Special teams scrutinized as Detroit Red Wings hone in on season opener
A multitude of NHL teams began the 2023-24 season Tuesday, but the Detroit Red Wings were among those with the luxury to do a little more fine tuning.
Their penultimate practice before Thursday's opener at the New Jersey Devils focused on special teams, in various situational possibilities.
"We did some three-on-fives, four-on-three, goalie-pulled, situations," coach Derek Lalonde said. "Slower practice today, but a necessity of getting some things covered and trying to be detailed on it."
The Wings endured some tough seasons under former coach Jeff Blashill, when a lack of personnel made it hard to assemble even one half-decent man-advantage unit. Even last season, the first under Lalonde, the Wings ranked 17th in the league with a 21.1% success rate on the power play.
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But over the summer, general manager Steve Yzerman added players including Alex DeBrincat, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jeff Petry, Daniel Sprong and J.T. Compher, all of whom project to strengthen the special teams. DeBrincat, Gostisbehere and Sprong all are good shooters, and Petry has experience on the point.
Tuesday's power play units featured Moritz Seider running the first group, with DeBrincat and Gostisbehere on the flanks, David Perron in front of the net, and Dylan Larkin in the bumper role. On the other unit, Petry manned the point, Sprong and Lucas Raymond were on the flanks, Robby Fabbri had the net-front role, and Compher was the bumper.
Petry and Compher both shoot right, as do Perron, Raymond and Seider. That will make the power play units harder for opponents to defend; other options include putting Andrew Copp on a unit if there's a faceoff situation that would favor a lefty.
"People talk about the added depth, but I think Steve had a little purpose in a lot of things," Lalonde said. "We have righties and lefties with our forwards, our D. So, we just want to try to get guys in the most comfortable positions possible."
The Wings scored six power play goals on 25 opportunities, a 24% success rate, but that's a little hard to judge because their own rosters, and those of their opponents, were a mix of NHLers, minor leaguers and prospects most games.
The Wings ranked 18th last season on the penalty kill, with a 78.3% success rate. Justin Holl, another newcomer, was part of Tuesday's PK units, though based on the even-strength part of practice, he appears to be out of the lineup in the season opener. He partnered with Ben Chiarot, while the other defense pairing had Jake Walman with Olli Määttä, with rotation of forwards that included Copp, Michael Rasmussen, Christian Fischer, Joe Veleno, Compher and Larkin. Seider is also used to kill penalties.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.
Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.
For openers: Devils
Matchup: Red Wings (35-37-10 in 2022-23) at New Jersey (52-22-8 in 2022-23), season opener.
Faceoff: 7:30 p.m. Thursday; Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey.
TV/radio: ESPN+, Hulu (online only); WXYT-FM (97.1).
Home opener: 7 p.m. Saturday vs. Tampa Bay Lightning; Bally Sports Detroit.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Special teams scrutinized as Detroit Red Wings prep for season opener
