Weekend takeaways: Are the Red Wings finally starting to fly?

We often expect a charge when a team changes coaches, and the Wings are certainly experiencing a Todd McLellan jump. Since trading McLellan for Derek Lalonde just after Christmas, Detroit is 7-1-0, the lone loss coming in McLellan’s first game behind the bench on December 27th.

On Sunday, the Wings picked up their seventh straight win and second of the weekend, pumping up the Seattle Kraken 6-2 in the Motor City 48 hours after a 5-3 home win over the Chicago Blackhawks. The surge has put the Red Wings back in an Eastern Conference wild-card chase, with nine teams separated by six points vying for two wild-card spots.

It’s a travesty of parity at this point.

Of course, the Wings would consider it a tragedy to be on the outside of the playoff picture looking in for the ninth straight season, especially after coming agonizingly close to cracking the East’s top eight last year. And to be clear, it’s not like the Wings — even with this heater — should start printing 2025 playoff tickets just yet.

The only two clear playoff teams Detroit has beaten on this run are the Washington Capitals and the Winnipeg Jets. As mentioned, their most recent wins against the West came in Chicago and Seattle, and they’ll make it eight straight when they host another bottom-feeder, the San Jose Sharks, on Tuesday.

The Wings’ projected goals-for-percentage since McLellan took over is 48.04 percent (24th^th in the league during the small sample), and the team’s save percentage is still just .906 (25th^th). We’ll know more about the validity of this group soon, because after seeing off San Jose, Detroit embarks on a four-game roadie that takes the club through Florida, Tampa Bay, Dallas and Philadelphia.

To be successful in that stretch, the Red Wings must continue to bury the biscuit. They score an average of almost 4.5 goals per game. game under McLellan, with Patrick Kane (13 points in seven games, including a huge five-point weekend), Lucas Raymond (12 points), Alex DeBrincat (six goals) and Moritz Seider (seven assists) ) all blazing hot during this winning run . It’s getting harder to score on the road, but the power play is on fire right now (50 percent since McLellan took over), and while there’s an inevitable decline coming, the man advantage should continue to be a boon for this team.

McLellan’s Wings still have a lot to prove, but the wins they’ve already earned with him at the helm were desperately needed and mark a fantastic start to his tenure.

• What makes this Eastern Conference “run,” the Wings are part of that much more exciting, is the fact that every team in the hunt actually wants to make the playoffs or thinks they can. It may sound obvious, but if you turn to the West for contrast, you see out-of-it teams like the Hawks, Sharks and – to a lesser extent – the Ducks, who surely knew in their hearts that they would not take jump after the season this year. Then there’s a team like Nashville that has performed so poorly that it would be delusional to think it could crack the top eight come April. Even Seattle is now nine points out of a wild card spot and has played more games than virtually everyone else in the hunt. Coming all the way down, after Calgary, St. Louis and Utah, you could say there is no team outside the playoff picture right now that is both within striking distance of a spot and desperate to get there.

Moving back east; The Wings, Senators, Penguins, Rangers, Islanders and Flyers are all teams that have a chance to get in and would — to varying degrees — certainly much prefer that to rolling the dice in the lottery. If the Canadiens fall down the ladder, they become a candidate to take a knee. Still, considering how well the Habs have played and the middle of the teams around them, they should definitely have a “Why not us?” approach – like half a dozen other teams scrapped it out in the East.

• One thing that would help Columbus climb out of the Eastern Conference slush is continued production from Adam Fantilli. The 20-year-old center ran his point streak to five games with a goal against St. Louis on Saturday as the Jackets pulled off their fourth straight W. As you might expect, the 2023 third overall pick has had his ups and downs through a year and a half of NHL hockey, including missing pretty much the entire back half of last season. Right now Fantilli is playing perhaps the best hockey of his young career.

• Travis Konecny’s career is longer than Fantillis’, but the 2015 first-round pick also features the best play we’ve seen from him during his tenure in the league. The Flyers winger and member of Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off team collected four assists in Saturday’s win over the Ducks to give him seven points in his past three outings and 50 overall in 40 contests this year. The 27-year-old, who has never hit 70 points before, is on pace for more than 100 this season.

• What a weekend for the Staal brothers in Raleigh. On Friday, Jordan Staal scored for the third straight game, and the five goals he’s scored in that stretch represent more than 50 percent of his total (nine) on the year. On Sunday, the Canes retired no. 12 in honor of Jordan’s older brother, Eric Staal. Strange as it may seem, barring injuries, Jordan will pass Eric on the Hurricanes all game tackle list early next fall. Right now it’s hard to see your no. 11 will one day hang alongside his brother’s 12, but whether Carolina’s captain can help the team win a Cup before his contract expires in 2027, you just never know.

• It’s a big week for 2025 draft-eligible players. On Wednesday, the Ontario Hockey League will present the first-ever Connor McDavid OHL Top Prospects Game in Wayne Gretzky’s hometown of Brantford, Ont. A day later, the top American draft-eligible players from the United States Hockey League and the United States National Team Development Program meet in the All-American Prospects Game in Plymouth, Mich.

• On the 25th^th Hockey Day in Canada goes live on Saturday from Canmore, Alta. On the ice, the all-Canadian action sees the Leafs pay their first visit to Montreal since losing 1-0 in the season opener, the Flames visit Winnipeg and the Canucks host the Oilers.

Red and White Power Rankings

1. Winnipeg Jets (29-12-3) Kyle Connor picked up an assist in Saturday’s 3-0 win over the Avalanche and, with 55 points in 44 games, is on track to post just the second 100-point season in Jets/Thrashers franchise history. The first came when Marian Hossa scored 100 in 2006-07, and the last time that happened in Winnipeg was during Teemu Selanne’s incredible 76-goal, 132-point streak in 1992-93.

2. Edmonton Oilers (26-13-3) After Saturday’s 4-3 win in Chicago, the Oilers are averaging more shots on goal per game (32.3) than any team in the league. When it comes to shots allowed, Edmonton is fourth-best at 26.1 per game.

3. Toronto Maple Leafs (27-15-2) The Leafs — shut out 3-0 by Vancouver on Saturday — will host a pair of quality opponents this week when the Dallas Stars visit Tuesday before old friend Sheldon Keefe returns to Toronto to coach the Devils on Thursday.

4. Calgary Flames (20-14-7) The Flames — who play six of their next seven away from southern Alberta — have the rare schedule wrinkle that sees them play back-to-back road games in the same city this week when they face the Blues in St. Louis Tuesday and Thursday.

5. Montreal Canadiens (20-18-4) Patrik Laine scored his ninth power-play goal of the year during Saturday’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Stars. Only three players in the league — Brayden Point (12), Dylan Larkin (10) and Gabe Vilardi (10) — have more. All of these players have suited up for at least 37 competitions. Laine has played 14.

6. Vancouver Canucks (19-13-10) The Canucks had 14 shots on goal registered in Carolina on Friday and lost 2-0. On Saturday, they had 18 shots in Toronto and won 3-0. In fact, Vancouver has had fewer than 20 shots five times this year and won four of those games.

7. Ottawa Senators (21-18-3) It was Leevi Merilainen’s weekend; the rest of us just lived in it. The 22-year-old Finn blanked the Penguins on Saturday and came right back 24 hours later to hold the Sens to a critical 3-2 home win against Dallas as the Sens halted a four-game losing skid.