"Sense Of Urgency": Todd McLellan Drills Fast-Paced Power-Play Strategy During Practice
Before beginning their five-game road trip which begins with a rematch against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday evening, the Detroit Red Wings were back at their practice facility inside of Little Caesars Arena on Monday.
Not dissimilar to their intense practice session on Sunday morning in the wake of their dramatic 6-4 comeback victory over the Blues in Detroit, Monday's practice once again featured an animated head coach Todd McLellan, who has shown he's not averse to using colorful language.
During one particular set of power-play drills near the tail end of the session, McLellan repeatedly instructed his players to get a shot on goal after the faceoff within "seven f---ing seconds.
He would later explain that the added intensity of the drills helps to prevent things from getting, as he described it, "cute".
"When you practice the power-play and there's nothing on the line, it gets cute and does nothing," McLellan said. "And if you practice that way, that's how it carries over into the game and that's where our power-play is at. When you put something on the line and there's intensity to it, all of a sudden, things change."
McLellan clearly wants Detroit's power-play, which was among the NHL's best last season but is ranked near the middle of the pack (15th out of 32) so far this season at 21.4 percent efficiency, to move closer to where it was in 2024-25.
"It's something I believe in, off a face-off, why can't we establish a shot within five to seven seconds?" he said. "We used to do that here all the time, we can get pucks to the net and then play off the pads. We do it 5-on-5 and it allows us to have success. Why would we change it 5-on-4?”
That sense of urgency, along with the intensified nature of their recent practice sessions, will hopefully pay off for the Red Wings on their extended road trip.
"That series of drills with the seven and twenty, we've done it before inthe past and it creates a sense of urgency, a sense of time, and having to get it done right away," McLellan said. "They have to play fast and they did today in practice."
Flyers beat Penguins in a shootout after two goals get overturned in a wild overtime
The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Penguins, 3-2, in a shootout at Xfinity Mobile Arena. But the story Tuesday night was what happened in overtime.
Both teams appeared to score walk-off winners in a wild 3-on-3 session. The Flyers actually started heading to their dressing room before they were summoned back.
Then, as they are wont to do, a few players from the Penguins and Flyers wrestled on the ice, giving rookie Penguins coach Dan Muse his first taste of the bitter rivalry.
Throw in a power play for each side and, well, Erik Karlsson can take it from here...
“Yeah, it was crazy,” the defenseman said of the heart-pumping overtime period.
The Penguins on Tuesday were trying to do something they have never done in this longstanding rivalry, winning here in Philadelphia when trailing after two periods. Sidney Crosby scored midway through the third to extend the game into overtime.
Evgeni Malkin beat Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson early in overtime, but that goal was quickly waved off because Malkin left the bench too soon as the Penguins tried to pull their goalie on a delayed penalty. Muse said officials made the right call there.
The Flyers thought they had won in overtime when Tyson Foerster scored with 24.4 seconds left, but an official video review showed the Flyers clearly skated in offside.
The game somehow got even more chaotic as the buzzer sounded at the end of OT.
Parker Wotherspoon, Ryan Shea and Noel Acciari threw down with Trevor Zegras and a couple other Flyers as overtime concluded. The shootout was delayed so the officials could pry them apart and sort out the penalties. For some reason, Crosby was assessed a game misconduct, which made Crosby ineligible for the shootout.
ESPN’s cameras appeared to show Muse telling the officials, “You’re wrong. You’re wrong.” He was mum after the game when asked what explanation he was given.
“I’ll just leave that between me and the refs. I’ll keep quiet on that one,” he replied.
The game went to a shootout, where Bobby Brink scored the winner for the Flyers.
Despite that result, Pittsburgh earned three of four points in its first back-to-back.
For the fourth straight game, the Penguins got the first goal. Justin Brazeau scored off the rush. The Flyers tied it later in the first period with a Brink power-play tally.
The home team took the lead 2:46 into the second on a goal from Travis Konecny.
The Flyers had the Penguins on their heels for a while after that, but despite them peppering Arturs Silovs, they could not pad their lead. The Penguins started to push back in the third period and tied the score, 2-2, with Crosby’s latest goal in Philly.
It was over when...
Ersson stopped Ville Koivunen on the Penguins’ final shootout attempt. The Flyers won the shootout, 2-1. It was the second straight one Silovs and the Penguins lost.
Stat of the game
3 — straight losses for the Penguins here in Philly with four losses in their last five.
Around the boards
• The Penguins recalled Owen Pickering before the game and had the 21-year-old defenseman in their lineup against the Flyers. He skated on the third pair alongside Matt Dumba. That duo spent much of the game spinning around in their own zone. Pickering had a 38.7 expected goals percentage at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick.
• Pittsburgh scratched young defenseman Harrison Brunicke for the third time in the last four games. The other scratches were Philip Tomasino and Connor Clifton.
• Silovs got the start as the Penguins continue to alternate their two goalies in the season’s first month. He likely laments that Konecny goal, but he made a few tough saves the rest of the way to keep the visitors in it. He stopped 34 shots in the loss.
• Crosby has now scored 57 goals against the Flyers, his most against any one team.
• Prior to his goal, it was a rough night for Crosby and the top line in Philadelphia. Per usual, Crosby was booed nearly every time he touched the puck. And the trio of Crosby, Bryan Rust and Filip Hallander fired only one shot through two periods.
• The Penguins entered the night with one of the NHL’s top power plays, but they struggled in Philadelphia. Not only did they generate next to no good looks on their four power plays, they gave up a few shorthanded chances to the Flyers. More than once, the Penguins’ failures woke up the fans and flipped momentum to the Flyers.
• Dumba got his first Penguins point with a secondary assist on Brazeau’s goal. He also took two bad penalties, one of which led to Brink’s power-play tally in the first.
