It’s Back to School For Red Wings

In essence, as they return to the ice, the Detroit Red Wings are paying homage to Rodney Dangerfield.

They’re going back to school.

On this day in 1986, 30 yrs ago, the film Back to School starring Rodney Dangerfield was released in theaters. #80s pic.twitter.com/BRgLl0pSFt

— Old School 80s (@OldSchool80s) June 13, 2016

When Todd McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde as coach of the team in late December, one of his laments was the lack of a training camp to implement his systems into the team’s way of doing things. They were left with no choice but to input new ideas on the fly.

Now, thanks to the NHL’s two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, McLellan is being given four days of practice time with his team.

He’s opting to take advantage of the opportunity to conduct what is basically a mini training camp. It’s a crash course in all things McLellan.

“They are not video or meeting fatigued anymore because they haven’t had it for eight days, so now’s a good time to tap them a little bit,” McLellan said. “We spent a little more time on video, stuff we had talked about but really hadn’t seen.

“We spent time showing them video of our team here instead of showing them maybe L.A. Kings clips to explain our points. We can now show Detroit Red Wings clips, which is a real positive. And then we took it onto the ice.”

Red Wings Learning New Concepts

Some NHL teams will be utilizing the four days of practice as a conditioning camp. They’ll want to ensure the players have their legs back under them.

That’s also part of the package for the Red Wings. But McLellan intends to mesh conditioning with the learning of new concepts.

Good to be back! pic.twitter.com/dyLDfKgp0n

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 18, 2025

“We could have just lined them up and said, ‘skate,’” McLellan expalined. “We get nothing out of that. But we did do that with a lot of game-scenario situations involved. I think we got better condition and got our legs going again, but we did it with a purpose, a game purpose.

“We spent (Tuesday) working on offensive concepts, forecheck and entries and we’ll start working back on our end (on Wednesday). There’s going to be some special teams, faceoff scenarios we haven’t even talked about any of that since we’ve been here.”

He won’t get everything implemented.

“Not enough time,” McLellan said.

However, what the coach can do is emphasize how he wants them to play the game. Then they can keep building more layers on top of that base coat.

“We’ll get as much as we can in in the next three days and then it’s time to play again,” McLellan said.