I’ve tried to NOT pay attention to power rankings of late, because Wing-bashing is rampant around the internet at present, but we’ll make an exception for Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon, who offers this “New Year’s Resolution” for the Red Wings:
27. Detroit Red Wings (15-18-4) Figure out a way to play the smothering, two-way game the Wings used to feature when new coach Todd McLellan was an assistant in Detroit for three years coming out of the 2004-05 lockout. Granted, that’ll be a tough assignment with no Pavel Datsyuk or Henrik Zetterberg around.
Continued; in all honesty, the Red Wings are going to have to learn McLellan’s system to some extent–though he’s going to have to adapt it to the Wings’ roster, too.
He’s not a Babcock clone, however, so there’s a bit more offensive flow to the McLellan-Yawney regime systems, as we’ve seen thus far. It’s not going to be trap-trap-trap all the time.
