Shuffling the power play deck

When things aren’t going a team’s way, the power play is always a likely target for blame. For those unfamiliar with the nuances of the game, it’s easy to see when the power play isn’t clicking. The numbers are right there on the stats sheet. At the moment, the power play of the Detroit Red Wings is not clicking. The unit is in a two-for-32 slump. But considering how dismal the power play was for the Wings last season when the club missed the playoffs for the first time since 1989-90, when it goes south there’s more cause for concern than perhaps there should be. “After the break here, when we started in Pittsburgh, since then our entries have been pretty bad,… Wings forward Gustav Nyquist told Detroitredwings.com of the power play’s woes. “I don’t think we’ve executed enough “Our entries over the course of the year have been pretty good, but that’s something we need to clean up again. To be honest with you, I don’t know that we’ve gotten set up that much over the last three games.… Wings coach Jeff Blashill messed with the set up of his power play units during Friday’s practice. He moved the speedy Andreas Athanasiou and hard-shooting Martin Frk to the No. 1 unit with Henrik Zetterberg, Anthony Mantha and Niklas Kronwall. Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi and Mike Green comprised the second unit. “We wanted to make sure and give AA to that Zetterberg unit to give them a little more speed and entry success,… Blashill explained. “I think Zetterberg’s unit had a great run of getting into the zone. It’s only been the last couple of week where they haven’t, but it’s gone dry. So let’s see if we can help them there. “I think with Frkie there – and we wanted to look at it today in practice, not to say we’ll necessarily keep it – Frkie gives them a real shooting element on that power play.… Blashill believes that by slotting Tatar into the second unit, it can also get them producing. “Tats is tied for our leading goal-scorer on the PP (with eight) and he can score off that elbow for sure,… Blashill said. “He’s done that fairly consistent throughout his career, so we’re hoping that they both can get some chemistry quick. That’s one of the hard parts when you switch around is you’ve got to get chemistry quick. But you also get to a point where we’ve stayed patient with it and we’re not getting results, so we’ve got to look for other ways.… Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer