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The San Jose Sharks are the defending Pacific Division champions, but they haven't won more than one playoff round in a season since 2004. San Jose had the NHL's second-best regular-season record last year with 49 wins and 108 points, but many key parts of that team have been replaced or repurposed.

After three straight losses in the playoffs' second round, the Sharks are no longer a trendy preseason pick to win the Stanley Cup. There's too much uncertainty around a club that has been very good for quite a while, yet never became great under Ron Wilson. Just how does a rookie head coach expect to succeed where the most successful coach in franchise history repeatedly fell just short?

"Give me a few more months to figure that out," McLellan said. "We're putting everything in place. This is a process, and (October) is just one part of it, but a very important part."

McLellan is striving to change the Sharks' culture, both on the ice and in the locker room, without discarding everything that's been so successful for long stretches of the past four seasons. His coaching staff has installed a system that emphasizes puck control, fluid movement and general aggression, but the Sharks still need time to absorb the nuances of that new approach.

"The first couple of exhibition games, it was tough to get used to it, but we're hockey players," said Joe Thornton, the former league MVP. "We're going to get a lot of shots on net, and we'll try to be a quick transition team that can take advantage of new things. It's stuff that I already like to do, but I just love playing hockey, so I'll play any way the coach asks me."

Source: San Francisco Chronicle