Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of Patrick Kane’s tremendous increase in point production under new Red Wings coach Todd McLellan, and Kane told Duff that the Wings are playing a different style of hockey under the guidance of their new coach:
“I mean, just the part of our game that’s kind of always on the hunt, always playing more towards the other team’s net instead of like sitting back a little bit has been a welcome change for, for my game,” Kane acknowledged. “And not only my game, but the team in general. So try to keep pushing forward and like I said, keep playing aggressive. I think that’s a big part of our reason for success right now.”
The Red Wings will be going for their season-high seventh straight victory Sunday afternoon against the Seattle Kraken. Kane senses that there’s been a complete makeover of the Red Wings psyche.
“I know we’ve only been seven games under Todd, but it’s pretty remarkable how vibes can change within a few weeks,” Kane said. “Obviously we were pretty down going into Christmas and ever since then I think the vibes have been pretty high and we’ve been feeling good about our team.
“And it feels like going into every game where we have a chance to win or that we feel like we should win. So in a good spot right now.”
Continued; Kane isn’t wrong. The Red Wings were taught to play a more defensive game under coach Lalonde, trying to win low-scoring, tightly-contested games. Coach McLellan has allowed what is a more freewheeling team to play to its strengths instead of imposing a suffocating blanket upon the Red Wings’ style of play.
