Okay, it's time to push this thread up.
4 games of Todd McLellan era, and what we are seeing in stats?
He has just made an incredible turnaround with this team. I was very sceptical to wait for anything significant change, you can't do much with the same player core.
But suddenly, Red Wings have started to control the games, just like that. They dominate the xGF% in "tied" situations. They are hunting for the leads and when they get the lead, they start playing more passive way, controlling the lead. They have been losing the leads, like against the Pens, but instantly, when the game is back tied, they start dominating and taking the lead again.
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We have been the best team at NHL on last 4 games, on "tied" situations, with 77,8% xGF%. That's phenomenal number. GF% has been 78,7%, and best on last 4 games after Colorado. But nothing is luck-based, xGF% is even with GF%, so we got what we deserve.
I'm really stunned of this change. Those changes are kind of minimal, but the results have been huge. Everything is just clicking. And it's not any kind of fake statistics, like many team will have high expected goals numbers, when they are trailing, because the contenders act like that same way. They give up of that puck control on the lead.
We are now acting like a contender. We are aggressive, we are taking the leads, and then "resting" when we lead. And if we lose the lead, we go to agressive hunt for the lead mode again. And we get those leads. THIS IS THE CONTENDER WAY.
What comes to the roster, the biggest moves McLellan did was putting Veleno to the top line. And he clicks there. They are fast and aggressive with Larkin and Raymond. This did flow some talent (mostly DeBrincat) to lower lines, and I really liked the Copp-idea between Cat and Kane already at summer. Now they are there, and they are clicking. Thanks Todd, you did read my posts from here.
So there's no more that Lalonde-vision bulldozer-line (Ras - Copp - Fischer, which seemed to be Derek's biggest failure), and they are going more towards a deep Top9 offence, when all these moves will leave Berggren - Compher - Tarasenko to be the 3rd line. That's a damn good quality 3rd line for any team!
So we are more reminding of the deep offence corps from last season, just with some different players. Ras - Kasper - Motte is a fine 4th line.
Also, they did split Edvinsson and Seider on two pairs, and damn, two quality kids are now carrying 2 struggling vets to have 2 decent pairs. They can overload these pairs to shelter more the 3rd pair, and I think the combination of this is better as a whole. Edvinsson and Seider on different pairs will eat huge load of minutes and we can better pick the easy spots for our poor defencemen. And it just works.
So kind of minor changes, but still big effects. I somehow see, that this team is now more what Yzerman planned at summer, and McLellan is completing it. Lalonde shomehow lost his vision, doing tweak on totally wrong directions, or just couldn't change his vision to fit on these roster changes. I think he just fell off from his rails. Now we are more as "default setup" with this team, when McLellan was brought in.
Interesting to see, how long this will last but it's really really promising, based on stats. Jets on the next game is the best and hardest possible test. They are probbaly the best coached - all the time overachieving - team at NHL.
Can we outcoach them - is the big question.
