MLive’s Ansar Khan compares Red Wings coach Todd McLellan’s tenure to the first 20 games that other “new coaches” have coached for the team:

Todd McLellan (2024-25): 15-4-1, 31 points

He took over a team that was 13-17-4 and has since strung together two seven-game winning streaks and capped its first 4-0 road trip since 1996.

Derek Lalonde (2022-23): 11-5-4, 26 points

The team was tied for a playoff spot in late February before three consecutive losses, including a pair of decisive defeats in Ottawa, prompted general manager Steve Yzerman to sell at the trade deadline.

Jeff Blashill (2015-16): 10-8-2, 22 points

The Red Wings qualified for the playoffs on the final day of the season when Ottawa defeated Boston. They were eliminated by Tampa Bay in the first round and haven’t been back to the postseason since.

Mike Babcock (2005-06): 15-4-1, 31 points

A 12-1-0 start included a franchise record-tying nine-game winning streak for a team that won the Presidents’ Trophy with 124 points (58-16-8) only to lose to Edmonton in the first round of the playoffs.

The list continues…

FYI:

In speaking to sources , I’m told there’s been plenty of expressions of interest from clubs in @BuffaloSabres F Cozens including ; @CanadiensMTL @NHLFlames @MapleLeafs @DetroitRedWings . #SabreHood #HockeyX pic.twitter.com/EJGtKI36f6

— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) February 5, 2025

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a notebook article which discusses the Red Wings’ 4-for-4 road trip and 7-game winning streak. Coach Todd McLellan was marginally satisfied with the Wings’ efforts, as he told FanDuel Sports Network Detroit last night:

“Above average,” said [Red Wings coach Todd] McLellan with a chuckle after the game on FSN Detroit. “To go home with eight points in the bank, I’m not sure we thought we would get that when we left, but we chipped away and chipped away. The spirit and the belief system have gone up. They’re playing to the structure that we put in. It’s easy when you’re winning, you can get people to believe in things a lot simpler than if you’re losing.”

Tuesday’s victory marked the second seven-game win streak the Wings have had under McLellan, who took over as the Wings’ coach on Dec. 26. They are 15-4-1 under McLellan, enabling the Wings to charge upward in the standings to the point the Wings now hold a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

The difference before and after McLellan is startling. The penalty kill, which was porous before, has been better. The team defense is improved. But another realization in the resurgence is McLellan’s willingness to play the Wings’ young players, giving them larger roles, and watching them thrive.

Players such forwards Marco Kasper, Jonatan Berggren and Elmer Soderblom, and defensemen Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson are all playing regularly, in larger roles, and all are contributing. All made key contributions in Tuesday’s victory.

“It speaks to the organizational depth right now to have those kids come up and find a way to contribute,” McLellan told reporters afterward. “Everything is brand new for us (McLellan and assistant coach Trent Yawney). We just play them and see what we get out of them, and they’ve responded.”

Continued (paywall)

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The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton reports that the Red Wings’ “blueprint” under coach Todd McLellan builds upon a foundation established at the team’s practices:

Since McLellan’s takeover, the Red Wings’ practices provide a clearer distinction between coaching eras than the underlying numbers. Sessions at the BELFOR Training Center in Little Caesars Arena offer an obvious manifestation of McLellan’s other mantra: “harder, faster, smarter.” McLellan has lengthened practices while also raising the tempo to each skate and all the while introducing new drills to provide a combination of competition and levity.

“I think there’s just a really good purpose to every practice,” defenseman Moritz Seider told The Hockey News before the Red Wings set out for their road trip. “We just either try to emphasize a new system or we’re really focusing on the next game that’s upcoming. I think today you could really see from the outside that we’re a skating team, we try to go with pace and speed out there, and that’s exactly what he told us we’re gonna need.”

Of course, all that skating in practice wouldn’t count for much if it hadn’t correlated to results. McLellan’s “road map” has proved so effective, because he demonstrated from the moment of his arrival that the changes he chose to implement would bear fruit in a hurry. As Andrew Copp put it before the trip, “He’s got a clear, concise message. He’s in command. Everything on video makes total sense. He’s the one doing the video every time, so he’s got the presence.”

“It can start with practice,” Copp added. “It can start with the effort, the pace and intensity that we have, but ultimately, the results are gonna dictate whether you have momentum or not. You can play good and not win and still feel good about yourselves, but that can only last for so long really. And if you are playing the right way, you’re going to get wins. I would say it probably started in practice and bled over to the games, but the games are the ultimate confidence builder.”

…

“You can practice as hard as you want, but if you can’t translate it onto the ice, I think it’s very stressful and painful situation for all of us,” Seider said. “Obviously, getting the results gives us a little more confidence, a little more happiness in practice. Even if it might be a little longer…we still have a smile on our face and work through it—put our work boots on and grind. And then obviously if it translates on the ice, it’s all worth it.”

Continued

97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burchfield discusses how the Red Wings have “found their game” since coach Todd McLellan took over the team on December 26th:

The Red Wings were second to last in the East and eight points out of a playoff spot when McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde the day after Christmas — a move that, if anything, should’ve happened sooner. They were embarrassed the next night on home ice by the Leafs. They’ve been the best team in the NHL since, their 15-3-1 run rocketing them up eight spots in the standings with contributions coming up and down the lineup.

Kane had to laugh and admit, “I’m not sure any of us really thought we’d be in this position right now, but what a spot we’re in.”

“We’ve put ourselves there, and you gotta give Todd a lot of credit, too,” said Kane. “He’s done a great job job of coming in and settling things down and making sure we’re playing aggressive. Even when we get back on our heels a little bit and things aren’t going our way, to keep pushing forward and try to turn the game in our favor.”

The game turned against the Red Wings in the third period in Seattle. A 4-2 lead with under 10 minutes to go became a 4-4 tie when Cam Talbot allowed two goals that he’d probably like back. Panic might have set in for the fans watching at home. On the bench, the players remained calm, said McLellan. Kane pointed to Seider as one of the team leaders “coming up and down the bench telling us to stay confident, hang in there, we’re in a good spot.”

“And that’s huge,” he said. “That keeps us in the right mindset and wanting to play on the attack.”

The line of Kane, Soderblom and center Joe Veleno responded with a strong shift, and the crisis was over. Both teams survived a hectic overtime, before the Wings got the goal they needed in the shootout. McLellan keeps going back to one word to describe Detroit’s winning ways: “Belief.”

“The spirit and the belief system has gone up,” he said. “They’re playing to the structure that we put in. It’s easy when you’re winning. You can get people to believe in things a lot simpler than if you’re losing. They’ve been attentive, they’ve worked hard in practice and they want to win. They’re a hungry group.”

Continued at length, with some intriguing comments from Andrew Copp. This is a real must-read.

His 22nd…

Drop a HBD for Simon! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/7ppRfPXZ0e

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 5, 2025

Red Wings prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka is going to play in the Swedish Beijer Games for the Tre Kronor, and the Swedish news agency TT posted an interview with ASP:

Axel Sandin Pelikka makes his debut for the Tre Kronor: “Awesome”

He makes his debut in both Tre Kronor and in the Globe [Arena].

Defensive talent Axel Sandin Pelikka, 19, is looking forward to taking a new step in his career.

“It’s going to be cool, I hope it’s very yellow in the stands,” he said.

The Tre Kronor’s meeting with the Czech Republic on Thursday in the home-held tournament, the Beijer Hockey Games, will be the first hockey game in a newly-renovated arena which is popularly still known as the Globe, but officially named the Avicii Arena.

For just over a year, the arena has been renovated on the inside, at a cost of over 800 million Swedish Kronor, including new seats and stands all the way down to the stage, black chairs that will make the arena warmer, and a new ceiling.

Of Red Wings-related note this morning, after Detroit’s 5-4 shootout victory over the Seattle Kraken:

1. We start with the bad news of a sort. The Free Press’s Helene St. James notes that Red Wings coach Todd McLellan confirmed Frank Seravalli’s report that Jeff Petry’s injury required surgery, and that the veteran defenseman will be out for 6-8 weeks. St. James accentuates the positive, however:

Coach Todd McLellan said after Tuesday’s morning skate at Climate Pledge Arena that Jeff Petry, out since Jan. 2 with an upper-body injury, “won’t play for a while. He had surgery and he’ll be out for about 6-to-8 weeks depending on healing time. It’s unfortunate for him as an individual and it’s certainly for our team.”

The Wings have been rolling along without Petry, though, buoyed by the quick work McLellan and assistant coach Trent Yawney made of the defense pairings shortly after arriving on Dec. 26. They split up Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson, instead pairing Ben Chiarot with Seider and then finding, to their delight, what a good fit rookie Albert Johansson makes with Edvinsson. Justin Holl and Erik Gustafsson round things out on the third pairing.

“One, we found Albert,” McLellan said. “That allowed us to kind of settle everything out. Breaking up Simon and Mo was something we talked about on the flight in, when we got hired. They were getting a lot of attention as young defensemen – there was a lot of that was being asked of those two, and we forgot that we had some pretty good veterans, too. So a little bit of balance, make everybody important. Albert comes along and he does his thing, and it kind of just slots everybody in the right places. That’s how we got to that.”

2. MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of the historic nature of Patrick Kane’s shootout goal last night, with Kane scoring an all-time NHL-best 53rd shootout goal:

The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Seattle Kraken 5-4 in a shootout on Tuesday evening and into Wednesday morning, sweeping their 4-game road trip through Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

The Red Wings’ 7th straight victory affords the Wings the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference at 28-21-and-5 for 61 points in 54 games played, one more point than Saturday’s opponent, the Tampa Bay Lightning (which holds 2 games in hand upon Detroit as of Wednesday morning).

It’s almost inconceivable to say this, but the Red Wings sit 1 point behind the 3rd-in-the-Atlantic Ottawa Senators, and only 6 points behind the Atlantic-leading Florida Panthers.

The Red Wings probably aren’t going to climb that high, but as mashed-up as the Eastern Conference’s Wild Card race is, it will behoove the Red Wings to close out the pre-Four Nations tournament schedule by earning their 8th straight win.