Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan was adamant about the importance of getting pucks to the net early when Detroit has the man-advantage during Monday's 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.
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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."
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