The Hockey News’s Carol Schram posted a list of “hot” teams and “not” (hot) teams, digging out the fancy stats to explain her reasoning, and she suggests that the Red Wings’ power play is the reason that they’ve been so “hot” of late:
Hot: Detroit Red Wings
Talk about a new coach bump. Todd McLellan was hired to replace Derek Lalonde on Dec. 28, and the Red Wings are 13-4-1 in 2025. Their .750 points percentage trails only the Winnipeg Jets (.765) and Washington Capitals (.778) this year, and they went into the 4 Nations Face-Off break sitting in a wild-card spot in the tight Eastern Conference race, whether that’s determined by points (61) or points percentage (.555).
According to Natural Stat Trick, Detroit’s expected goals share at 5-on-5 is 47.49 percent since Jan. 1, which is nothing special. The same goes for the team shooting percentage of 7.78 percent, and the Red Wings’ penalty kill has a sub-par 70 percent success rate. The team’s impressive record has been driven in large part by its power play, which has connected 19 times in 18 games in 2025. That’s four more man-advantage goals than any other club.
Continued; the Wings are well aware of the fact that they’ve got to improve their 5-on-5 scoring, but I wouldn’t bag on it too much.
