The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton wrote a lengthy article which examines the Red Wings’ Red vs. White Game while emphasizing and breaking down its second period’s worth of 1-minute power plays, and Stockton believes that the team needs to make some specific tweaks to adjust to the strengths of its own penalty-kill, never mind that of other teams:
I don’t disagree with [coach Derek] Lalonde’s assessment that the Red Wings power plays generated a solid volume of chances (especially in Clip #1 above), but they did struggle to create quality opportunities in the slot.
The Red Wing PK deserves some credit for this. That unit jumped from a 73.8% success rate in the final year of the Jeff Blashill era to a 78.1% success rate in year one under Lalonde, and it looks well on its way to more progress this year.
It’s no secret that Steve Yzerman has made a point of adding big bodies to his blue line, which makes quite a bit of sense in a wedge plus one. Those big D-men can take care of either post and use their size and strength to take away net-front opportunities within that structure.
It should also be said that you’d expect a natural uptick in fluidity, timing, and chemistry from Detroit’s power plays with more time. The Red top unit we saw above features two players new to the Detroit line-up this season, so it’s no surprise to see some growing pains as that group discovers its rhythm this early in the pre-season.
Still, the struggles with breaking down the opposing structure and moving the PK box shouldn’t be ignored either. I’m not sure that [Shayne] Gostisbehere makes a ton of sense on the flank with the other members of the top unit. While a proven power play performer, his strength isn’t threading passes into the interior from that position.
