While the Detroit Red Wings ultimately collapsed to close out the 2024-25 season, they still embarked on two seven-game winning streaks and it transformed them into a playoff contender for a while. Max Bultman of The Athletic reminded us of one three-word phrase then-new head coach Todd McLellan said to the team when he took over, and that phrase surged the Wings' play.
Bultman wrote, "Back in December, he quickly identified that the team looked mechanical, with players not trusting their instincts in a game that rarely rewards hesitation. So, at his first practice, he bluntly instructed his new team to “play f—ing hockey,” a quote that quickly became a rallying cry in the fan base."
That rallying cry shouldn't go away anytime soon. The entire fanbase knows what happens when the Wings took McLellan's words to heart, and even with a middle-of-the-road lineup, they can make a serious run at wild card contention. Now, with an entire offseason, training camp, and preseason behind them, and with the Yzerplan in full force with a new influx of rookies, if this team stops hesitating and overthinking, its on-ice results will be better than expected.
Detroit Red Wings can play great hockey when they want to
Hockey is too fast and too chaotic a game for anyone to slow down and freeze up when they're on the ice for a shift. If and when it happens, opponents, no matter how talented, will make you pay every single time you slow down and overthink things, and it happened to the Red Wings on multiple occasions in 2024-25.
The only problem? Detroit lapsed back into that "robotic" form starting in March, and it ultimately cost them a playoff spot. It's one of the more frustrating aspects of sports. A team starts off overthinking things and playing a game where it almost feels like they're unsure of whether to get physical, engage in puck battles, and fire the puck at the net to try for a deflection or to get a rebound.
Then, they turn their game around, take those shots, find ways to extend sequences, turn into a high-octane team, and win games simply by trusting their instincts. Fast forward a few weeks, and the struggling team that started the season returns. That was the story of the 2024-25 Red Wings.
“Play f—ing hockey”
That powerful, three-word quote needs emphasis all year long, starting with Game 1 vs. the Montreal Canadiens. A playoff team just a season ago and a group that looks poised to grow in 2025-26, the Habs won't be an easy opponent for the Wings. But if Dylan Larkin and Company just play the game the way they did when McLellan first took over, they will start the 2025-26 campaign off stunning some teams that made the playoffs in 2025.
If they skate onto the ice and look sluggish, unsure of what to do, and second-guessing themselves, it will be a long month of April until McLellan finds a way to get the best out of them. And uttering those three words has proven to work. That said, it needs to be the rallying cry all season when the Red Wings look like they're reverting into a team that plays not to lose instead of playing to win.