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Getting O From The D In The D |
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Getting the back end back on the front foot could go a long way toward righting the Detroit Red Wings’ season.
Following back-to-back wins over the San Jose Sharks and Carolina Hurricanes, the Wings had moved to within six points of a wildcard playoff spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference as they prepare for Saturday’s game in Florida against the Panthers.
“We have a long way to go here,” Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg told Detroitredwings.com, cautioning those getting giddy to take a breath. “We’ve played good the last two games and we’ve got a big game ahead.
“That’s what we’re focused on.”
Still, it’s wise to analyze what’s suddenly going right for this team, and it starts in goal, where Petr Mrazek has won four of his last five starts, allowing five goals in the process.
“One thing Petr has proven is that he can get hot and go on a roll,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “He’s competing real hard and he’s finding ways to find the puck.”
Another added twist for the Wings - offensive production from their defensive crew. Trevor Daley scored the only goal in their 2-1 shootout win over the Sharks. Daley and Danny DeKeyser both tallied in Friday’s victory at Carolina. Add in Jonathan Ericsson’s tally during Detroit’s 3-2 overtime loss to Philadelphia, and the Wings have counted four goals from defensemen in four games. That’s quite an uptick for a team that’s garnered just 16 tallies from defenders over the course of the 49 games played this season.
“We saw what they can do, what the team can do when we get a couple of goals from them,” forward Darren Helm said after Friday’s win at Carolina.
Detroit used to run among the NHL leaders in scoring from defensemen back in the days when they suited up the likes of Nicklas Lidstrom, Larry Murphy, Brian Rafalski and Chris Chelios. That’s no longer the case, and when you consider that Daley and Green each have five goals, the depth of scoring from Detroit’s back end is dramatically limited.
The Wings view this sudden surge of defensive scoring as an overall part of a renewed strategy since they came back from the NHL All-Star break to pick up the pace in terms of putting shots on goal.
“We’re just trying to get a lot more pucks to the net,” Helm said. “We’ve always been a team that wants to get the puck to the point if we can and get a shot on net and get some traffic.”
Blashill has harped on this strategy all season and while there’s been occasional glimmers of it during the campaign, it’s only been recently that the Wings have begun to display a willingness to buy into this philosophy on a more consistent basis.
“I think it’s as much the mentality to shoot as it is them being active, to be honest with you,” Blashill said of the added offense from the D corps. “You look at San Jose. They don’t activate their D much but they shoot a ton. So I think that’s been one thing.
“As you go through the year you kind of ebb and flow the different things you emphasize based on what you want your identity to be, and also what you want to work on. But that’s certainly something we’ve be re-emphasizing here lately.”
It’s also helped the cause in terms of getting the defense active and joining the rush that the Wings aren’t spending so much time and energy finding a method to get the puck away from their own end of the rink.
“That’s one thing that we want to be better at, get the D involved more,” Zetterberg said. “But it helps when we get out of our end quicker. That’s when the D can join us.
“If we spend 30 seconds or more in our own end, it’s harder for the D to have energy to join the rush.”
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