Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan dialed up the intensity during Sunday's practice session following their dramatic 6-4 comeback victory on Saturday evening against the St. Louis Blues.
Just because the Detroit Red Wings enjoyed a dramatic and historic comeback victory on Saturday evening against the St. Louis Blues, it didn't mean they were off the hook for what transpired in the game's first half.
Head coach Todd McLellan was animated and exuberant during Sunday morning's practice session, dialing up the intensity in an effort to hammer home the message of what needs to be done to avoid the situations that led to his team needing to dig themselves out of a considerable deficit.
Following the practice session, forward Andrew Copp, who assisted on Jonatan Berggren's power-play goal in the second period that sparked the comeback effort, said he appreciates the fast-paced nature of practice along with the staff not allowing them to become complacent.
“I think all our practices are pretty fast-paced, I think that they do a good job of not letting us get complacent in practice whatsoever," he explained. "But I think with the specific part of the game that we are working on and how we’ve been struggling in that aspect, you got to be physically intense. There’s not going to be a whole lot of hitting, but you got to be really mentally focused and make sure that we’re getting these reps in and getting them in a way that’s going to translate to the game.”
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As defenseman Moritz Seider pointed out, the dialed up intensity that was the theme of Sunday's practice was an opportunity to put more work in to get better overall rather than just feeling the ice in the manner of a routine morning skate.
It's a totally different approach, I think with a morning skate you just want to feel the ice, get your touches in and you want to feel good about yourself," Seider said. "Today was a work day and you want to do some work and get better as a team and work on system Stuff. You gotta use your time wisely, which I think we did today and got a little bit better."
When McLellan returned to Detroit last December to take over as head coach, his first full-length practice was defined by his blunt order to “play f---ing hockey, you’ve done it your whole lives” to his team.
His presence has undoubtedly brought a new level of accountability to a group that must eliminate the mistakes that contributed to their back-to-back losses earlier in the week against the New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres, as well as the 4-0 deficit they fell into against the Blues.
"We're making mistakes in certain areas and we're trying to correct them," McLellan said. "The intensity would have came from mistakes maybe, and you have to drill it into them. But also I thought the players had intensity, down below the goal lines and some of the battles. They're a team, they're brothers, but there are still some battles that go on."
"Guys get pissed off at each other and that's okay, that's a healthy thing in practice. That's where the competitiveness will come from."
Comeback Complete: Red Wings Stun Blues, Win 6-4 After Trailing 4-0
The Detroit Red Wings picked up a victory for just the fifth time in team history in which they initially trailed by four goals, doing so on Saturday night against the St. Louis Blues at Little Caesars Arena.
Sometimes, the intensity needs to be dialed up in practices rather than just simply going through the motions.
"If we just skate through it like church mice, we're not going to get any better," he said. "We slowed things down a little bit but the intensity went up."
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