{"id":667090,"date":"2026-09-20T14:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T14:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/667090\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T14:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T14:09:18","slug":"red-wings-know-what-they-need-to-do-to-win-but-can-they-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/667090\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Wings Know What They Need to Do to Win, But Can They Do It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Copp<\/a> is confident he knows what it will take for the Detroit<\/a> Red Wings to win hockey games this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we\u2019re going to have to check for sure,\u201d Copp said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to have a good penalty kill. We\u2019re going to have to be solid defensively. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to play with a certain tenacity, a certain competitiveness, and defensive structure that I think we all kind of need to find.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering the number of goals that left with the departures of Patrick Kane<\/a> (16), James van Riemsdyk (15), and David Perron (13), not to mention the potential departure of the trade-demanding Dylan Larkin<\/a> (34), outscoring the other team isn\u2019t going to be an effective strategy for Detroit.<\/p>\n

Fashioning 2-1 and 3-2 outcomes might be the team\u2019s best hope for assembling victories.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoaltending is going to have to be good,\u201d Copp said. \u201cWe obviously got to find a way to produce offense too. But I think if the defense takes care of their defensive side, the offense will take care of itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo check, check hard, and hopefully that gives us a little bit more time in the offensive zone. We can turn pucks over, get a little bit more odd-man rushes, more entries, which is kind of where we excel. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think that\u2019s gonna have to be the focus for sure to start. How little time can we spend in our own zone, and how structured can we be?<\/p>\n

Will The Red Wings Buy Into What They Are Selling?<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s a caveat attached to this game plan proposal, and Copp was quick to acknowledge that reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be important for every guy to buy into that,\u201d Copp said. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s an axiom in the publishing industry. It\u2019s easy to write a book. And it\u2019s easy to print a book.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to sell a book.<\/p>\n

The hockey version of this would be: It\u2019s easy to ask a team to check relentlessly. And for a time, it\u2019s easy for a team to do it.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s hard is getting a team to commit to playing this style of hockey night after night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy for all of us to say that right now,\u201d Detroit coach Todd McLellan<\/a> said. \u201cThe coach, the player, before we\u2019ve even started, but are we still committed to that in January? <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we have to improve defensively. We have to break out better. And I think we have to do it over and over and over again. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be perfect. We\u2019re going to give up goals, but we can\u2019t give any up for free. And I think what Copper is saying is enough of that. We can\u2019t. <\/p>\n

McLellan went back to last season\u2019s opener, a 5-1 home-ice loss to Montreal in which the Red Wings gave out goals to the Canadiens like welcoming gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you remember Game 1 last year against Montreal, I think I lost my marbles,\u201d McLellan said. \u201cAt least my son told me I did. And if I remember correctly, I said, when\u2019s enough enough? Or are they not tired of it anymore? <\/p>\n

\u201cThen we got it back for a while, and then we gave it away. We have to capture that and take pride in driving home after the game. And maybe not getting on the score sheet individually, but stopping Connor McDavid twice on a rush like that, that\u2019s worth thinking about on the way home, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good defense is nothing but commitment, discipline, and hard work. On paper, it\u2019s easy.<\/p>\n

Putting it into practice game after game, that\u2019s the hard part. The part the Red Wings still haven\u2019t figured out.<\/p>\n

The part that they must commit to fiercely this season if team success is something they desire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Copp is confident he knows what it will take for the Detroit Red Wings to win hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5339,1511,93,5,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36,1930],"class_list":["post-667090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-rangers","tag-andrew-copp","tag-detroit-hockey-now","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-hockey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkrangers","tag-nhl","tag-rangers","tag-todd-mclellan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117303768759691343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667090","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=667090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}