Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings Looking Like a Hockey Team

Detroit relying more on instincts

Published

3 weeks ago

December 30, 2024

Bob Duff

Alex DeBrincat felt the Red Wings were playing more instinctively in their 4-2 win over Washington.

There was a moment during Todd McLellan’s first practice as coach of the Detroit Red Wings that’s quickly grown to become a viral meme.

“Just play ?@#%&! hockey,” he admonished his team.

A simple request that was followed by an impressive outcome on Sunday.

New Head Coach Todd McLellan with a pretty clear message in his first full practice with the Detroit Red Wings since taking over for Derek Lalonde. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/DTULEe8AWk

— Winged Wheel Podcast (@WingedWheelPod) December 28, 2024

In his second game behind the Detroit bench. McLellan would guide his squad to a 4-2 victory over a Washington Capitals club that is challenging for the first overall seeding in the NHL.

Yes, they played hockey. More importantly, they looked like a hockey team, and how often have you been able to say that about the Red Wings this season?

“I think, yeah, a lot of it just reset everything,” said forward Alex DeBrincat, who scored twice. “I think new coach comes in, try to get that energy back in the room and yeah, just forget about what’s happened in the past and it was a new start.

“So, good to get that win and hopefully we can get some more here soon.”

This performance was unlike any we’ve witnessed from the winged wheelers this season. They were setting the tone, netting a season-high four goals in the opening frame. The Red Wings were crashing the net.

Without the puck, they weren’t spending endless stretches of time bottled up in their own zone.

McLellan Likes What Red Wings Showed Him

The coach was feeling positive about how quickly his team was learning their new lessons.

“When you put practice together and you work on something and then you see it applied in the game, we’re not always going to have success with it,” McLellan said. “But there were a lot of moments in the game, whether it was penalty kill or some back check type scenarios that were important to us that we’d worked on the night or the morning before.

“And we saw that in the game. So that’s progress and I’m happy for the guys to win.”

Was it perfect? Hardly. Was it better? Absolutely.

The errors that the Red Wings were making were errors of commission, not omission.

“I don’t mind if guys make mistakes through effort way,” McLellan said. “It gives us an opportunity now to address it and let’s get better off of it.”

Even from afar, the new coach knows what it’s felt like to be a Red Wings player this season.

“It obviously hasn’t been real good,” McLellan said. “You can feel it when you walk around. They worked real hard (Saturday) and they got rewarded (Sunday), so I’m happy for them. But (Monday) we got to go back to work again.”

Players Encouraged To Rely On Instincts

McLellan has talked about the team looking too mechanical. His message to them is both simple and clear. Rely on your instincts. Just play the game they’ve been playing their entire lives.

“We needed to take that time to lay the foundation in for some of the things we wanted to do and then challenge them just to play hockey,” McLellan said. “That’s really important.