McLellan employed stable combinations during the second half of the season and playoffs. When he has made adjustments, he has rarely tinkered with the combination of Nugent-Hopkins, Lucic and Eberle that had become an effective, go-to, two-way line for the Oilers.
McLellan pointed out that he had changed that Nugent-Hopkins line for a time recently, but that happened when the Oilers were down 5-0 in the 7-0 loss against San Jose.
"You can kind of match those two reasons together," McLellan said. "We were down 3-0 10 minutes into (Game 3 on Sunday) and it wasn't going well so at that point, you start to scramble a little bit, try to jolt some players. So that is why we mixed those lines up at that point."
McLellan didn't tip his hand on what the combinations would be for Game 4.
"It's about getting the next win," he said. "So we'll move players around in a motivational way. Yes, we'll do that. We're looking for responses probably from three or four different guys and if we can get those, we'll be in good shape."
For all the things the Oilers didn't like about their game Sunday, their flaws will lead them to the solutions needed, McLellan said.
"We spent all morning already breaking the game down in a number of different areas," he said. "There are some themes, some patterns that have shown up in Game 2 and into Game 3. Faceoffs being one of them (Anaheim has won 119 of 200 faceoffs in the series). Areas we'll try to improve on. It's our job to try to help the players. We're not just going to throw the video out and say, 'See you later.'
"They'll come tomorrow (for practice). There will be a number of different gatherings. There will be some chatter with some different lines and pairings, adjustments made. But we can't overcook it and overreact to it, either, because then you get the guys all clammed up and not playing freely."