Through their first three road games, bad hockey plagued the Detroit Red Wings. Initial signs pointed to that being the case on Tuesday night when the Wings allowed a goal from Brayden Schenn in the first 47 seconds of their grudge match against the St. Louis Blues.
They outscored the Blues 5-1 the rest of the way and picked up their seventh victory of the year in what was ultimately a 5-2 win. That's a good omen to kick off a road trip. St. Louis has been absolutely demoralized lately, and the Wings outscored their old division rival 11-2 after allowing four unanswered goals in the first period and a half in Game 1 on Saturday.
Now, every player on the Red Wings must shift their body clocks, with games in Los Angeles, Anaheim, and San Jose coming up. If they take at least two of those next three, they will be in very, very good shape heading into their big matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights on Nov. 4.
Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan shows off his math skills
Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press included one hilarious quip from Todd McLellan, who seemed to be trying to conduct some serious math. Before Tuesday's matchup against the Blues, McLellan, talking about the Wings' season and who they have played so far, reportedly said:
"That's 11% of our season's already gone. I think we have 80% or 25% of our games are already gone within our division. We're only nine games in. Somewhere in that range. I don't have the perfect math, but that's how quick opportunities disappear. Small sample size, but 11% is already gone. When we get back, we'll be at that 15%, 16% range.
"That starts to paint a pretty good picture for you individually. Your stat line, your contribution to a team as an individual. You played fifth of the season already. Are you happy or unhappy? Are we happy or unhappy as a group? I still don't know who we are yet."
McLellan finished this statement by saying, "Is anybody a math major?"
Hilarious, yeah?
Conducting some serious math on the Red Wings season
Did you get all of that? McLellan wasn't far off, since roughly 10.97 percent of the season is gone after nine games, and by the time the Wings get back from their road trip, they will have completed just over 17 percent of the campaign.
As for divisional opponents? Through the first nine games, six came against the Atlantic Division, or 66.6 percent. Following Tuesday night's win over the Blues, that number cut down to an even 60 percent. As for the percentage of games total against the Atlantic? Six out of 26 divisional contests equals 23.07 percent, so McLellan's numbers, for the most part, were in the ballpark.
At the end of the day, the only math that matters to fans is points per game. At 7-3, the Red Wings have 14 of them in 10 contests, good for 1.4 per, and that puts them on pace to snag between 114 and 115. It's safe to say there's not a single fan out there complaining about that.