Paul Sakuma / AP file

San Jose coach Todd McLellan likes to keep in close contact with the pulse of his locker room. At 41, the softly graying coach is only a bit older than several of his players.

updated 10:59 a.m. ET Nov. 29, 2008

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Todd McLellan knows his first two months on the job were a bigger success than a rookie NHL head coach has any right to expect.

His San Jose Sharks are the class of the league through the season’s first quarter, blowing away almost every opponent they’ve faced with speed, depth and a relentless game plan that puts dozens of shots on net each night. The Sharks’ 19-3-1 start through Friday is one of the best in NHL history, even with star goalie Evgeni Nabokov sidelined by injury for several games.

Yet a good early season record isn’t what excites McLellan, who still hasn’t had time to add many personal touches to the office at the Sharks’ training complex that was occupied for 5½ years by fired coach Ron Wilson.

The former Detroit assistant is much more pleased by the confidence and chemistry he sees in a club that had been good for several years, but never discovered the right combination of strategy, toughness and mental fortitude to turn that success into Stanley Cups.

“There’s always a chance” of complacency, McLellan said after his club finished a methodical 7-2 rout of Washington, one of the Eastern Conference’s top clubs, on Monday.

“It’s a human trait that it could happen, and we’re human,” McLellan added. “But we’re doing everything in our power not to let that happen to us. ... We’ve got a bunch of guys here who are all on the same page, who all want to be part of something special.”

The Sharks might be Silicon Valley’s signature pro sports team, but McLellan’s approach is more Microsoft than Apple. Instead of creating revolutionary strategies to solve the Sharks’ problems, the coach borrowed heavily from the Red Wings’ impressive work during last season’s title run, adapting those schemes to a talented roster coming off three straight second-round playoff defeats.

The early results are stunning: San Jose has led the league in goals and shots for most of the regular season while winning 11 of its first 12 home games. The Sharks haven’t lost back-to-back games in regulation this season, and they had a double-digit lead in the Pacific Division over second-place Anaheim by mid-November.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what we’re doing,” said forward Jeremy Roenick, a solid veteran presence in his second season with San Jose since postponing retirement. “It’s tremendous talent and a great system, which is a pretty lethal combination.”

Fans at the always-noisy Shark Tank watch a club with three legitimate scoring lines, all of them determined to generate an endless stream of shots. Captain Patrick Marleau, a longtime center, agreeably moved to a wing spot on the top line with former MVP Joe Thornton and Devin Setoguchi, a breakout star in his second NHL season.

Fans also see a revamped defensive corps led by newcomers Dan Boyle, Rob Blake and Brad Lukowich, who love the freedom to join the offensive rush with aggressive shots that generate rebounds for their forwards. The Sharks don’t neglect their own defensive play, but keeping pressure on an opponent’s goalie allows Nabokov and Brian Boucher to spend an inordinate amount of time all alone on the other end.

“It’s so much fun to play how we play,” Blake said. “With the group of forwards that we have, we want the puck in their hands as much as possible. You come into this locker room before a game and look around at what we have, and you just expect to win games.”

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