What’s behind the Red Wings' historic struggles on the penalty kill?

When the Detroit Red Wings took a late penalty with a 2-1 lead against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night, you could practically feel stomachs around metro Detroit tightening in unison.

They had seen this before.

Entering Tuesday night, the Red Wings 63.7 percent success rate on the penalty kill was the lowest in NHL history since the league began tracking the statistic back in 1977.

And it took all of four seconds for those woes to emerge at the exact wrong moment, yet again.

The Bruins won the faceoff back to defenseman Mason Lohrei , who ripped a shot on net that Justin Brazeau redirected past netminder Ville Husso .

The game went to overtime.

And once Bostons Pavel Zacha secured the win in the extra frame, Detroit left TD Garden with one point.

The Red Wings have struggled to find a rhythm to begin the 2024-25 season for many reasons.

They lost some key contributors from last years team, have struggled to score at five-on-five and have been inconsistent at tightening up their overall team defense.

Advertisement But perhaps the most persistent source of frustration has been a penalty kill that keeps becoming the story.

Tuesday in Boston, it was the quick goal that arguably cost them a second point.

Twice last week they took early leads against likely playoff teams, only to give up goals on consecutive opposing power plays, killing momentum and eventually ending up with losses.

In 25 games this season, their penalty kill has allowed 25 goals.

With 57 games remaining, that bottom-line number the Red Wings penalty kill now stands at 65.3 percent on the season still has a very good chance to improve and avoid the infamy of undercutting the 1979-80 Los Angeles Kings low-water mark at 68.2 percent.

Early-season sample sizes can be fickle; there are two other 2024-25 PK units (the New York Islanders and Calgary Flames ) currently on pace for the all-time bottom 10.

A few clean games would go a long way.

But the fact Detroit is even in that territory right now speaks to how much it has struggled shorthanded this year.

So whats gone wrong? Heres a look at some key themes.

Starting off on the wrong foot The Bruins game-tying goal in the third period Tuesday was hardly the first time Detroit has been bitten right off the draw on the kill.

By our count, it was at least the seventh time already this season Detroits penalty kill has given up a goal in the first 15 seconds.

Here are a handful of those goals: Obviously, the simplest solution here would be to win a few more draws, but interestingly, according to Evolving Hockey, the Red Wings have actually won more than 51 percent of their shorthanded draws this season, which ranks seventh in the league.

That stat doesnt tell the whole story, as independent analyst Prashanth Iyer detailed in an article earlier this week .

Detroit has been particularly vulnerable in the right faceoff dot, with all three of their top centers winning 45 percent or less of their draws on that dot while shorthanded.

Thats a weakness other teams can exploit since teams with the power-play advantage can pick where to take that first faceoff.

The Nico Hischier goal was scored off the second faceoff of the New Jersey Devils power-play advantage, but five others this season were allowed off the initial draw three of which were on the right.

Advertisement While winning more draws outright is easier said than done especially against top faceoff men such as Hischier and Vincent Trocheck there are little details the Red Wings can improve on in these situations.

Namely, their wingers can get into the middle quicker so they can win the puck in tie-up situations.

Because as much as the faceoffs themselves matter, they arent everything if a team can find ways to gain possession quickly after a loss.

Just take the Washington Capitals this year, a bottom-five team in shorthanded faceoff percentage but one of the better expected goal suppressors.

Certainly, these are just a handful of the goals Detroits kill has given up this season, but starting off on their heels doesnt help.

Ending possessions and getting off the ice When Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin spoke to the media the day after a particularly frustrating penalty-kill showing against New Jersey last weekend, his message was a balanced one.

Its not all doom and gloom with the penalty kill, he said.

Its just mental lapses ...

goals that are going in in the last 10 seconds, and we have to clean things up and be more detailed for the full two minutes.

His point had merit, and one particular kill from the previous night jumped to mind.

Detroit had unsuccessfully challenged for goaltender interference on a Devils power-play goal, sending it right back on the kill to protect a 2-1 lead late in the first period.

This is when a team really needs its kill to step up, surviving the risk the coaching staff took to try to get a goal taken off the board.

And for most of the kill, thats exactly what the Red Wings did.

They won the opening draw and iced the puck.

They smothered the Devils on the ensuing entry and got another long clear.

It didnt even stop there.

This kill was, for the first 90 seconds, a shorthanded clinic which included Tyler Motte forcing a neutral-ice takeaway and going in on a breakaway.

Motte got back on D and helped force an errant pass.

J.T.

Compher got up ice to pressure and then went off for a change.

Ben Chiarot and Simon Edvinsson shut down consecutive entries, with Edvinsson going in for another shorthanded shot after this above clip ends.

Over the first 90 seconds, the Red Wings had created more danger than the Devils.

Advertisement But the kill wasnt over yet, and as the time wound down, New Jersey finally got into the zone, got set up and made Detroit pay scoring with just seven seconds left on the penalty.

And to Larkins point, a few minor details led up to it.

Edvinsson ends up on the wrong side of Timo Meier in a board battle.

Luke Hughes has too much time to find an open Meier.

And the puck gets through Cam Talbot .

Given how good the first 90 seconds of Detroits kill was, I dont know if this one can be chalked up to fatigue.

But its not the only goal the Red Wings have given up at the tail end of a kill this season.

By our count, there have been five in the last 30 seconds and three in the last 10 seconds all three in the last two weeks.

One such goal came against Calgary last week; another late, game-tying tally.

On this play, Detroit did get that crucial clear, with Michael Rasmussen laying out to push the puck out to center ice and get a change.

But his partner, Lucas Raymond who had already been out there a full 30-plus seconds wasnt able to get off and got stuck defending another possession.

Once again, the defenseman at the point ended up with too much time to find an open flanker, who beat Detroits goaltender for the goal.

Some of this could be related to Raymond being a young player who is relatively new to the main penalty kill rotation.

But no matter how experienced the player, the reality is tired skaters have a harder time hitting the details, which are essential when down a man.

Thats why its important to get clears and get fresh guys out there, Larkin said.

No ones gonna kill a full two-minute penalty.

The emphasis (is) 15-30 seconds.

Fifteen seconds, get a clear, get off.

We dont do that well enough, and it costs us.

When youre tired, youre giving the other teams best players looks.

They want you to run around and tire yourselves out.

Advertisement Larkin added that Detroit is simply taking too many penalties and allowing opponents too many looks.

And that certainly has its place here.

But getting clears and line changes has been a problem for the Red Wings at even strength this season, too, and its arguably more damaging on the penalty kill where consequences can be immediate.

On Sunday, Raymonds failed clear led to Jake DeBrusk s second power-play goal of the game about six seconds later.

Finding the right level of pressure As strange as the timing may be, one message I heard in the Detroit locker room over the past week was that the kill had actually been trending in a better direction of late.

The New Jersey and Vancouver games were certainly frustrating steps back for the Red Wings, but Detroit could reasonably point to a successful stretch in three games against Boston and the Islanders (twice) in which they gave up only one power-play goal.

And thats not just a coincidence.

Detroit began the year taking a more passive approach on the penalty kill, but in recent weeks has consciously gotten more aggressive in how it pressures the point man.

Look at how packed in Detroits killers are in this clip from early this season.

As much as the Red Wings hold their formation here, theyre left to endure the Rangers power play.

That was a clear theme early on, with Detroit often getting caught puck-watching.

Now look at the difference in this more aggressive kill on Nov.

25 against the Islanders.

This, I think, is what the Red Wings are going for.

You can see the difference in aggressiveness, for sure.

And you can also see the detail in the way Motte and Compher switch off on pressuring high.

The Islanders have few, if any, easy looks and the Red Wings get the turnover and the clear.

That shift does seem to be paying off at times and the Red Wings are generating more looks on the penalty kill as a result.

But while their shot and expected goal suppression improved slightly, they still rank poorly league-wide and find themselves at a disadvantage while shorthanded.

Aggressive PKs rely perhaps even more on nailing the details, and Compher had a play against the Devils that showed why.

Here, Compher overskated his route, left too much space for Jack Hughes and was unable to fully recover.

Hughes skated in and scored.

We want to be aggressive with it, Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said, But we dont want to get over-extended.

That has been the case at times over the last few weeks since the Red Wings made adjustments to their strategy.

The F1 forward is putting more pressure on the point, likely looking for trigger points and bobbled pucks for short-handed chances.

But there are two key flaws here.

Power plays have evolved away from emphasizing the point as much, and now focus on generating offense from closer , more dangerous areas.

And by pulling out of their structure to pressure the point, the Red Wings risk leaving themselves even more exposed in those areas of the ice.

Advertisement It happened Tuesday night after a failed clear pinned Detroit in its own zone.

Detroit again got stretched out, leaving Pavel Zacha able to whip a cross-slot pass to the Bruins most dangerous shooter, David Pastrnak , who was alone in the circle.

Had Pastrnak one-timed that puck, it could have been the go-ahead goal.

Certainly, no penalty kill can avoid all of these mistakes every time.

Half of the NHL currently has a power play converting above 20 percent, and nearly every penalty kill in the league still gets scored on (roughly) one in five times.

But the Red Wings are well off that pace right now, and they have a lot of work to do to get back there.

Goaltending This is true of any struggling penalty kill, but it would certainly help Detroit to get the occasional bail-out from its goaltenders which has happened plenty for the Red Wings at even strength but hardly at all this season while shorthanded.

As tested as the Red Wings goalies are on the penalty kill and they are, with the third-most challenging workload in the league in terms of shots and expected goals against, which are coming from all over the scoring chance area they arent exactly getting the big save, either.

Talbot has allowed a league-high 7.8 goals above expected while shorthanded in less than 60 minutes of play.

That is perhaps the key difference between this year and last year.

Detroit gave up the second-highest rate of expected goals against in 2023-24, but was only 15th in goals per 60.

The Red Wings netminders saved a combined 20 goals above expected last year, second in the league to only the Kings which Talbot was a big part of.

Still, those goalies are merely the last line of defense, and theres a lot more the Red Wings can do in front of their netminders to ease the burden.

Advertisement As Tuesdays game showed, it starts at the very beginning with detailed faceoffs.

It will have to continue with finding that elusive balance between aggression and recklessness in the defensive zone.

And crucially, it will have to include those little details that allow them to get through the full two minutes things as routine as getting those icings and line changes when the opportunities present themselves.

All you can do is keep working at it and continue to do the little things on the PK, on the dots and the clears, Compher said.

And youll earn some more of the breaks.

Data via Evolving Hockey , HockeyViz and Prashanth Iyer (Photo: Dave Reginek / NHLI via Getty Images).

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