Imagine Red Wings Learning From Maple Leafs

Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan posed a question to GM Steve Yzerman. In one sense, it was hypothetical in nature. Yet from the point of view of the Red Wings, it was entirely grounded in reality.

“I asked you a question, remember?,” McLellan said to Yzerman. “I asked you, do players play to score or do they play to win?”

Of course, you have to score in order to win.

“But there are moments when you can’t score and you still got to be playing the game,” McLellan said.

That’s the aspect of the game that McLellan believes the Red Wings need to master before playoff hockey will become an annual event for the team.

“Our group has to get better at that,” McLellan said. “When you’re not about to score, you have no chance of scoring and managing the game and that type of stuff. So we have to teach them those moments.”

His lesson plan in that regard involves the Red Wings studying the habits of the club’s fiercest rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs. After years of playoff frustration, Toronto’s current group may actually be figuring out the right way to play the game. The Leafs are up 2-0 on the Florida Panthers in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Lessons For Red Wings To Learn From Maple Leafs

“I look at the Toronto Maple Leafs now,” McLellan said. “And I watch Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews be willing to not quit on a play, but not over pressure it. Lay it into the corner, go down and do the work, eat up another minute, go to the bench and say, ‘Okay, we’ll get them next time.’

“And I think they’re managing the game much better now. They’re way more prepared to win. I think Chief’s (Leafs coach Craig Berube) done an outstanding job there of getting those players to learn how to win versus just learn how to score.”

Todd McLellan is my guy! He was awesome in that presser. That’s a bonafide hockey coach. If nothing else, accountability has come back to the Wings dressing room for the first time since Blashill was hired. #LGRW

— andy (@Coach_AndyHill) April 29, 2025

McLellan is educating his own players in this lesson plan. School remains in session for the Red Wings.

“We have some players like that right now,” McLellan said.

Not enough of them yet, though. And that’s where it becomes all about teachable moments for McLellan and his staff.

“I think it’s our responsibility as coaching staff to drill it into them,” McLellan said. “We have to get that through to them that we’re playing to win. We’ve got to manage time, we’ve got to manage situations in the game. We’ve got to manage risk and reward.

“You’re down by two, you gotta play with a lot more risk. You’re up by two, you gotta minimize risk. And our group’s still learning all of that. And it’s our job to paint that picture for them, get them to understand it.”

School Remains In Session

It will remain his task until McLellan is confident that his team gets it. That like the Leafs, they’ve figured out that’s the only way you win when it matters.

“That’s on us to recognize it, make the players aware of it and hold them accountable,” McLellan said. “And I think if we keep pounding away at that, we won’t give away some of those games.

Todd McLellan wants the Red Wings to be better through the bad days.

"When it goes good for us, it's going good," he said. "But it doesn't take much for us to start taking on water, and when that happens, it takes a long time for us to get out of it." pic.twitter.com/V38yjQUFgF

— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) May 1, 2025

“When it goes crappy for us, we’ll believe in ourselves a little bit more. We’ll be more resilient. The bad will deflect off us a little bit more.

“But you’re going to hear us talk a lot about that moving forward, whether it’s a training camp or first 10 games, 20 games. It could be the first 50 games. If it’s at game 82 next year and we’re still talking about it, we haven’t learned much.”