MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with Red Wings coach Todd McLellan and forward J.T. Compher regarding the team’s hopes regarding playing more consistent hockey during this season’s 27-game stretch run.
As Khan notes, the Red Wings’ inconsistent play down the stretch last season cost them a playoff spot, and coach McLellan knows it:
“The value of two points is no different on any game day 82 times a year,” McLellan said. “I don’t like talking about last year because I wasn’t here but I know what happened – empty net, pull the goalie (Flyers vs. Capitals) and not in (on the final day of the season). But that wasn’t what prevented them from getting in the playoffs. There was a game during the year where they gave themselves permission – ‘You know what, it’s not that important tonight,’ and they played poorly and it cost them. Let’s hope that Tampa game (6-3 loss Feb. 8) wasn’t our night. It’s hard to play at an extremely high level all the time. The other team gets credit for what they put into it. All 82 games are equally as important.”
That was the message he was trying to impart this week.
“It’s just to take every game as a chance to get two points and don’t waste any of them,” J.T. Compher said. “We obviously learned that the hard way last year, and it’s on us to treat every game with the intensity and the focus that we need to give ourselves the best chance to make the playoffs.”
So the Red Wings’ players were told to not let their “effing habits slip” by McLellan on Thursday, and McLellan hopes that his charges are listening as the team’s four-day mini-camp comes to a close:
“Our practice habits have been fairly good,” McLellan said. “(On Thursday), we had to stop a couple of times and say, ‘Let’s go back to doing it right.’ and they responded right away. But unless we do that, they’re not going to fix it on their own. So those practice habits are important.
“And then there’s a lot of challenges that we’ve thrown at them in a month-and-a-half, and they’ve been willing to accept the challenge and try to meet it. Those are habits we want to continue, whether it’s the starts, whether it’s fix the penalty kill. Those are habits and they have to remain high.”
