Of Red Wings-related note this morning:
- Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff questions whether five changes in the Red Wings’ play of late are the result of the “new coach bump” or the result of coach McLellan making meaningful changes to the systems which the Red Wings play…
Penalty Kill
Under previous coach Derek Lalonde the Red Wings were on pace to make NHL penalty killing history, and not the good kind. At one point, Detroit was displaying the lowest penalty kill percentage since the league began tracking the stat.
During this four-game win streak, the Red Wings penalty kill is crushing it. They’ve killed 80% of all infactions (8-for-10).
“Coming in as a new staff, (assistant coach) Trent (Yawney) and I, joining the group that was here, the focus went on penalty killing,” McLellan said. “Certainly the penalty kill’s been a total revamp.”
Fewer Goals Against
McLellan describes NHL games as a race to three. His theory is that the first team to put three goals on the scoreboard generally wins the game.
That’s been the case in each of the five games since he took over as coach of the Red Wings. In three of their four wins, they’ve only allowed two goals against.
During the four-game win streak, Detroit’s goals-against per game is 2.5.
2. And the Free Press’s Helene St. James wonders aloud whether coach McLellan’s Wings can mount an eventual playoff run:
With their superlative 4-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets Saturday, the Wings (17-18-4) moved within two points of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. That’s not much of a gap — but the standings also featured four teams ahead of Detroit. So not only do the Wings need to win, they need the likes of the Canadiens, the Ottawa Senators, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Philadelphia Flyers, who are tied with the Wings with 38 points, to lose. (Those back-to-back losses to the Canadiens before the Christmas break were an opportunity not just to take four points, but to keep four points from a divisional neighbor).
The Wings can only control how they play, and that’s why it’s vital for them to continue the high-paced performances that have emerged under McLellan, in what he smartly referred to as, “still the honeymoon period.”
He noted how much determination was required for them to win their first road game under his reign, in Columbus: “Not the start we wanted — too many men and getting scored on right away. So there’s one time we had to be resilient. They scored two right near the end of a period, another opportunity for us to be resilient. Then on the unsuccessful coach’s challenge, the third time. Every time the guys passed the test and we ended up finding a way to win.”
Players from Jonatan Berggren, who scored the winning goal Thursday against the Blue Jackets, to Alex DeBrincat and more spoke of the freedom they’ve felt since McLellan was named coach on Dec. 26; he has urged them to play less mechanically and with more joy in the game that’s been their love since childhood.
“For the most part we have our systems and we stick to it,” DeBrincat said. “Once we get the puck, it’s playing hockey, going off your own reads. We’ve played our whole lives and know what to do. Obviously still some work to do, some tweaks to be had, but overall it’s been good.”
Good will have to grow into great if the Wings are to end their playoff drought at eight consecutive years. They are fortunate to be surrounded by so much mediocrity in the East that as much as they struggled through their first 36 games — going 16-18-4 — they can just as swiftly turn the conversation to playoff positioning as to lottery draft positioning.
Long story long, the Red Wings are improving in concrete areas, and the Red Wings could possibly make a run at a playoff spot…
But it’s going to take many things going right at the same time, and many players continuing to exceed expectations in terms of both levels of play and levels of production, for the Wings to sustain the kind of level of play necessary to overcome their difficult start.
Right now, in all honesty, I’m just enjoying the fact that the Red Wings’ players are enjoying playing again, and I’m hoping that they can salvage as much as possible over the remaining half of this season. If they can make a run at making the playoffs, that’s just icing on the cake for me.
