In case you were wondering whether the power play of the Detroit Red Wing had reached the point where desperate times call for desperate measures, wonder no more.
As the Wings practiced Tuesday, fourth-line forward Steve Ott worked with the No. 1 power-play unit and the second unit consisted of five forwards.
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill wouldn’t commit to deploying either formula during Wednesday’s game at Anaheim against the Ducks.
“I used today’s practice to look at a few different guys,… Blashill said. “We had AA (Andreas Athanasiou) out there, we had Steve Ott out there.
“It doesn’t mean that’s what we’ll go with. I just decided to give it a little different look and see how it is.…
Still it’s abundantly clear he’s at the end of his rope in his attempts to fire up his team when the Wings enjoy the man advantage.
“Is it frustrating?… Blashill asked rhetorically. “Sure it’s frustrating. We’re humans but we look past that and we try to be solution based. How can we find solutions?
“What’s happened up until now is over. There’s nothing you can do about that. What you can do is try to find ways to be successful. I’d say we look at it every which way we can to find ways that hopefully we can be successful.
“Now there’s certain things that are staples. That’s we have to continue to grind. We as a coaching staff have to continue to drill them to be better at it. We have to continue to teach them to be better at it. And as players they’ve got to go out there and execute at a high level.
“That’s what we’re looking at. But certainly we’ve looked at different things.…
Detroit’s NHL-worst power play (11.7 percent) is especially moribund on the road, where the Wings are two-for-53, an abysmal 3.8 percent. The next-worst road power play, the New Jersey Devils, was converting at 10.8 percent through Monday.
Detroit hasn't converted in 48 power-play opportunities on the road dating back to Thomas Vanek's goal at 6:15 of the first period on Oct. 19, in a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers. Ott understands what he would be asked to do were he to be situated on the power play during Wednesday’s game.
“The big key and the reason I would be on there is to try to retrieve pucks and get pucks in the hands of players that make plays,… Ott said. “Sacrifice in front of the net, doing anything right now.
“We need to find ways to generate more momentum.…
Ott is no stranger to the power play. He’s tallied 28 power-play goals during his NHL career, including eight with the Dallas Stars in 2009-10.
“I think the biggest issue with our power play is we don’t spend enough time in our zone,… Blashill said. “There’s two reasons for that in my mind. One is we don’t retrieve enough pucks, so (Ott) can certainly help with retrieval of pucks.
“The other is the break in. Those are two things we’ve got to make sure we do a better job of. But we’ve just got to spend more time in the zone. Everybody’s talking about how few shots we have. I think a lot of that has to do with we don’t have enough zone time.
“So that’s area I think you need somebody who’s going to go win pucks back and who’s going to do a good job of that and obviously he’s got the ability to be a net front guy as well.…
As for the five-forward experiment, Blashill believes it could inject a significant dose of pace to the unit by including both Athanasiou and Dylan Larkin with this group.
“I think with the speed, especially on the entry, that would help for sure,… Blashill said. “That’s an area where AA has helped the power play in the past, with his speed on the entry.
“I don’t know if I’m going to stay with the five forwards or not. Ultimately, I don’t think it matters what position you play but it does matter the responsibility level. So we’ll see. We’ll make a decision tomorrow.…
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