CBS Sports’ Austin Nivision praises the Red Wings’ special teams play ahead of a slate of power rankings:
Since Todd McLellan took over as coach on Dec. 28, the Detroit Red Wings have the best record in the NHL. As a result of this streak, powered by a red-hot power play, the Red Wings look poised to end an eight-year playoff drought.
Prior to the Red Wings’ coaching change, they were one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference, and all signs pointed to another postseason spent on the couch. Then Steve Yzerman made his move, and McLellan has injected new life into this roster, but that especially rings true on the man advantage.
With McLellan behind the bench, Detroit has converted on 39.1% of its power play opportunities, which is the best mark in the league over that stretch. Every one of those goals has been needed because the Red Wings’ five-on-five play has been pedestrian. While that would be a concern in the playoffs, elite special teams might be good enough to push Detroit over that postseason hump given the state of the East wild card race.
The power play hasn’t been the only area that has improved since McLellan took over. All of the team’s biggest names — Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin, Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat — have all been producing at a nice clip.
Over the last 23 games, that quartet has combined for 42 goals and 59 assists. Twenty-one of those goals have come with the man advantage.
So the Wings sit 6th in Nivision’s rankings:
Since Todd McLellan took over as coach on Dec. 28, the Red Wings have the best record in the NHL at 17-4-2. They’ve managed to do that despite a minus-1 goal differential at five-on-five, and that can be attributed to a scorching hot power play. With McLellan behind the bench, Detroit has converted on 39.1% of its power play opportunities, which is first in the league by almost six full points.
