MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses the Red Wings’ recent power play struggles ahead of tonight’s game vs. Philadelphia (7 PM EST start on TNT/97.1 FM):
The Red Wings’ power play has gone a season-high four games without converting (0 for 8) and is just 1 for 14 in the past six games. That’s far from dreadful but ineffective enough to warrant scrutiny.
“The positive is we had some really good looks (in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Toronto),” [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde said. “We went through a stretch for 3-4 games, when I made the comment of stale, we weren’t getting looks, we weren’t getting entries. The other night (Saturday), we lost the special teams battle 1-0 but we had the looks, we out-chanced them 5-, 6-1, it just didn’t go in for us. If we can continue to get those looks it’ll come around.”
The most notable change heading into tonight’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers at Little Caesars Arena (7 p.m., TNT) sees [Marco] Kasper joining the unit with Dylan Larkin, J.T. Compher, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider.
“Marco does well in that spot,” Lalonde said. “It know it sounds simple but he does what we ask of him there. He retrieves pucks, he plays it quickly to get movement, he plays through the bumper well. He has scored in that spot. He gets into the scoring area when we go downhill with four guys. He gives us a little energy there.
“I still think we’re kind of in a solution searching mode with our power play. We have a good problem in that we think we have eight to 10 to 12 quality power play guys. We’re trying to figure out some personnel and he’s the one getting an opportunity in that spot.”
Continued (paywall)
