My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner.
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New coach Todd McLellan said he didn’t have a “magic wand” to fix the Detroit Red Wings. But somehow the team owns a three-game winning streak heading into Saturday’s road game against the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets will provide the Detroit with its first major test: They boast the NHL’s best record (27-11-2) and goal-differential (+45). By contrast, after three wins a row, the Red Wings (16-18-4) are two wins below .500 and their differential is minus-21. The Jets are tied for second in scoring at 3.63 goals per game, while Detroit is 25th at 2.68. It’s as if Detroit starts the game down 1-0.
It’s easy to take pot shots at the old system once it’s been discarded, but multiple Red Wings told me in the past week that the old in-zone killing system was exhausting and frustrating for players. One Red Wings penalty killer told me it felt a bit juvenile and put Detroit in a spot where NHL-level players could simply expose Detroit.
Again, I don’t like taking pot shots as someone is out the door, but that’s what players told when breaking down the changes on the PK.
So [coach Todd] McLellan and [assistant coach Trent] Yawney came in and installed a passive diamond on the penalty kill, which looks just like it sounds, it’s a diamond that really doesn’t move too much.
In the version of the diamond the Red Wings are playing, each player is responsible for their quadrant, and one player said the coaching staff had explained it like rubber bands that give-and-take — players stretch into ares of their quadrant to defend, but always elastic back.
Evan Sabourin, Tony Wolak, Devin Little and I discussed the Red Wings’ coaching change, the team’s winning streak as they “play effing hockey” and Joe Veleno’s status as a first-line forward (for now, anyway) on the latest episode of the Flying Octopus podcast.
This one was one of those podcasts where I’m afraid that I let loose with some word salad, but we had a good conversation going, and I had no idea that we were talking for 38 minutes when it was all over with!
Sandin Pellikka is well on his way to repeating as the tournament’s top defenseman but says he isn’t interested in personal triumphs. He’s only focused on winning his country’s third-ever gold medal and first since 2012 — this time as captain, an “honor” he’s taking very seriously.
“I’m here to win a championship with the team. Nothing personal,” he said.
Sandin Pellikka loves to score goals and looks up to fellow Swedish defenseman and goal scorer Erik Karlsson, but Skelleftea general manager Erik Forssell has also seen firsthand how Sandin Pellikka’s defensive play one-on-one has improved over the past two seasons. He’s also taken note of how much his confidence has grown.
“When he came into the league two years ago, age 17,” Forssell said, “his skating and how he moves the puck, handles the puck, stood out right away, and that is obviously what makes him a very special player. But the last two years he has really improved that defensive play and now being one of the best.
“He’s confident and he believes in himself. And I think that’s a very valuable asset as a player in the team because when games are tough and tight, there’s a lot of pressure. Having players that can be confident is very, very important. “
Going into the NHL draft last summer, Todd McLellan was the Blue Jackets’ top choice to replace Pascal Vincent as head coach.
The Dispatch learned that talks fell apart due to a disagreement on contractual terms, which led to Blue Jackets president of hockey operations/general manager Don Waddell going with Dean Evason instead. Evason has since gotten off to a great start in Columbus, while McLellan was recently hired by the Red Wings – with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2008 as an assistant coach.
McLellan did his homework on the Blue Jackets’ roster and organizational system while discussing their coaching vacancy and has studied it even closer since joining the Red Wings. He’s impressed with the progress they’ve shown under Evason and senses that even brighter days are ahead in Columbus.
“I think Dean has his fingerprints all over this team,” McLellan said. “Anytime a coach comes in, and he can flip the identity and get the players believing in what he’s selling, it becomes contagious. I can see that throughout their lineup. … In my mind, they’ve definitely turned the corner and they’re going to give not only the Red Wings but every other team in the league a handful.”
“From the angle we saw, we thought that van Riemsdyk went into the blue paint on his own,” McLellan said. “His feet were in there. We didn’t feel Talbs could get across to make the play. Obviously Justin [Holl] had made some contact, but we thought [van Riemsdyk] entered on his own. It’s tough for everybody – it’s tough for coaches, it’s tough for the players, it’s tough the officials. These things often go 50-50, and we ended up on the wrong side.”
In addition to the coaches on the bench, the Wings have their goaltending coach watching from the press box and, a two-man video crew in the locker room.
“We give everybody an opportunity to chime in,” McLellan said. “We have to decide in a fraction of a second. That decision was mine. It wasn’t anybody else’s. That’s on the head coach. I made that decision and I was on the wrong end of it.”
The Wings’ penalty kill (69.2%) ranks second from the bottom in the league, but they got the job done Thursday. McLellan explained why he was willing to gamble, even given how late in the game it was.
“We’re asking our team to be aggressive,” he said. “We’re coming to play to win and there was a gamble aspect to our call. We also have confidence in our penalty killers. They came through for us. Obviously if they score, we’re talking about it in a completely different way. But I’d still own that and I’d still like our players to know we’re playing to win, and we’ll be aggressive when we need to be.”
“Right from the start, with practice since Todd came in, the speed — I think everyone that has watched the practices sees it,” Berggren said. “Feeling like we translate that to the games pretty good. Like, how we start the games and how much we skate. Then when you get these wins, the confidence gets higher.”
“I think there’s no quit,” Alex DeBrincat added. “We give up that late goal (to make it 4-4), and our PK does a great job, and obviously Berggy scores after that. We’re not getting down on the bench when we have a momentum swing. We just keep working to get that momentum back.”
McLellan noted an “attack mentality” for his team, playing off the goaltender’s pads to try and create rebounds and secondary chances, and the buy-in he’s gotten from players in doing so. He feels they’re spending less time in the defensive zone, which by definition tends to mean more opportunities the other way.
It’s everything you’d want to hear from a new coach, and the results have matched.
McLellan has already been quick to admit, however, that it’s still a “honeymoon” right now between him and his new players in Detroit. There’s a reason the new coach bump has its own name in the sports world, after all.
Continued (paywall), and the disappointment regarding Berggren’s game-winning goal in last night’s 5-4 win is palpable in the video below:
The Red Wings killed the penalty, and as it expired, a diving Tyler Motte swatted the puck through to send Jonatan Berggren—stepping out of the box, having served the two-minute minor—in for a breakaway. Berggren scored his second breakaway in as many games with just 35 seconds left in regulation. Detroit held on for a 5–4 victory, with Cam Talbot making 19 saves to backstop the victory.
In the end, it was messy, but unequivocally, the Red Wings figured out a way to win, and that’s what mattered most for a team in dire need of stockpiling points, a team that will now travel to Winnipeg for Saturday’s game with the Jets having taking six of its last possible six.
McLellan is asking his club to push the tempo. He wants them to compartmentalize any fear of mistakes. Go for it and learn from failure.
“It’s more like don’t be afraid to like maybe do mistakes,” Berggren said of McLellan’s message to the team.
That’s a novel approach in today’s NHL, which has turned the blocked shot into a work of art. And it’s a complete 180 from Lalonde’s messaging.
“Like I feel like maybe I was thinking a little bit too much about don’t make mistakes in the beginning,” Berggren said of the start of the season. “I’m feeling like Todd and I have a kind of the same, like, mindset about the game, how we want to play.”
It’s working. Berggren has scored breakaway goals in successive games. Patrick Kane has goals in each game during this winning streak. He is also appreciating how McLellan is simplifying the game for the Red Wings and encouraging players to bring to the ice the skills that are unique to them.
“You just want to play off your instinct and obviously have a few things in your mind that you want to abide to,” Kane said.
Joe Snively scored the only shootout goal for either team, and, in a lovely bit of symmetry, the Red Wings and Griffins swept Ohio’s Columbus-affiliated teams on Thursday evening.
CLEVELAND — In a 1-0 shootout victory for the Grand Rapids Griffins on Thursday at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, goaltender Ville Husso saved 31 shots, shutting out the Cleveland Monsters while Joe Snively scored the shootout-winner. The win marked the Griffins’ second 1-0 shootout victory on the road in franchise history and their first in more than a quarter-century, as their previous win came on April 18, 1999, when Neil Little posted 22 saves at Detroit.
Husso increased his record to 6-1-0 with his second shutout of the season, improving to a .935 save percentage and a 1.86 goals-against average.Snively’s shootout-winner gave the Griffins’ their fourth shootout victory of the year. Grand Rapids is undefeated in the shootout this season (4-0). The Griffins’ penalty kill denied all power-play scoring attempts (3-for-3, 100%), as Grand Rapids collected its 20th win. In three straight games against the Monsters, Grand Rapids earned wins in all three (3-0-0-0) while outscoring Cleveland 11-2 in three contests.
