Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff penned an article discussing the potential fits for the Red Wings’ penalty-kill on a Luke Glendening-less team:
Looking at the big picture, the penalty-killing performance of the Detroit Red Wings doesn’t paint a pretty picture. They finished 27th in the NHL, successfully killing off infractions at a pedestrian 78.7% rate. Detroit allowed 33 power-play goals, the 13th-most in the league.
However, from March 27th onward, a different penalty-killing unit emerged from the shadows of what had been a dismal year and began to display an ability to hold their own, not to mention hold opposition power plays off the scoresheet.
From that point onward, Detroit’s didn’t allow a power-play goal in 17 of the last 21 games of the 2020-21 season. The Wings killed off 52 of 57 shorthanded situations (91.2%). Considering that the Vegas Golden Knights (86.8%) led the league, it would certainly appear that the Wings found a working formula while down a man. In fact, they closed out the season successfully killing off 16 straight penalties.
There is, however, a caveat to all the good news. Two of Detroit’s top three penalty-killing forwards in terms of ice time, Darren Helm and Luke Glendening, no longer wear the winged wheel. Both departed in the summer via free agency.
Continued (paywall)
