This is Not a Slam

This is not intended as a criticism of either Todd McLellan or Patrick Marleau, but David Pollak's article in the Merc over the weekend illustrates exactly what I'm talking about when I assert that Marleau is high maintenance (see last post).

McLellan:

"I think we need to give him some breathing room right now to see if the (coaching) change is going to affect him positively or negatively."

"I think he's excited about a fresh start and we have to let that evolve a little bit."

I mean, the whole piece strongly suggests a "Shhh! Don't scare the Marleau!" tenor to the relationship between coach and captain. Which is fine, really...everyone's different and if Marleau is high maintenance, he's high maintenance. If McLellan can find the secret to successfully maintaining him and he scores 40 goals, I'm cool with him being as high maintenance as he wants.