Red Wings Copp: Team Needed Breath of Fresh Air

There’s been an injection of excitement into the Detroit Red Wings since the arrival of new coach Todd McLellan that is palpable.

Clearly, it was also a necessary elixir to revive a team that was sinking into the NHL version of the abyss.

“The team clearly needed a breath of fresh air based on our play and I think it’s provided that and some teaching,” Red Wings center Andrew Copp said. “We were down in the dumps a little bit as a group, how we were feeling.

“It’s provided a little bit of a fresh start and I think it’s kind of a team that needed it a little bit. Gave us a little bit of life the last game.”

Coach Todd McLellan saw progress from the Red Wings in his first win as head coach.#LGRW pic.twitter.com/5c7mQ9Eimf

— FanDuel Sports Network Detroit (@FanDuelSN_DET) December 30, 2024

It’s a sentiment that can be heard from any corner of the Detroit dressing room.

“We have new energy and it feels like we are playing more decisively,” Detroit winger Lucas Raymond told Gunnar Nordstrom of Swedish website Expressen.

Red Wings Gaining New Coach Bump

Is this merely a case of the Red Wings gaining what’s known in the sporting vernacular as the new coach bump?

Yes and no.

Certainly, change wasn’t merely needed. It had become a required element.

McLellan is changing the way the Wings are doing things. He’s been talking about how mechanical their game was. Definitely, there was little room for creativity in the system under former coach Derek Lalonde. Partially because of that, the team was spending way too much time defending in their own zone. Eventually, that’s going to wind up with the puck in the back of your net.

McLellan is doing his utmost to change that mindset. He’s encouraging his players to make use of the hockey IQ they’ve developed in getting this far to start playing the game by making use of their instincts.

“Through the first couple days here, I think he wants to simplify things where you’re just kind of playing and like he says, you’re playing hockey, you’ve done it your whole life,” forward Patrick Kane said. “Like, those are exact words. Right.

“So, when you think about that, you just want to play off your instinct and obviously have a few things in your mind that you want to abide to.”

McLellan Commands Respect

There’s an instant difference your recognize between Lalonde and McLellan, and it starts from the moment he enters the room. McLellan holds a presence. He’s carrying the gravitas that comes from coaching more than 1,100 NHL games.

“He has a presence in the room,” Copp said. “You could feel that right from the get-go. He’s kind of getting ourselves to trust ourselves again instinctively, which is huge.”

Right back to work pic.twitter.com/DQhoCjZKzs

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) December 30, 2024

McLellan’s main onjective appears to be to declutter the minds of his players and just get them focusing on playing the game again. A game that they fell in love with long before it became a path to earning a living.

“The things that Todd wants to bring in are simple things,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “But bringing team spirit and life back to us, that’s something that we’ve been lacking.”