The Free Press’s Helene St. James examines some of the reasons why the Red Wings have gone 14-4-and-1 under coach Todd McLellan:
“I’ve been trying to tell them, focus one day at a time, but they know where we are and they know what they’ve done to climb back in,” coach Todd McLellan said. “But by no means are we going to walk into the locker room tomorrow and say, ‘look where we are and what we’ve done.’ We’re going to focus on rest, we’re going to focus on getting better and prepare to play against Seattle, and we’re not looking any further than that.”
McLellan was speaking shortly after the Wings rallied Sunday to defeat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 in overtime, banking a pair of points for a third straight time on this trip, which concludes Tuesday against the Kraken.
The Wings (27-21-5) have banked 29 points in 19 games (14-4-1) since McLellan’s arrival, one below the 30 in 34 games they had when general manager Steve Yzerman made the coaching change on Dec. 26.
“I think we did a good job of taking it a day at a time,” Patrick Kane said. “Even looking back at that Toronto game (on Dec 27), down 5-0, we score two in the third. Take the positives from that game, all of a sudden you’re building. We won seven in a row at one point. We’re at six now. We’re stringing them together and you need to have those types of streaks. Still, can’t look too far ahead, just take it a day at a time and keep building.”
Continued; the Red Wings most likely expect to win 8 straight before the Four Nations break, with tonight’s game against Seattle and Saturday’s game against Tampa Bay left to go. That’s very different from the level of expectations before December 26th.
