The Free Press’s Helene St. James’ customary morning article discusses the Red Wings’ emphasis on special teams play during Tuesday’s practice:
“We did some three-on-fives, four-on-three, goalie-pulled, situations,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “Slower practice today, but a necessity of getting some things covered and trying to be detailed on it.”
The Wings endured some tough seasons under former coach Jeff Blashill, when a lack of personnel made it hard to assemble even one half-decent man-advantage unit. Even last season, the first under Lalonde, the Wings ranked 17th in the league with a 21.1% success rate on the power play.
But over the summer, general manager Steve Yzerman added players including Alex DeBrincat, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jeff Petry, Daniel Sprong and J.T. Compher, all of whom project to strengthen the special teams. DeBrincat, Gostisbehere and Sprong all are good shooters, and Petry has experience on the point.
Tuesday’s power play units featured Moritz Seider running the first group, with DeBrincat and Gostisbehere on the flanks, David Perron in front of the net, and Dylan Larkin in the bumper role. On the other unit, Petry manned the point, Sprong and Lucas Raymond were on the flanks, Robby Fabbri had the net-front role, and Compher was the bumper.
Petry and Compher both shoot right, as do Perron, Raymond and Seider. That will make the power play units harder for opponents to defend; other options include putting Andrew Copp on a unit if there’s a faceoff situation that would favor a lefty.
“People talk about the added depth, but I think Steve had a little purpose in a lot of things,” Lalonde said. “We have righties and lefties with our forwards, our D. So, we just want to try to get guys in the most comfortable positions possible.”
