A Month in, McLellan Has Turned Red Wings Into Believers

DETROIT — Thirty days into Todd McLellan’s tenure as the Detroit Red Wings head coach, the biggest change in the team can’t be measured by statistics.

You can see it. You can feel it. But it can’t be easily quantified.

“The biggest thing is they have a sense of belief,” McLellan said. “How we got to believing where we can play with anybody, I’m not sure. We just started chipping away at different things and working at it and even tonight we were a little bit frustrated. I could feel it on the bench after the first period. We had some chances and then it wouldn’t go our way, and we had to come in and talk about it. It’s okay. That’s a pretty good period against a good team. Let’s learn how to win. Let’s relax and play.”

That belief carried the Red Wings to a 2-0 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning, a triumph that gives Detroit a 10-4-1 record since McLellan relieved fired Derek Lalonde.  As of this writing, the Red Wings are four points out of a playoff spot. They were eight out when the change was made.

Cam Talbot posted 28 saves to earn his 33rd career shutout. It was the first shutout in the McLellan Era. This was a critical win against an opponent the Red Wings are chasing for a playoff spot.

“It proves that we can win games any way we need to right now,”  Talbot said. “We can put five or six on the board, or we can make one hold up.  That gives us a ton of confidence, especially against a team like that, coming back from what they did to us in their building last week.”

The Red Wings lost 5-1 to Tampa Bay last week on the road. But now they are 2-0-1 in their last three games and have surrendered three goals  in those three contests.

This has been a different team under McLellan.  He has moved rookie Marco Kasper to the top line, and that move continues to pay dividends. Kasper registered his first NHL game-winning goal in this game. He shows five goals and eight points in his past nine games.

Defenseman Albert Johansson (20:49 minutes vs. Tampa Bay) continues to play well alongside Simon Edvinsson. That pairing was on the ice for both Detroit goals.  Johansson hadn’t played all that much when associate coach Bob Boughner was running the defense for Lalonde. Trent Yawney now runs it for McLellan.

“Obviously our PK has stepped up pretty big the last few games,” Talbot said. “Obviously we tweaked that when (McLellan) came in. It’s not always easy to change things on the fly, so we knew there’s going to be some growing pains there. But I thought our penalty kill was outstanding tonight. Probably got us the win, especially against the power play like that.”

Talbot believes the team’s structure is better in all three zones. Detroit has given up two or fewer goals in nine of 15 games under McLellan.

“I feel like we’re just supporting the puck better,” he said,  “breaking out in groups of five better or not panic flipping or icing or anything like that, and creating unnecessary faceoffs in our zone.”