As Detroit's collective struggles mount, the Red Wings' power play remains a well oiled machine. Unfortunately, that PP success doesn't count for much in the face of all that ails the cellar-dwelling Red Wings
As Detroit's collective struggles mount, the Red Wings' power play remains a well oiled machine. Unfortunately, that PP success doesn't count for much in the face of all that ails the cellar-dwelling Red Wings
18 games into the season, it doesn't take a forensic team to identify that the Detroit Red Wings (7-9-2, tied for last in the Eastern Conference by points) are struggling. However, one aspect of the Red Wings' game has remained sharp through the slings and arrows of a difficult go of things in the season's early going: the power play.
The Red Wings have the third most effective power play in the NHL, clicking at a 34.0% rate (16/47). It's found success on the road (8/24) and at home (8/26). The underlying numbers suggest that Detroit is benefitting from more than just puck luck, with Natural Stat Trick calculating the unit as creating 9.34 expected goals-per-60 minutes of ice time, sixth best in the league.
As far as the production goes, it's largely been concentrated in four players: Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, and Patrick Kane, who along with Mortiz Seider, have comprised the top unit for most of the season. Raymond hasn't scored yet on the power play, but he has 10 assists. Larkin has six goals (along with two assists), and it's been his decisiveness from the bumper spot that has proved arguably most important to making the unit click. Alex DeBrincat has been a true dual-threat, with last night's PPG bringing him to an even four goals and four assists on the man advantage this season, while Kane has scored twice and provided three assists.
The California road trip, painful though it was overall, showed a different side to the Red Wing power play, with the second unit—not the aforementioned quintet—provided all three power play goals Detroit found while in the Golden State. Two of those came from the stick of Marco Kasper, while the third came from Jonatan Berggren, who appears to have broken free of his snakebitten start to the season.
The power play's hot start is a credit to Derek Lalonde's coaching staff, namely assistants Alex Tanguay and Jay Varady (who assume joint responsibility for the unit). However, it also points to a fundamental reality of the 2024-25 Red Wings. How can a team with such an effective power play struggle so mightily? The answer is obvious: Detroit's five-on-five game leaves a lot to be desired at both ends of the rink and the penalty kill has been painfully poor.
Presently, the Red Wings have scored 16 of their 46 goals (34.7%) on the power play. Compare that to the two teams ahead of them by PP%: Winnipeg and Vegas. The Jets have 19 power play goals, but that's only 25.7% of their overall offense (74 goals). The Golden Knights have scored 16 of their 72 goals on the power play, or 22.2%. Each of those teams leads its respective division.
Meanwhile, if we concentrate on the Eastern Conference, it's a similar story. The Florida Panthers lead the Atlantic Division and have scored just 12 of their 65 goals (18.5%) on the power play. The Metropolitan Division-leading Washington Capitals are even more extreme: Just nine of their 75 goals (12.0%) have come on the power play.
Combine that with a penalty kill that presently sits dead last in the NHL at a 66.7% success rate, and the conclusion here is a fairly obvious: it's pretty easy to be great on the power play, and for that greatness to hardly matter. If your penalty kill can't stop anyone, not much else does matter, and the Red Wings' sharpness on the man advantage can't come especially close to compensating for their toothlessness at five-on-five.
Even the bright spots around this Detroit team right now point to signs of doom elsewhere. It's a somber state of affairs in Hockeytown, and the runway to salvage the season grows shorter by the day.
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