Todd McLellan didn’t get carried away by the Kings’ first win Thursday night.
Sure, the coach was excited and relieved by his team’s come-from-behind 4-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche, their first triumph in 316 days following a pandemic-extended offseason.
But he was realistic too, reiterating that the Kings remain a “work in progress,” that they’re “nowhere near the finished product.”
“It wasn’t a Picasso,” McLellan said after the Kings overcame a two-goal first-period deficit. “But we don’t need perfection right now. We just needed a win.”
Indeed, Thursday’s result turned a potentially disastrous opening week into a halfway decent start for the rebuilding club.