. They’ve gone out and added and uh either traded for or signed players that fit their style. Um Spencer’s done an outstanding job and they’re they’re a load to play against. We know what they were doing last year and we uh we had to had a tough time handling them and this year they they haven’t given anything back. So we got our work cut out for us. >> Has there been a decision made on which goalender gets to start tomorrow? >> Yep. Gibson’s going to start tomorrow >> and then tell on Sunday. >> Don’t know. We’ll decide that when Sunday comes. >> With one goal in 22 games, Elmer Soderblum continues to show progress, but a few minutes ago he said that he’d like to be more of an offensive force. What are you seeing from him this season and how can he get more involved in the offense? >> Well, Elmer um you know, like few of our other players, didn’t get out of the gate quite the way he wanted to and then he got hurt. and when he was hurt, that didn’t help him at all. Uh, his injury didn’t allow him to skate a lot and and he had to get his legs going again and get his game back. I think over the last 10 games, it’s starting to come a little bit better. Um, he’s got great hands. He has a pretty good idea of of how the game should be played. He can be physical. Um, you know, he can shoot the puck. You put all that stuff together on on any given night, then you got a real good player. if one or two of those elements is missing a little bit. Well, then you you struggle a little bit. So, we’re trying to get it all together with him and get him confident. Um, you know, stats like one and 22, he knows that. Um, you know that, I know that. Um, it’s not ideal for him, but, um, I think he has the ability to break that and and contribute. He did a little bit more of that down the stretch last year, and we expect that from him moving forward. Todd, I imagine a lot of uh rookies or young players who surprise in training camp and get off to a good start, they as a season goes on, they eventually kind of sort of come back down to earth, but here we are uh almost to the halfway point and Finny still playing on that top line. Just what have you seen from him uh that’s enabled him just to maintain the level that he showed at the start? Well, I think EMTT um like a lot of the young players played on emotion a little bit early in the year and then there’s a breakthrough period where where it kind of get becomes an everyday thing. Not necessarily work because we’re not working, we’re playing. Um but once the emotion drains and you just got to show up to work all the time, it can be a little bit harder for young players. That was a breakthrough moment for him. He pushed through that. Um, and then there was a little bit of a lull, I would say 15 games in maybe where wasn’t quite going going well. And that’s sometimes where players give it back. He broke through that. So any of the roadblocks that have have come his way, either through fatigue, timing, uh, level of play, um, you know, performance fluctuating a little bit, he’s been able to break through it as a young player. Uh, not all do and they may need more time, but fortunately for him, he’s pushed through it. Hey Todd, does it something like this kind of break up the monotony of the season? I mean, it could be such a long artemous season, something like this a little different. And I I think so. Um, you know, today today’s practice is a prime example. It’s we’re 45 or 46% I don’t know, whatever into the season already. We’ve practiced a lot since September 15th. Um, we’ve played a lot of games. You had a day off. you know what’s ahead. Three or four games, family starts to arrive and you might give yourself permission to go through the motions in practice. They didn’t. They they came and they worked. Um I think that the moms being here has something to do with that. And um it can break it up. It’s it’s exciting. It’s different. We’ll see when we get on that plane. Who knows? I do know the locker room was a little louder than it normally is. A lot of chattering going on. >> Are they going to have access to the meetings? Are you going to bring them into the meetings or not? >> Um, we will while we had our gathering today, I saw Michael Leighton and Cam Talban and his mom sitting down together going through clips. Um, there was a few guys having breakfast that I had to address individually, so I had to take them away from uh uh the mother son part of it. Did it with an apology though. Um, and yeah, just different, something new, refreshing. What’s the best anecdote that you have with one of the dads as far as the dad’s trips you had? Any funny story that you can repeat or anything? >> Oh boy, some a lot of them I can’t. Um, well, I I just remember my dad was laughing at that group of Swedes uh singing the anthem. I think they had a little bit of um Swedish courage maybe early in the afternoon and we were in Arizona if I can remember right and you could hear bunch of guys singing in the hallway. uh the American national anthem and it was all the Swedes, but they had some courage in them for sure.

Head Coach Todd McLellan speaks with the media following Detroit’s practice on Friday December 19, 2025 at the BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena.