San Jose also doesn’t seem to be lacking grit, as the Sharks showed in early season tussles with Pacific Division rivals Anaheim and Dallas. In their biggest overall test to date, the Sharks beat Detroit 4-2 on Oct. 30 in the early chapter of a rivalry that could be revisited in the spring.

Even the champs left impressed.

“I thought we got Winged tonight,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said after that loss. “I thought they did everything exactly like we try to do. They just did it better.”

That’s exactly what general manager Doug Wilson hoped would happen when he decided not to scrap his entire roster after another playoff flameout last spring. After dropping Ron Wilson and hiring McLellan, who campaigned for the job with a 6 a.m. phone call a few hours after the Red Wings won the Cup, the Sharks concentrated on the blue line in their few offseason moves, trading for Boyle and Lukowich and signing Blake.

Just like that, a club that always lacked proven defensemen had three with Stanley Cup rings and a burning desire to improve. Boyle felt disrespected by Tampa Bay, while Blake was eager to avoid another losing season with the Los Angeles Kings.

“I think we’ve been able to add some things to this club from the blue line, things it maybe didn’t have last year,” said Blake, who will turn 39 next month. “(McLellan) has a really good idea what he wants to see out there, and we’re trying to do what he wants. It’s working.”

McLellan makes it work by keeping 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 — old enough to command respect, but young enough to relate to 20-somethings Christian Ehrhoff, Ryane Clowe and Setoguchi, who have all taken significant steps forward under his leadership.

When the Sharks played just one game in a recent eight-day stretch, McLellan gave them a handful of days off, but he also held a team meeting in which players could give feedback on how the coach’s big ideas are working.

“We’ve treated it a bit like training camp, and we picked a couple of areas to polish up,” McLellan said. “There’s always work you can do, especially this early in a season. We know it’s still early.”

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