Red Wings Power Play Strikes Unique Balance with Two Top Units

How internal competition and variation has helped Detroit make an unconventional, balanced approach to the power play effective in 2024

In today's NHL, orthodoxy dictates that an effective power play leans on a single five-man unit, loaded up with the team's big gunners and playing the first 1:30 to 1:45 of each opportunity on the man advantage.  The underlying idea makes sense—give your best players an extended opportunity to take advantage of a high leverage moment in the game, but it also means the last 15 to 30 seconds of each power play can get eaten up with line changes and making sure a second defenseman is on the ice for when the game returns to five-on-five.

The Red Wings have taken a different approach, using two more balanced units in approximately equal measure, and in so doing found their own path to power play success.  Of Detroit's top five scorers currently, three play on one unit (Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, and Shayne Gostisbehere), while two play on the other (Alex DeBrincat and Daniel Sprong).

In terms of ice time, there isn't much difference between the two groups.  In the Red Wings' Thursday loss to the Islanders, one unit's ice time at five-on-four ranged from J.T. Compher at 1:48 to Larkin at 1:53, while the other's fell between Patrick Kane at 2:05 and Robby Fabbri at 2:11.  On Tuesday against Washington, it was a similar story.  Larkin led one unit at 2:54 and Gostisbehere brought up the rear at 2:46, while the other group spanned Sprong at 2:46 to Moritz Seider at 3:03.

Even coach Derek Lalonde acknowledges this balanced approach is an unusual one.  "It's unique," he said Wednesday when asked about splitting up his top talent on the power play.  "Ideally we don't necessarily like having two units" but because of "the luxury of the depth we have, we feel like we have 11, 12, 13 guys who can be effective on the power play."  To Lalonde, the natural conclusion, at least for now, is "we're kinda here with two top units, if you will, and it's worked.  Is it sustainable?  I don't know, but...there's sort of competition that feeds off each other."

To Lalonde's point, even if the balanced units are unconventional, there can be no denying that they've been effective.  In 2024 (when they've leaned heaviest on this approach), the Red Wings' power play is humming along at 27.3%.  That pace would be good for fourth in the league for the season.

Detroit has made the two-pronged approach work for three reasons.  First, there's been the sense of internal competition Lalonde alluded to.  Then, there's the way shorter shifts allow for more intensive pressure over the course of a two-minute power play, and third, there's the natural variation between each group making life that little bit more complicated for the penalty kill.

"If you have two good power plays and both are going, that's more power to you," DeBrincat told The Hockey News from his locker Thursday.  "At this point in the season, we wanna put out who's gonna get the job. done, and it's kind of an internal competition between us, and it gives us that much more motivation to go out and score a goal."

Sprong sees a similar dynamic playing out.  When asked Friday about the balanced approach, he told THN, "It's been going well.  I think both units push each other.  If one unit's not clicking, the other unit steps up.  It's a healthy competition."

Meanwhile, because one unit doesn't have to stay on the ice for 90 seconds or more, the Red Wings are able to apply more acute pressure over the course of a single power play opportunity.  While the second unit may hardly get a look after a traditional top unit takes its turn, Detroit turns each man advantage into two discrete chances.  

"Once that puck goes down [the ice on a clear], and you see it's close to the time, I think we're pretty conscious of trying to switch things up and get the other unit out there," explains DeBrincat.  "I think we've done a good job of it."  As Sprong puts it, "we each get a minute [per power play], and we try to make the most of it."

Of course, if one unit is in rhythm, it doesn't have to change and can pursue the advantage it's created.  "If you can hem them in their zone, and you're not getting the puck dumped out five times, it's easy for one unit to stay out there," DeBrincat says.  If those clears do come, then the other group gets to take its turn and see if it can find more success.  

Alternately, "if you have them hemmed in and you're zipping it around, getting chances, you're probably gonna spend that extra time in their zone," DeBrincat points out.  In this regard, that balance and internal competition allows for the best of both worlds.  If the chances are coming, you keep pushing for more; if they aren't, the other group gets a crack at finding their own.  

Finally, though both groups use the same basic 1-3-1 formation that is ubiquitous around the NHL, the different personnel invites variation and a unique flavor for the two units.  "I think both units run a different way," asserts Sprong.  "Or set the same way but run it out of different sides, and we create different looks on both units."

The latest version of one unit—we'll call it Unit A—features Compher at the net, David Perron and Raymond on the flanks, Larkin in the bumper role, and Gostisbehere at the point.  The other group—let's call it Unit B—sees Fabbri at the net, DeBrincat and Kane on the flanks, Sprong in the bumper, and Seider at the point.

Fabbri and Compher play similar roles, both seeking to create screens and look for rebounds or tips while also slipping to the back post as a tap-in option when the opportunity arises.  However, the four behind those net-front players look a bit different.  

On Unit A, Gostisbehere coordinates the attack from the point.  He and Larkin can create one timer looks on the right side, and Raymond excels at catching and shooting even as a right shot on his strong side.  Perron can win back pucks, thread passes into the slot for Larkin and Compher, or take one timers on his own.  On Unit B, Kane is the orchestrator from the right flank, while DeBrincat, Seider, and Sprong (all right shots) can provide simultaneous one-time options opposite him.

In the end, perhaps the biggest key to making the two-pronged power play attack work and take full advantage of what Lalonde calls the "luxury of all these interchangeable parts" lies in the selflessness of the players involved on both units.  "We're not hurt whoever's going out," DeBrincat says.  "We want to win games."  And right now, that means using two "top" power plays.  It's unconventional, but it's working.

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