The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed an afternoon notebook article which discusses the Red Wings’ currently-sputtering power play:
What for many years was a unit that broke Wings’ fans hearts with their inability to score goals, has been productive this season. Going into Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Wings ranked eighth (out of 32 teams) at 24.4%.
Still, the power play has gone “stale,” in the estimation of coach Derek Lalonde. And it’s an accurate description. It had basically lost its confidence and wasn’t producing a big goal when it would have been handy.
Going into Wednesday, the Wings hadn’t scored in four games, covering eight power-play opportunities. It only had one goal in the last six games.
“The positive is we had some good looks (Saturday’s 4-2 win over Toronto), that’s the positive,” Lalonde said. “We went through a stretch for three or four games, when I made the comment of stale, we weren’t getting looks, we weren’t getting entries (into the zone). The other night (Saturday), we lost the special-teams battle 1-0, but we literally had the looks and we out-chanced them 6-1 and it (the puck) just didn’t go in. If we can continue to get those looks it’ll come around.”
One key change on the units was the insertion of rookie Marco Kasper onto the group with Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, J.T. Compher and Moritz Seider. Kasper and Raymond are on the flanks, Larkin in the bumper, Compher net-front, and Seider at the point.
Lalonde feels Kasper is made for his position.
Continued (paywall)
