Copyright M Live Michigan
Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan wanted to make sure he didn’t see a repeat of the start of Saturday’s game, so he practiced the team long and hard for two days this week. There was a lot of teaching and a lot of yelling. It seemed to yield results on Tuesday as the Red Wings turned in one of their better defensive performances in a 5-2 victory at St. Louis to start a five-game trip. “We spent two full practices working on some of our sorts coming into our end up ice responsibilities and we saw massive improvement in that area,” McLellan said in his postgame address. “So those practices were valuable. The players paid attention. They applied the lesson, if you will, in the game. Now can we maintain it? We’ll see when we get to California.” The Red Wings visit the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday (10:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network). The Red Wings (7-3-0) have won seven of their first 10 games for the first time since 2010-11 when they started 7-2-1. They have 14 points through 10 games for the first time since 2014-15 (6-2-2). After falling behind 4-0 through 23 minutes Saturday against the Blues, the Red Wings have outscored St. Louis 11-2. They played a complete game on Tuesday. “I thought we checked much better through the neutral zone coming into our zone and we were connected on our breakout,” McLellan said. “So, all of a sudden you’ve got to puck a little bit more and when that happens, they have (fewer) scoring opportunities, and it tends to go your way defensively.” Leading 4-1 through two periods on Tuesday, the Red Wings held the Blues to four shots on goal in the third. “We just worked on a few things, tracking being one of it and not giving up as many dangerous rush chances,” Dylan Larkin told FanDuel Sports Network. “I thought we were really good in that area.” Larkin scored two goals, giving him 250 for his career, and added an assist, giving him eight goals and 16 points to rank among the league’s top five in scoring. Alex DeBrincat scored his second goal in as many games after going eight games without a goal despite registering numerous chances. “I think we did a good job of staying above their centers and not giving them too much on the rush,” DeBrincat told media in St. Louis. “I thought our sort-outs on the rush were a lot better than previous games.”
