{"id":461150,"date":"2026-02-17T19:53:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461150\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T19:53:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:53:30","slug":"red-wings-have-concerns-heading-into-the-restart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461150\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Wings Have Concerns Heading Into The Restart"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not like Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan<\/a> could head to the beach and not think about the pressure his team faces coming out of the Olympic break.<\/p>\n

The Red Wings are a team that hasn\u2019t qualified for the playoffs since 2015-16. That was 11-year veteran Dylan Larkin\u2019s rookie year. McLellan has spent plenty of waking hours thinking about this week of practice to prepare his team hold the playoff position they currently possession.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be teams that do a really good job and excel, and then there will be teams that don\u2019t do a good job. And they give it back. I\u2019d like to think we can be that first group,\u201d McLellan said.<\/p>\n

The Red Wings resume practice today in preparation to continue the season Feb. 26 at Ottawa. McLellan is treating this like a second training camp. A strong start is essential.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo accomplish that, you have to have some resilience and some focus and the commitment level has to start all over again,\u201d McLellan said. \u201c\u2026It\u2019s almost like two seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Red Wings do have concerns heading into the restart. Here they are:<\/p>\n

Five-on-Five Scoring<\/p>\n

The Red Wings rank 27th in the NHL in five-on-five scoring. No team currently in a playoff spot is below the Red Wings in this category. Their total of 99 five-on-five goals in 58 games is 58 goals behind the Colorado Avalanche. They lead the NHL in that category.<\/p>\n

GM Steve Yzerman is looking for help in the trade market, but there is no one out there that will dramatically make the team more dangerous at even-strength. The hope would be that Yzerman adds a scorer. Then maybe Marco Kasper<\/a> repeats last season\u2019s scenario of scoring down the stretch. They also will count on more from Patrick Kane. Also, don\u2019t rule out John Leonard being called up to add a few more goals from their third and fourth lines.<\/p>\n

Patrick Kane\u2019s Contribution<\/p>\n

Kane\u2019s numbers (32 points in 43) show what a valuable player he can be. But heading into the Olympic break, Patrick Kane was in an undeniable scoring slump. Since he scored his 500th career goal, Kane has gone 13 games without scoring a goal. The Red Wings will need more from him down the stretch. Kane is critical to Detroit\u2019s offense because of his ability to control the puck and carry it into the offensive zone.\u00a0 But they also need him to score.<\/p>\n

Power Play Yips<\/p>\n

The only reason that Detroit\u2019s 5-on-5 offense hasn\u2019t hurt the team more is that the team was one of the league\u2019s best power plays for much of the season. It was a top five power play for an extended period. But going into the break, the Red Wings were in a 2-for-25 (eight percent) skid with the man advantage. With the current slump, Detroit\u2019s power play has fallen to ninth place. Undoubtedly, this will be a point of emphasis in this week of practices.<\/p>\n

Gibson\u2019s Sharpness<\/p>\n

No one goalie did more for his NHL team than Gibson did for the Red Wings over the two months before the Olympic break. But the break probably came at the right time for Gibson who made nine starts over 19 days before the Olympics.<\/p>\n

But after three weeks without competition, where will Gibson\u2019s sharpness be?\u00a0 Because of the Red Wings\u2019 scoring woes, the Red Wings are more goalie-dependent than most rivals. They need Gibson to be as exceptional as he was in December and January.<\/p>\n

Trade Deadline<\/p>\n

The Red Wings are in good shape to qualify for the playoffs, but everyone, including the Detroit players, are expecting the team to get help. Based on the chatter around the NHL, Yzerman is intent on adding a two-way defenseman to play in the top four.<\/p>\n

Detroit coach Todd McLellan is pleased with Axel Sandin Pellikka\u2019s performance level as a rookie, but he isn\u2019t as effective defensively as he is offensively. He\u2019s a work in progress defensively. It makes sense to bring in a veteran who can play 20-plus minutes. ASP is a competitive player, but is going to make mistakes. And the Red Wings cannot afford many mistakes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to know how much help the Red Wings can get for their offense, because there are more available defensmen than scorers.<\/p>\n

Good Start a Must<\/p>\n

Last season, the Red Wings went 2-6-1 in the nine games after the 4 Nations Faceoff.\u00a0 That was devastating to their playoff aspirations. McLellan will be emphasizing the need for a strong start when play resumes in the NHL. There cannot be a replay of last year\u2019s<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not like Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan could head to the beach and not think about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5101],"tags":[599,93,5137,58,5,12641,4,30278,3358,5138],"class_list":["post-461150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-detroit-red-wings","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-detroitredwings","tag-featured","tag-hockey","tag-john-gibson","tag-nhl","tag-olympic-break","tag-red-wings","tag-redwings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116087725295296695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}