The coaching change to Todd McLellan is working nicely for the Detroit Red Wings as they head into Thursday night’s road game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Red Wings have won two of three and two in a row since McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde behind the Detroit bench on Dec. 26. The Red Wings defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 on Tuesday night in Detroit for McLellan’s 600th career win.
“It was more about this group than it is about me,” McLellan said after the victory. “There are so many excited guys in there and happy guys right now. Just the whole mood is different than when we started, and that means more than the 600. Some of those guys weren’t even alive (when McLellan started his career), so it doesn’t matter to them.”
J.T. Compher’s goal with 5:34 left broke a 2-2 tie, and Dylan Larkin added an empty-net goal. Jonatan Berggren and Patrick Kane also scored, and Alex Lyon made 23 saves.
McLellan has described NHL games as a race to three goals, with the first team getting there having a great chance of winning.
“I definitely think he’s right,” said Lyon of that theory. “But there’s a process. Getting that first one tonight is massive, and if you can put one on the board it creates a huge advantage. That’s the recipe in this league — you have to score and be smart and play the game the right way.”
Berggren gave Detroit a 1-0 lead 7:52 into the game.
“A fine line of attacking, but still playing smart at the same time,” Lyon said.
The Blue Jackets have won three of their last four after a 4-3 shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes in Columbus on Tuesday night.
Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli scored in the shootout for the Blue Jackets, and Elvis Merzlikins denied two of the four Hurricanes shooters.
“It’s a great result,” Kirill Marchenko said. “I think everybody wants to win (in) three periods, but it’s a great win. Great comeback and gives confidence for us, like everybody play hard today, and it’s awesome. Everybody enjoyed today.”
Dmitri Voronkov tied the game 3-3 with 15:02 left in the third period after assisting on an earlier goal. Marchenko scored twice and Sean Monahan added three assists, while Merzlikins stopped 32 shots.
“Wonderful sign, obviously, moving forward, that we’ve handled adversity up to this point, and now you’re going to have to handle a lot more, right?” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “But to do it, that team, such a good hockey club like Carolina, is so good, put so much heat on us.
“We didn’t handle it in areas, but at the end of the day, we get the job done. And, yeah, we were resilient. We stayed the course.”
Defenseman Zach Werenski had an assist to stretch his home point streak to 13 games.
“Any team in this league can win on any night, but I think our mindset is to come in, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing or what the situation is. We’re going out there trying to get two points,” Monahan said.
–Field Level Media
